What's the worst that can happen...?
Aug. 23rd, 2008 04:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
diaryofariderSo today I was going to try so very hard to get a respectable score on my test. My alarm did not go off and I was awakened by my dad knocking on the front door.
I hussled and got ready, and we still got to the show grounds at the appointed time. Went to look at ride times- and I was due for a test in 15 minutes. CRAP. I would have given it a shot but trainer was all, "Uh, no."
So I scratched and got ready for my next class. Warmup was very hard- trainer wanted a stronger connection to the bit, which felt to me like Trudi hanging on me. I was very worried about this but she said it looked much better and that I basically need to suck it up and get used to it, because Trudi is ready to work all the time now, which is a good thing, but that doesn't mean she's going to like it or that it will be easy.
Trudi slammed on the brakes on the way to the ring for our test, but I got her through there and began trotting around.
When I said "Good morning," to the judge she actually smiled (different judge than yesterday) and so we trotted on in after hearing the whistle. Got through our figure 8, and then Trudi went "A, exit, working trot."
GROAN. I was mortified and totally unprepared for it. I tried to get her back in and eventually just turned her around. I put her into a canter, circled, did the half circle, got back to trot, totally messed up all the walk work as we drunken sailored our way to and fro in limbo between A, E, and B. We kinda scrambled into a trot and canter, and Trudi tried to shuck n jive a bit in the circle and swapped leads behind- so I brought her back to trot and put her back into canter just so we could finish another quarter of a 20 m circle. I gave the reins on the stretchy circle and prayed we would not end up in Wyoming, then we came back around to center and halted and saluted.
The judge said "I'm sorry," and I said, "I'm so sorry" and felt like a total ass. I was kinda crying and I apologized profusely to my trainer for being such a bad advertisement. She told me it was totally ok "It's just a horse show!" and gave me a hug.
Of course we were disqualified. I told trainer I wanted to school a little before we went back to the barn, and with the pressure gone I rode some fabulous canter on both leads. I was sitting perfectly, I could feel everything, I was totally relaxed and even thought about what a nice day it was and how good this felt. I was basically a completely different person from 5 minutes before.
In the end, the judge was the biggest sweetheart in the world. Her comments were "Super potential. Nothing the judge hasn't seen (or done) before." She scored the whole test for us and gave Trudi an 8 on gaits and me a 6 for rider.
So someone out there likes us. Thank you awesome judge. :)
I hussled and got ready, and we still got to the show grounds at the appointed time. Went to look at ride times- and I was due for a test in 15 minutes. CRAP. I would have given it a shot but trainer was all, "Uh, no."
So I scratched and got ready for my next class. Warmup was very hard- trainer wanted a stronger connection to the bit, which felt to me like Trudi hanging on me. I was very worried about this but she said it looked much better and that I basically need to suck it up and get used to it, because Trudi is ready to work all the time now, which is a good thing, but that doesn't mean she's going to like it or that it will be easy.
Trudi slammed on the brakes on the way to the ring for our test, but I got her through there and began trotting around.
When I said "Good morning," to the judge she actually smiled (different judge than yesterday) and so we trotted on in after hearing the whistle. Got through our figure 8, and then Trudi went "A, exit, working trot."
GROAN. I was mortified and totally unprepared for it. I tried to get her back in and eventually just turned her around. I put her into a canter, circled, did the half circle, got back to trot, totally messed up all the walk work as we drunken sailored our way to and fro in limbo between A, E, and B. We kinda scrambled into a trot and canter, and Trudi tried to shuck n jive a bit in the circle and swapped leads behind- so I brought her back to trot and put her back into canter just so we could finish another quarter of a 20 m circle. I gave the reins on the stretchy circle and prayed we would not end up in Wyoming, then we came back around to center and halted and saluted.
The judge said "I'm sorry," and I said, "I'm so sorry" and felt like a total ass. I was kinda crying and I apologized profusely to my trainer for being such a bad advertisement. She told me it was totally ok "It's just a horse show!" and gave me a hug.
Of course we were disqualified. I told trainer I wanted to school a little before we went back to the barn, and with the pressure gone I rode some fabulous canter on both leads. I was sitting perfectly, I could feel everything, I was totally relaxed and even thought about what a nice day it was and how good this felt. I was basically a completely different person from 5 minutes before.
In the end, the judge was the biggest sweetheart in the world. Her comments were "Super potential. Nothing the judge hasn't seen (or done) before." She scored the whole test for us and gave Trudi an 8 on gaits and me a 6 for rider.
So someone out there likes us. Thank you awesome judge. :)
