Ride-a-whoops
Sep. 15th, 2008 09:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
diaryofariderSo we did the ride-a-test, which was a little wacky because the person before you would ride their test, then as soon as they were done you could come in and warm up while they had a lesson. They did it this way, in the indoor, because apparantly their outdoor was too wet after all the rain we had last week.
I got the message that trainer was going to be at the barn 15 minutes before she was going to arrive- (darn phone- shoulda checked my voicemail sooner). I ran out the door and grabbed Trudi, who was filthy, made her canter a few laps, then hosed off her socks and started madly scraping dirt off her. Trainer arrived and had time for me to do a quick bath - threw on a sheet and we were on our way. We stopped to get trainer's horse and one other horse and then went on to the farm where the ride-a-test was.
Indoor is big- one short end is all mirrors, which was new to Trudi, but though she was trepidatious at first, she was ok with them after a few trips through. The other short end had bleachers, an audience, and a door open to the outside. She declared that corner the designated boogeyman corner, and foolish somewhat nervous me forgot to try and do something besides struggle to bend her as she got stiff and hollow there. I could have tried "scooping" her with my inside seat bone, or rhythmically tapping with the whip, or something... *sigh* Hindsight... In any case she did a little passagy trot once in a while, but down the long sides had a nice, forward trot where she went to the bit and was very good. Canter was decent too, and after few minutes I decided to give the test a whirl.
We didn't have a reader, but I had the test memorized (just training 1) and so we started. It felt ok going down center, we halted and she came above the bit but I quietly got her back and we went on and made a left at C, managed not to mess things up too much in the boogeyman corner. Made our trot circle, she started to lose focus, and I got her back and the trot was good- canter depart wasn't too bad before A-- and then I had a brain fart and circled at A, not in the middle of the long side like we were supposed to. I realized it right before the judge called to me. After that I couldn't get MY focus back as well till we went down centerline at the end of the test and did a great centerline/halt. Shit.
We could have done better- and it was my fault. :P
Lesson with judge was cool- she was very patient because we schooled near the designated boogeyman corner- she just had us do circles where we spiraled down to small and leg-yielded back out. Trudi was mostly a goofball "My, she's AWAKE" and really made my back sore by doing a hover-step here and there- enough to pop me waaay out of the saddle and almost off her back, but judge was patient and just insisted we keep the rhythm. She said Trudi has a lot of talent, but needs more muscling in her back by stretching all the time to the bit. Nothing earth shattering there. She also said she was glad we came and it was good to keep exposing Trudi to new places, which I agree with, but it was nice to hear since I wasn't sure if we should have been there, seeing as how lots of people were doing it to help practice for championships. Met the GMO president and she held a door for me as I loaded Trudi. One of the audience members has been at some of the Bent clinics and told me "Just ride like you do with Bent." I laughed and told her "I wish!". The audience in general was very kind- when Trudi was snorting at the door they were all "Oh, it's ok!" :)
I got the message that trainer was going to be at the barn 15 minutes before she was going to arrive- (darn phone- shoulda checked my voicemail sooner). I ran out the door and grabbed Trudi, who was filthy, made her canter a few laps, then hosed off her socks and started madly scraping dirt off her. Trainer arrived and had time for me to do a quick bath - threw on a sheet and we were on our way. We stopped to get trainer's horse and one other horse and then went on to the farm where the ride-a-test was.
Indoor is big- one short end is all mirrors, which was new to Trudi, but though she was trepidatious at first, she was ok with them after a few trips through. The other short end had bleachers, an audience, and a door open to the outside. She declared that corner the designated boogeyman corner, and foolish somewhat nervous me forgot to try and do something besides struggle to bend her as she got stiff and hollow there. I could have tried "scooping" her with my inside seat bone, or rhythmically tapping with the whip, or something... *sigh* Hindsight... In any case she did a little passagy trot once in a while, but down the long sides had a nice, forward trot where she went to the bit and was very good. Canter was decent too, and after few minutes I decided to give the test a whirl.
We didn't have a reader, but I had the test memorized (just training 1) and so we started. It felt ok going down center, we halted and she came above the bit but I quietly got her back and we went on and made a left at C, managed not to mess things up too much in the boogeyman corner. Made our trot circle, she started to lose focus, and I got her back and the trot was good- canter depart wasn't too bad before A-- and then I had a brain fart and circled at A, not in the middle of the long side like we were supposed to. I realized it right before the judge called to me. After that I couldn't get MY focus back as well till we went down centerline at the end of the test and did a great centerline/halt. Shit.
We could have done better- and it was my fault. :P
Lesson with judge was cool- she was very patient because we schooled near the designated boogeyman corner- she just had us do circles where we spiraled down to small and leg-yielded back out. Trudi was mostly a goofball "My, she's AWAKE" and really made my back sore by doing a hover-step here and there- enough to pop me waaay out of the saddle and almost off her back, but judge was patient and just insisted we keep the rhythm. She said Trudi has a lot of talent, but needs more muscling in her back by stretching all the time to the bit. Nothing earth shattering there. She also said she was glad we came and it was good to keep exposing Trudi to new places, which I agree with, but it was nice to hear since I wasn't sure if we should have been there, seeing as how lots of people were doing it to help practice for championships. Met the GMO president and she held a door for me as I loaded Trudi. One of the audience members has been at some of the Bent clinics and told me "Just ride like you do with Bent." I laughed and told her "I wish!". The audience in general was very kind- when Trudi was snorting at the door they were all "Oh, it's ok!" :)
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no subject
Date: 2008-09-16 01:44 am (UTC)well done for going out there with her! anything you can do will help her in the end
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Date: 2008-09-16 02:04 pm (UTC)But yeah, I think she's really been exposed to a lot this year compared to last year and I actually think she deals with most new things pretty well.