A Peek at Fourth Level

I mentioned this the other day, but Chemaine Hurtado, owner and trainer at Symphony Dressage Stables, is already pushing us to prepare for Fourth Level. Since she seems confident that we'll get there someday, I decided to actually read the Fourth Level Tests. And you know what? They weren't intimidating at all!

Even saying that makes me laugh because that probably means I am not doing it right. Back when I was contemplating Second Level, I did the same thing - I read over the tests. When I got to the part about doing a simple change, I figured that part must be easy. Wasn't that what I was doing at First Level already, simply changing the lead through trot? HAHAHA. No.

This felt easy.

Chemaine has encouraged me to try some of the Fourth Level movements, particularly the working pirouette at X. On paper, it looked much too hard to even try, but after the counter canter to 10-meter true canter circles she had me doing last week, the movement started to look easy. I gave it a try. Speedy "pirouetted" like he's done it every day of his life. Like I said, I must be doing it wrong. 

I checked out a Youtube video of the movement and realized that I am actually on the right track. Our "pirouette" is probably a bit too big right now, but so was our walk pirouette when we first started. Take THAT, Fourth Level. You're not as scary as you thought!

Easy peasy.

Oh, and that three single flying lead changes thing? We've been doing that for more than a week. We aren't getting it every time, nor are we getting it at the quarterlines and X, but that's mostly because my court is 10-meters too short. When we do it for real, it will seem super easy when I have a full diagonal with which to work. That movement is actually really fun. I save it for the end of our rides because these days, Speedy gets all excited about the changes.

You've already seen this one, but it still cracks me up. Woohoo!

Everything on the Fourth Level Test makes sense to me except one thing. For the love of God would someone please explain this to me?  What in the holy hell does this even mean. I am certain it must be a typo.

"Counter change of hand in trot and canter" - those words don't even belong together.

See? I must be doing it wrong!