Chattahoochee Hills Schooling

"Well that went better than expected!"

Ruby and I went to our first overnight show this weekend at Chattahoochee Hills- schooling show. This was our second eventing event, so I was still a bit nervous about how she would do; the xc will probably always make me nervous, but recently we both have been much more consistent and confident in our jumping so I figured 'why not?'

I decided to enter us in the same division as our Riverdale show (Tadpole 2') since this was our first time at this venue.

Dressage Test: overall, much better than our last test except our halts were pretty much non-existent. This judge was more difficult than the last one; although our score was lower this time, trust me when I say it was still the better test.

We scored a 66.25% with scores at:
1. 5.5 (nicely forward, careful motion; halt for 3 sec)
2. 7 (active and steady)
3. 7 (active and steady)
4. 6.5 (could be softer into hand, better balance)
5. 6 (up transition too early)
6. 6 (up transition too early)
7. 8 (nice and steady)
8. 6.5 (circle loses roundness, but active)
9. 5 (past A)
10. 7 (fairly smooth, nice march)
11. 8.5
12. 6.5 (smooth pickup; anticipated trans early)
13. 4 (unstable in halt)

Like I said, halts did not happen today- she might have just been nervous. For the last halt I think she just wanted out of the ring! For future reference; practice a couple walk-halt transitions before coming in...

Collective remarks: Gaits 7, Impulsion 7, Submission 7, Rider Position 6.5 (bit of a chair seat), Rider Effectiveness 7 (careful to balance halts), Geometry and Accuracy (movements came early)

Overall remarks: Clean up the details, especially those early canter transitions, Lovely horse and capable rider.

(haha, see Ruby, someone called you 'lovely')...

The jump course was 8 jumps: diagonal single right lead 1; rollback right to bending line 2,3; left turn to bending line 4,5; right turn to outside line 6,7; right turn to opposite outside single 8.

XC consisted of 12 jumps through the field and one water element. In practice, I was able to get Ruby through the water. In the show the next day, she spooked at the water and darted sideways. Since the water was not actually marked on my test, I continued around it. Probably should have forced her in, but I was not really sure how "disobedience" was scored if it was not a mandatory part of the test...

Overall, good day! We finished on our dressage score, with a final of 33.75. This put us in first out of 12 pairs.