Thole Farms: Introductory Level Test B

After the "roaring success" that was Test A, I made it my goal to GET. A. WALK.

And that was it. That's all I cared about; I didn't care if he bolted, bucked, or left the arena. My two goals for the show were to 1) have a controlled warm up and 2) not get a 4 for the walk. We met our goal for the warm up, but we earned yet another 4.0 for the free walk in the first test. When the judge and I chatted after the first test, she agreed that getting a walk would go a long way toward improving our overall performance.

I'll let you decided if our free walk was improved.

Right?!?! How much better was that?????? There is so, so much wrong with that ride (unsteadiness in the bridle for one), but he walked! There was absolutely no jigging or piaffing. It was far from perfect, but it was so much improved over his first effort. The judge gave it a 6.0 (generous, but better than than the earlier 4.0) with the comment, not tracking correctly. I'll take it!

The First Halt

We have a long way to go, but I really want to celebrate our "wins." Did you notice our first halt? Honestly, that thing is getting really nice. We earned a 6.0 (tensing back), but I really like how square he is trying to be. This boy really does have talent.

It's a walk!

And in case you missed it, this is proof that Izzy can walk. I've been schooling it at home during our warm up and cool down and any time he gets particularly tense. As we continue to work on it, it should start to appear during shows as well.

There was also trotting.

Of the eight tests that we've done since April, this test was definitely our best even though we earned the exact same score as our test B two weeks ago. Our total was a 58.438%, but we had no 4s! Izzy earned a 7.0 for Gaits and the judge awarded me a 7.0 for Rider's Position. The rest was a mix of different 5s and 6s. If Izzy keeps improving at this rate, we'll crack 60% soon.

Our next show is CDS-Rated. Maybe it will happen there!