Video Evidence

Here we go...

Thoughts after watching it:
1) Thank God it normally looks better then it feels! It didn't look that much better then it felt but it didn't look like a complete train wreak.

2) Shoulder in? Who needs to do those?! Apparently not us ;)

3) I think our first turn on the haunches wasn't bad for just learning them days before. The 2nd one I laughed after because it was rough... real rough!

3) Good bye simple changes, I hope you return soon!

4) That last canter serpentine was hard to watch, what was I doing?!

Overall I was not riding him strong enough and wasn't getting him off and bent around my inside leg which although it was obvious in our shoulder in was even more obvious in our bad simple changes. Normally we can rock those a lot better. I am glad I got the video and cannot wait to replace it with a much better one next time :)

And now for completely non show related pictures of this adorable creature!

Not a fan of his new bit!

Rocking ground driving (in a halter) like none other!

When everything doesn't go as planned

Our 2015 show season didn't start out the way it could have and with that came with quite a bit of disappointment and frustration. With that being said none of it was with my horse, it was purely on me, which only makes it more frustrating!

He thinks living at this place would be acceptable

I was going to wait to post till I got my hands on the video and could watch it but it was pretty obvious while riding it what was missing and it was confirmed with the judges comments, I was in no way riding him like a 2nd level horse. We had a pretty hard lesson on Monday and I thought that I had made some headway on those issues throughout the week but in the ring I just lost it all. And by all, I mean all! I think that two issues going into our test was that I got on him too early (even though we did a lot of walking warm up) and he felt tight and nervous in warm up. Im not sure if it had to due with the more upper level riders in the small arena with us (schooling temps, half passes, etc) that were kind of everywhere but either way our warm up was less than ideal. I felt kind of stuck and unsure of how to get us out of the hole I dug us into!

Pretty proud of this braid!

Before going to do our test I felt like we had made some progress and just tried to focus on keeping him relaxed and moving off my leg. Heading into our test I pretty much just dropped him and couldn't ever get him where I needed him. It wasn't that we didn't do any of the movements it was just that they were all lacking in some area, except our free walk, Pony is always happy for a free walk! Generally we can put in a solid test with areas lacking and areas where we do very well but this one felt like I was fighting a losing battle with nothing coming together. It was more of a close your eyes and pray it ends soon kind of a thing!

Judge commented "SO freaking cute" on his test. Yes, yes he is!

Wouldn't mind this view every day while riding

On the plus side, there is no where to go but up! We still have a lot of work ahead of us and a lot to learn. Our struggles are not in areas such as spookiness or lack of obedience and the judge did comment that it was a "nice, clean test which is super". Now it is just a matter of putting all the pieces together in the show ring like we can at home. I think I need our trainer to make an audio recording that I can listen to while at shows, now that would be helpful! In the end we got a 62% (they didn't calculate it for me so when I first did it I thought we got under that, every little bit helps!). At the end of the day my horse is home, happy, stuffed with treats, and probably calling our trainer to tell her that his mom needs to learn to ride better :)

One Week!

We are officially within a week of kicking off our 2015 show season! Granted it is just a schooling show but it will be a great place to debut at 2nd level test 3 and a major bonus is that it is at DevonWood, only one of the best places to ride ;) The nice part about this schooling show series, in my mind not in many others, is that it doesn't seem to be judged quite as easily as most. I would rather get slammed at a schooling show so that I know what I need to fix before hitting the recognized shows. With that being said I don't plan on having a bad ride and am not worried about putting in a respectable test even though I know we will have room for improvement.

Goals for this weekend:
-Rides the pants off the test as I only have one shot!
-Id be lying if I didnt say I wanted to break 64%
-Ride a very accurate test (aka ride an even 3 loop serpentine... not as easy as it looks!)

Overall I want to continue the theme started last year of actually being able to ride my horse better in my tests instead of going into to pilot mode and taking what ever he is giving me. If there is any place to do it, it is at a show like this one!

Mystic got his pedicure on Friday, a very mini spa day yesterday, and we have a lesson tonight! We haven't really worked on the half turn on the haunches and it just happens to be a coefficent both ways so hopefully we can figure those out a little more tonight. Luckily for us our simple changes are also coefficients and when I ride him well into them we are capable of getting very  nice scores. I am so looking forward to seeing how we do! Now to just get through the week with good rides :)

Starting Over

As much as I love jumping it is just not something that I do year round with Mystic. Probably the biggest reason is due to the fact that we only have an indoor arena and it is a pain in the butt to have to drag all the fences out and put them away. Another reason is that I know my horse, like everyone else's, has a certain number of jumps in him and I hope by not pounding him it will prolong his jumping life! Plus he is totally game and bouncing around beginner novice does not require him to jump year round or more than once a week during competition season. Last weekend we had our first jump school of 2015. In one sense it feels like we start back over every year but in another it feels like we just picked up where we left off. Obviously we had to knock some rust off but it is not nearly as bad as it could be! Today was our 2nd jump school and it was even better. I did a combination of poles and cross rails so its nothing to crazy but we did some more technical stuff today and he picked it up really well! We will continue to jump once a week and also will be adding in a conditioning ride along with our normal dressage rides in hopes of increasing our fitness. If all goes as plans we will be rocking BN at our more local 3 day in June!

Friday I had a little "bring your horse to work" day as Mystics vet has dental days at their barn. My boss was kind enough to pick him up and he got to take a field trip to her barn for the day. He had some pretty nasty points and ulcers on his cheeks from his teeth, poor Pony! I felt bad because I let him go over a year, I won't be making that mistake again. He still has his 'snaggle' tooth but she still thinks it will eventually fall out and it doesn't look it he has an adult one under it. He just looks funny when he smiles. Later in the day my boss got to ride him (she has wanted to for a long time!) and since he had a whole crowd watching he then got to give pony rides to a few more people too.

First show is just a few weeks away!

Baby brother is doing awesome also :)