Tania and Otis: 2014 First Show of the Season

We had our first show of the season on May 18th, an SMDA show at the Hollis Equestrian Park. Since we did so well in Intro C and Training 1 last year, it was time to move up to Training 2 and Training 3 this year.

I was very nervous that I was going to forget the new tests even though I spent weeks memorizing them. New tests always make me nervous, so my main goal for the day was to just remember my tests.

I got Otis ready and hopped on to warm up for Training 2. He was pretty good in the warm up and for the test. He has started to do the "head wag" thing again and when I collected the reins to transition from free walk to medium walk he tried to pull the reins out of my hands. These are both things he has been doing at home, and we have been working on them. Besides the resitence to the bit he did pretty well, nice transitions, and best of all, I didn't forget the test! I defintely didn't feel like it was our best ride, but considering I was probably focused more on the test than I was on my aids, I didn't feel too terrible about it. We ended up placing first with a score of 63.8%. Not the best score but not bad considering it was our first time doing that test.

We had a more solid Training 3 test, I felt more conifdent in my memory of this test so I was more helpful to Otis this time. He was still doing the head wag thing but didn't pull on the reins when I collected them to transition from free walk to medium walk. Our canter transitions felt great and he had a nice forward marching free walk. We ended up with a first place ribbon and a score of 64.4%.

It was a great first show with beautiful weather. I plan to work on getting Otis more accepting of the bit and getting my hands steadier so the head wag will stop. Hopefully I can fit in a couple of lessons with Judy before the next show so we can improve our scores.