It was boys’ weekend this weekend at a little dressage show at Foxcroft, a local girls’ school with a big, big equestrian facility. Indy came to show first level with my mom, and I took Midge and Tres to do fourth level.
Foxcroft has been around forever, but the facility is still in great shape. We like this show—it’s run by CDCTA, my favorite GMO, whose membership is largely event riders and, as such, tend to be pretty dang fun. It’s a quiet, low-key show, and the weather tends to be pretty good. And as it’s only 45 minutes away, we can stay at home; I even drove home Saturday between classes to teach.
The one tough thing about it is going from the warm-up, a lovely grass field, to the deep sand footing of the show rings. Midge stalled out a little on Saturday—he’s a footing princess—and then was unimpressed at the level of difficulty of work he was being asked to do, so he added a few one-tempis of his own. Like, a lot of them. Down the first centerline was my favorite. What a dork!
Tres, on the other hand, was Mr. Fabulous. I’m still finding the best balance in the canter, so the pirouettes lacked a little inspiration, and I ended up working harder than I should have by the end of the test, but he made no mistakes, and no fuss. Almost a 63 percent, and a big shiny high score ribbon for Saturday. Good boy!
My mom’s Indy was a superstar, and while Mom suffered from her usual show nerves and fed his energy level a bit, she managed to keep it together and finish the test even when things didn’t go her way. I’m VERY proud of her; fear is the worst riding weakness to overcome, and she’s getting there!
On Sunday, my boys flip-flopped; Midge was tired, but very obedient, and won 4-1 with a 67 percent, earning him the high score ribbon. Tres was quite tired and got quite bogged down, but still pulled off a 61.5 percent. I’m very excited at his progress—the fitness is still coming, but he’s getting much quicker in the transitions. And Mom rode WAAAAY better to up her scores. A good weekend!
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And now, I am POOPED. After Gladstone and this weekend, a little break is in order. Midge gets a nice long vacation; I see lots of swimming and hacking in his future. Tres needs to keep working, but I’m hoping that with the increased rain we’ve been getting, the ground will soften enough to do lots of conditioning work out of the arena.
The rest of my merry men are on hiatus, too. I was thinking of starting more piaffe-passage work with Ella, but I looked at my calendar and realized that it’s two months until our next show, so where’s the fire? She spent the week working, but fluffy work—walk-trot-canter, outside, out of the arena. She seems very happy, and very comfortable in her body.
Little Fender is on a roll. His progress has its plateaus, but lately it’s been a slow and steady incline in quality and duration of work, so I’m just rolling with it. I sent in my entries for the 4-Year-Old tests at Devon, guaranteeing that everything will inevitably fall apart about six days before the show, so I’m enjoying this while I can.
Scott is coming for a clinic next Monday, but other than that I’m looking at a blissfully quiet few weeks. Halle-freaking-lujah!
