First Show Of The Season Recap

The first show is in the books.  While we didn't place well, I am super pleased with how things went.  There is always room for improvement *cough cough, shorter reins, more leg*, but from where we were 3 months ago, I am SO happy with how things went. 

On Saturday, Mia got the first bath of the season and got clipped up.  She was fabulous and had no issues with any of the shenanigans, though she was losing her patience by the end of her primping session. We also had the farrier that day so while I got to the barn at 930a and didn't leave until 430p, I still didn't get to ride.  I wasn't worried however, Mia had her argument with me that prior week and was riding fabulously on Weds and Friday so I let her have the day off.

She is ribby, but in good, though fuzzy, condition. Topline is coming back!

Sunday we loaded up and got to the show without any issues at all.  Warm up was a mess.  Because the ground was still so soft, they were asking everyone to ride only in the warmup ring so there were 15+ horses in the arena.  At least it was a larger ring, but half were warming up over jumps, few were watching where they were going and it totally reminded me of a Hunter warmup ring.  Not a lot of good work was done.  Mia wasn't really relaxed but she was giving nice transitions and not fighting with me so I took what I had.

In case anyone wants to be bored to tears, dressage!

The test went quite well, but certainly not our best. Mia wasn't relaxing into the bridle, my reins were STILL too long and she wasn't truly in front of my leg for most of the ride.  BUT for the first time EVER we did not get the "falling in" comment in the canter.  First. Time. Ever.  Win! You can tell in the video at the right lead canter section that her haunches are still a bit in as she finishes her circle, but so, so, so much better than in the past.

Ugh, ribby.  BUT this is an untouched photo.  So shiny!!

We even scored a personal best of 31.9!  Which is a fabulous score that I am proud of.  Unfortunately, 6 other people scored in the mid to low 20's, something Mia is not yet ready for. That was okay though, the improvement in dressage is what we were going for and we nailed it.

Last was jumping which, admittedly, went about as well as I expected.  The video stabilization in Youtube made both dressage and jumping seem a smidge faster than it actually was (in comparing the video on youtube vs computer), but the video stabilization was needed.... so FYI haha.  Mia has been jumping so well, however, we have only been jumping for the past month or so.  Maybe 6 times?  7 tops?  We aren't at the top of our game still and I knew that going in.  We met 90% of the distances and had one rail.  I honestly don't know what happened for that rail, she hit it with her hind fetlocks and we met the distance, I can only assume I sat on her too soon??  Not sure, there is no other picture or video of it to verify and I was baffled when it happened.

I am still super happy with the jumping round.  Mia was responsive, except for the last fence where she didn't slow down until the last 2 strides and chipped in a small stride, but she was such a good mare.  We ended 6th and I was happy.  Mia then got the next full week off as I headed to the Kentucky 3 Day Event AKA Not-Rolex.  Recap of that coming up!