Greetings to you all back home!
Well I have no idea where to start. How about with.. my horses are the best?!? I am actually kind of speechless right now because this weekend was way more than I could have ever asked for!
Alright so before I jump ahead of things I'll start where I left off a week ago. Mom arrived Tuesday with dad and I have to say I felt like a little girl again with a mommy and daddy all to myself. I guess I didn't realize how much I missed having them both here at the same time!
Wednesday I went into work for the morning and then mom and I packed up and headed off to the show in the early afternoon. I have to say to be only 45 minutes away from the show grounds felt like an absolute luxury! We beat the LA traffic in the 30 degree C weather so mom and I were very grateful about that! We both kind of looked at each other.. and this is the "Mid-Winter Dressage Show" in 30 degree weather.. alright then! lol
I rode both of them just in time before it got dark and I knew we were off to a good weekend after that! They were both so good! They relaxed so quickly and just went straight to work!
Thursday rolled around and Karen arrived late that morning so she was there to help me warm up for my first test with Stentano. I rode Rif earlier that morning because I didn't have a class for her that day. She was so good yet again. I really had no idea what to expect with her because she can be quite sensitive and hot so I wasn't sure how that would come out at the shows but she settled and trusted me so quickly! So back to Stentano, he was quite a good boy considering it was the first test of the year for him and we finished with a 64% and then had to quickly get ready for the jog (for those non-horsey people the jog is used to trot the horse out to make sure they are not lame and basically fit to compete). We passed the jog and onwards we went!
At that point I was still feeling slightly overwhelmed about Friday. I think because there were still so many unknowns about how Rif would be in the actual show ring and how the CDI (qualify classes judges by 3 high level judges) would go with Stentano but the overwhelming feeling quickly turned to excitement.
Friday morning I had an early ride with Rif and our warm up was fantastic and then 5 minutes before my ride time.. I got so nervous for some crazy reason! I guess all of a sudden it hit me.. it was all for real and I was about to take this amazing horse into a test and I didn't want to make her look bad! Well Karen just kept telling me ride Monica ride and I just kept laughing at her telling her my brain wasn't telling my legs what to do anymore. I pulled myself together and somehow left most of the nerves behind and we went out and danced. Of course we had mistakes and it was rough around the edges for the first time but we came out with a 68% in the PSG!!.
I rode Stentano later that afternoon in the Young Rider Team Test and it was a bit tricky but we made it through with crooked flying changes and totally off count! But we still got a 62% so I was pleased with that!
Saturday was another early start for Rif and once again she was a super star and I was a lot more on top of things keeping my excitement under control. We won our PSG class again with a 68%. As for Stentano, we had an incredible warm-up. He was so with me and the potential for a great test was there.. but as soon as we went into the show ring, his anxiety came out. It was weird because I felt like I really had control of him, now it's just this next step of getting him to trust me enough to let me tell him it is going to be okay. We had a few too many mistakes that cost us so we dropped down to 60% but I felt good about the ride after. It was the feeling of hope.. that maybe this year we have to just keep chipping away and it will come!
Today was yet again bright and early just past 8 o'clock for Rif and it was the best test yet. I felt like I really rode her instead of just sitting up there like a child overwhelmed by Christmas! We finished with a 71.8 so that was amazing! I didn't show Stentano today because it was the freestyle day and we don't have ours together yet so that will be for the next show!
But I have to say overall I am beyond thrilled with how this weekend went! I owe you all so much thanks for all of the support because to be honest I had no idea what to expect and you guys all made me believe in myself and my horses! And of course I owe huge thanks to my mom for all of the help, Karen for coming down to coach me, and all the support I had at the show from family friends that came out to watch even though they had no idea what was going on!!
It was just such a super weekend with the horses and overall lots of fun! Our next CDI is in 2 weeks so I will be taking both of them in that!
I hope to have some pictures soon that I can post up!! I hope all is well at home!
xoxox Monica
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