We're in Aiken for the weekend, AGAIN! The weather is amazing (Brag, Brag) and the course looks lovely!
Our drive was a bit interesting... Rene and I arrived only to find out that we DID NOT have stabling! AACCK! We're 9 hours from home and we had some tired ponies. While we dealt with that, we didn't have the opportunity to ride the boys yesterday, which made for some *creative* dressage tests!
Aiden put in a nice test, but frustrated me by interrupting it twice with love calls to a pony in the warmup. Arg! But he still managed a 38.0 with the disobedience. For his third dressage test ever, I was thrilled with him.
Ziggy is usually very positive on the flat... He had a great test, but erupted in a spree of bucking with "I feel good!" in the canter medium! I had to yell "Ziggy!" before I could have the chance to be dumped, which ceded the bucking but earned me an error of voice. :) But, the work is getting really good, b/c even with the error and the probably zero on that movement, he scored a 43.3. Not too bad.
Owen is really growing up! He was super quiet in the warmup, and I was really proud of both he & Rene. He had the misfortune to have a flapping tent right beside his dressage ring with the wind blowing, so he got tense in two movements. But the rest was quite good, and even with the tension at that end of the arena he earned a very respectable 46.0.
It was a little interesting today, but we're looking forward to a really FUN day of XC tomorrow! Stay tuned! --Megan
--Jeannie
--Howard
--Kathleen
--Julie
~kat
Can't believe naughty Ziggy... he was just expressing himself, clearly.
Seriously, I once heard a judge laughing at someone during the test. what a confidence builder that would be.
-Emily
Ziggy ran XC this morning... Much to my chagrin, there were numberous falls on the Prelim course while I was in warm-up, which is NOT comforting when you're riding any horse, much less a pony! The course was challenging and, above all else, hilly, and Kentucky horses just can't be all that fit in February. But Ziggy stepped up to the plate as always, and turned in a clear round on the XC. We picked up quite a few time faults, as he was a pooped little pony by fence 12 of 20. Too much KY bluegrass for him! The course was challenging... Corner to corner, skinny-one stride-bank-three turning strides-arrowhead, A/B/C at water, etc. He really stepped up to the plate and showed alot of heart, esp for being so tired.
Aiden ran his first training, and in only his third horse trial!!!!!! He was excellent, as the course had some challenging questions... Full coffin was very, very large, and we had to drop into water, three strides, bank out, one stride, log. There was both a trakehner and a ditch & wall. He was really excellent, with the exception of just one fence, which he couldn't understand one bit. He stopped at this big brush fence three strides out, planted his feet, and said "huh"? The second attempt was fine, and he sailed over everything else. I was sad for the stop, but he really was great and has moved along SOOOOOOO quickly! And I wasn't nearly as much of a grandma as usual... Even with the stop, he only picked up 4 time penalties! Wheeeeeeeeeeee!
Rene definitely caught the bad end of the karma train... She did a fantastic job of riding Owen round the tough course, and he was a good boy... But then aparently she counts numbers as 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18. See anything missing? When we checked the scores, we were shocked to see an "E" under her name... Then the TD explained that they never jumped fence 15, and we started cracking up... What a day.
Overall, the boys were really good. In minute detail, though, it just wasn't our weekend. But that's okay. Another day then!
--Megan
--Megan
--Kathleen
Annie
