This message is from: "Dagrun Aarsten" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Hello listers,
well did I have a great day or what! I was planning to take Quinn to his first eventing show in spring, but then this schooling show came up at Travis Air Force base Equestrian center...I already knew the people there, friendly group, and managed to get Brigid's trailering and "slave" services for the day. As you might recall, I have "taught" Quinn to enjoy jumping. On a good day, there can be a jump in the middle of the arena, I free lunge him, point at the jump and over he goes. That's all well. >From here, I'll just quote my dressage test comments: Enter working trot, halt, salute, proceed working trot: 6-Gd. energy, nice sq halt, off centerline a bit Track left, circle left 20 m: 7-Very nice! Working canter left lead: Counter bent, late departure, EXITED ARENA And there it stops :-D Yes, he jumped the rail. Big lesson for me not to rely on the fence in the arena too much! I was laughing and laughing, to some people's suprise. I told them we were not overly ambitious today anyway. We don't really have the canter departures down yet. He does canter on cue, but we are far from a nice, sharp transition with non-random lead. Anyway, they let me school the rest of the test which was nice. In the right canter departure, we did it again! And this time I was really trying to steer! I guess those white little things were just begging to be jumped over. Then we jumped back in and schooled the rest of the test. Well, the dressage judge wanted to buy him so I guess that's a good sign :-) At the bottom of the sheet she wrote "Nice Pony!". Fortunately there was still cross-country and stadium jumping to come. He sure does jump, but I've never jumped a complete course before, and never schooled cross-country. Off we went, he was a little unsure about the first two jumps, but from then on we got going and finished in good style! Clear cross-country! People loved him and were cheering and cheering. And from my "talking" to him on course, everyone understood I was having the time of my life. Smiles everywhere, posing for pictures again and again. Quinn loved the attention and was real full of himself, prancing around a little and whinnying at the other horses. Then there was stadium jumping, by then he felt a little heavy, it was getting warm and he already has his teddy bear winter coat. I was afraid he'd just crash through all 10 jumps. But he started in great style, after 2 jumps the judge blew the whistle and I was real confused, because I was pretty sure I didn't do anything wrong. Turned out the previous rider knocked down a fence that wasn't put back up, so we had to wait for them to reset it. We lost some of the flow, but Quinn jumped everything like a dream. Not one moment of hesitation, even though some of the jumps were pretty spooky. (One even had a scarecrow on it, the whole course had halloween decorations). I had to circle once since my mind went blank...but that wasn't his fault, and he finished in great style with one knockdown. Of course we didn't place, since we were eliminated from the start, but a schooling show is a schooling show and it was a great experience. I was so proud of him after the jumping, and he was pretty happy with himself, too. Brigid seemed pretty impressed by the stadium jumping...she kept talking about it. The other horses were spooky and hot and stopped and veered and jigged, Quinn just cantered steady on, jumping anything I pointed him to. What a champion! So despite the bad start, we represented the breed pretty well after all. Most people there had never seen a fjord before, and they were all surprised by his jumping ability. An English couple also asked me to get in touch of I ever sell him! And everyone petted him and asked lots of questions. It warms a Norwegian heart to see this "instant" reaction people have to fjords. They just have to touch them! Big thanks to Brigid for being my driver and personal slave for the day! Next time you bring the horse and I'll be the slave. Big smile from Dagrun in San Jose, Ca, still chuckling when I see my dressage test sheet!
