Show Weekend

Speedy and I are making the trek up to Tehachapi on Sunday for the second of four, CDS-rated shows put on by the Tehachapi Mountain Chapter of CDS. It's a well run series with great cash prizes, it's super well organized, and it's less than an hour and a half away - a huge bonus! 

​With my limited funds this year, this series is pretty much the entirety of my show season. I did do our one and only local show, and I still plan on going to the CDS Regional Adult Amateur Competition in August, but this small, four show series is my main hurrah for the year. As such, scoring well has become my goal.

I am probably not going to win either of my classes on Sunday, I have some pretty stiff competition, but I am striving to bump up my scores. Speedy and I have shown that we have the ability to earn a high 60 or even a score in the 70s (we have two of those at a USDF show). Those scores are certainly not gimmes, but at least we're capable of them.

To that end, I've really been focusing on the areas where we tend to score the lowest. At last month's show, the judge really dinged us for Speedy being too curled. This happens when he's not pushing from behind. In order to "fix" it, I've been getting his hind end much more active while focusing on the sit.

Western States Horse Expo - June 2017

I love the photo above, not because it's particularly correct, but because it might be the first photo I have of him with his poll at the highest point and his croup lower than his withers. The dude is learning to engage his hind end and sit down. The very next photo in the series is even less attractive, but his poll is still up (no curling!) and his hind leg is way underneath him.

It took a strong half halt, but he's sitting!

So yesterday, I focused on lengthening the right lead canter and coming back to a working (or even collected) canter without needing a million strides to get there. When we rode at Expo, Chemaine helped me get a truly lengthened canter stride that was actually reaching and not just running faster.

I realized that to get that feeling, Speedy has to be sitting down in order to push up and forward. When his hind end is engaged, he can return to a working or collected canter without me having to jerk his face off. He gave me some excellent transitions to working canter yesterday which gave me confidence to ask for a bigger and more powerful canter.

If I can get it at the show, we'll definitely bump our sixes closer to sevens.