El Sueno Sunday - Part 3

If I am pretty relaxed for the first day of a show, which I usually am, I am almost over it by day two. I just can't quite get excited about doing it all over again. I don't groom quite as thoroughly, and I am a little lazy in my riding ... that simple change was almost what I wanted, it's okay if his braids are a bit fuzzy; the judge can't really see them anyway, yes he's behind my leg here, but let's just get it done. That kind of thing. I am happy to be there, but my attention to the details gets a bit careless.

Beginning of the first medium trot - 6.0 "prep better in corner, then go! Needs ground cover."

That doesn't mean I don't care, but my focus tends to wander. Even so, the test was quite satisfactory. We scored a 62.424%, meeting my goal of no scores below a 6.0. We earned a 7.0 for our 10-meter canter circle right, eleven scores of 6.5, and fifteen scores of 6.0. Again, not a brilliant test, but we're being consistent.

Circle right 10-meters - 7.0 "Correct size, fairly accurate."

As before, the simple change through walk is still our weakest movement. We scored 6.0 for both of them on the serpentine, although I think the judge was being really generous for the first one; we were all over the place. Or rather, I was all over the place.

First simple change - 6.0 "Rider bounces hands, be more subtle."

Our rein back is definitely getting better, and that's a good thing as it carries a double coefficient. I worked the halt to trot to halt so well that Speedy started to get really anxious in the halt as he anticipated the GO command. I left it alone for a few days which turned out to be a good thing as he definitely started to relax in that transition. 

Halt, rein back - we scored a 6.5 with the comment,"correct count."

Speedy has always liked crossing the diagonal and charging up centerline. I am not sure what he thinks is going to happen once he gets there, but he always digs deep and powers down those long lines. Since I know that, I always try to take full advantage of his enthusiasm as centerline is one place where we earn a lot of 7.0s.

"Straight, behind vertical on centerline. Balance okay." - 6.5

This judge was quite helpful with all of her comments, and she did it in a positive way. Her further remarks read, "Nice job for level. Try to lengthen neck a little while encouraging more length of stride in mediums." Yep. We're working on it.

Here's the video.