And Now the First Level Finale

Given how great I felt about Test 1, Test 2's recap should leave you in stitches. Well, it would have if anything disastrous had happened, but nothing did. I was actually able to pull it all together and put out what at least felt like a better ride.

I got much stronger with my outside aids and kept those 15-meter canter circles a bit better under control. Speedy still swapped leads after the canter lengthenings, but after talking with Chemaine, I know why and have even "fixed" it for now, thanks to a Monday lesson with JL. I love how my trainers work together from afar even though they've never even met. I am surrounded by such great people.

From Test 1, but I thought you might appreciate the visual.

Test 2 is very similar to Test 1, but there is an added element - the leg yield. These are fairly basic so nothing horrible happened, but we do need to get straighter. We earned a 6.0 for each leg yield, but with the trailing haunches comment, I know the score would have been lower at a rated show (see yesterday's soap box).

We did earn two 8s which, while maybe not truly worthy of an 8, were still very solid movements. The judge liked both our canter to trot transition at X and our walk to trot at C. These should be good movements for us as they come straight out of Training Level. I'll take the scores though as we worked hard on those two elements all year.

It's hard to compare one test to another as Test 2 has eighty more points than Test 1. Either way, we did improve our percentage on the second test with a 64.05% (63.79% on Test 1). This is a big deal for us as we typically score lower on the "harder" test. 

Speedy was pretty fired up for Test 1 which hurt our canter score. During the warm-up for the second test, he was being quite the stinker so Chemaine offered to get on him and school him a bit. She worked his little butt hard, insisting that he soften and pay attention. He was pretty cranky when I got back on, but he was a better listener.

This is totally off the subject, but I was secretly relieved that Speedy G didn't look and work fabulously for Chemaine. He was a butt head for her too which tells me that it's not necessarily me that's causing the problem; he just needs more work. Granted, if she rode him every day, he would look fabulous, but it's not like I am wrecking my horse.

Back to the subject at hand … I had a great time at this schooling show. In the morning, I retrieved tests from the judge and ran them back to the show secretary. It's always fun to volunteer, if only for a little bit. I also hung out with a couple of friends whom I adore (Valerie and Sarah - you ladies are AWESOME!). I even tried out a horse who is for sale. The property owner gave me a short "lesson" on him which was totally fabulous.

While I love the challenge and charged atmosphere that comes with a rated show, it sure was fun to dink around at a schooling show. Hopefully I'll be able to hit one or two more before we need to get back to the rated shows.