Gallery Farm Show!

Guess what?!?!?! We got SECOND! Dakota [*ahem* Kodak Moment. ;)] and I really, truly got second! And if we had tied with the winner in dressage, our cross country time would have bumped us up to first. ONE POINT in dressage separated us from the number one slot. AT OUR FIRST COMBINED TEST SHOW! I am definitely happy about that one! I was nervous for dressage, and the judge thought Koda needed more suppleness in his back and a bit more impulsion [well, he WAS almost asleep during the first half. Lazy horse.] And I sacrificed being on the bit for being light on the forehand. I was SO glad the judge didn't think we were heavy! That's been our main problem... heavy on the forehand. So I don't mind that she took off a lot of points for coming off the bit several times... I actually wasn't paying attention to that at all!
I was more worried about the loud cracking of my whip in the silent dressage arena. It sounded like a stock whip instead of a dressage whip! heh. But I did get several good comments about him being obedient, prompt, and rhythmic. I got lot's of "fairly's." As in: "fairly straight down the center line," "fairly rhythmic," "fairly round" [as in my circles], and such. heh. After my test I told Abby my circles had felt more like octagons. And he came off the bit on ALL of our transitions. But I've been working on that.
This was a show with a REAL judge, though. For the most part I got 7's out of 10's. [As in, points possible.] And, I'll update this post to put up a picture. I'm also going to put my dressage test on youtube [*sigh* when my dad uploads it from his video camera], and Kimberly's & Abby's tests will go up sooner, probably... because I got those with my mom's camera.
Ugh, well... I'm wiped out! Until next post, God bless. Tina