Prix Caprilli debut......coming very late. But there is video!

Mia went first in the class and really kinda rocked it.  In watching the video, I really don't know WTH was going on with my hands.  Like, am I a 4-H kid who hasn't been riding most of their life?  UGH.  I know, we are our own worse critics but still.

My reins are still miles too long, especially in the canter, but it looks good.  It would have been better if I hadn't gone off course *eyeroll*.  I blanked and started to go across the diagonal in the canter when I should have been going down the long side.  The hazards of riding multiple test without a reader I guess!

So. Many. 8's.

The other two rides were decent, but I thought Mia was much more relaxed and certainly was more unphased by the jumps in the arena.  Haha, practice practice practice! How do you make your horse take a 2' fence like it is a canter stride? Do it about 30 times a day for a week.  HA!

Even with me being a bit of a mess though, the horse is judged and not the rider so we ended up with 6 as our lowest score with lots of 6.5's, 7's and 8's!!  Apparently the DO mark you down when you land on the wrong lead over a fence. *sigh*  That's okay, now I know for next time.

The first level test was the hard one though. I had worked hard to not need a reader and while I almost regretted the decision, I am glad I didn't have one. I have never in my life had a reader and I don't want to start now!  Mia wasn't as amused, having to do TWO dressage tests and was much more distracted this time. I still rode with reins way too long and but it went very well.  We even got a WOW comment on our 2nd leg yield, and ended with a 66%.  A fabulous effort that made me very happy.

So what now? I've been quiet for a while, I know. I've kind of lost my blogger voice I guess.  There isn't a lot going on in the horse world, I don't have a lot to goals to ride for and I'm in a blogging slump.  If you can't tell, this post was written in 2 parts and the 2nd part really lacks enthusiasm lol.  The horses are doing just fine, I just finished a 3 week whirlwind gone-every-weekend-no-time-to-ride adventure.  I am signed up for a lesson next Saturday, so I need to really get back to work if I want it to count for anything.  I had signed up for the re-scheduled Wofford clinic for Sept 24, but then it was cancelled again due to lack of entries.  Oh well.  Maybe next year, I wasn't in shape for it anyway.

Up next will be a recap of a lesson I had....um....a full month ago.