Feeling Green - In a Good Way!

Our not-goals were accomplished this weekend. I didn't get too nervous and both Bridget and I had fun!

Even our schedule was a little more laid back - ferry ride at lunchtime Saturday, followed by an hours drive, arriving at the venue and all settled in by late afternoon. We even had time for a quick lesson before heading out to dinner. As always, Midge settled in well - as much as she frustrates me at times, I'll keep her for life simply because she's just so easy to have around. Like a giant dog, really.

In the small trailer, babysitting a more anxious member of the herd on the ferry. Midge is a seasoned commuter and naps during ferry crossings.

All tucked in for the night

My dressage ride wasn't until 10:40 am, so again, no rush. Our showjumping time, however, was posted as 10:30, which I took to mean ASAP after dressage and maybe if I was going to hurry that might be the time to do so :)

Midge warmed up a little stressy, which for her means tight and tense and looking around, but no real drama. She settled in to some beautiful work, and the timing was such that we went straight in to the dressage ring from there. Unfortunately the minor change of venue brought tense Midge back, which meant some of our test was  braced and above the bit. Still, I was incredibly happy with her - I'd rather she's a little anxious than just not wanting to play. The test felt solid...obviously not perfect, but nothing that felt glaringly awful either and I would say one of our better ones and much improved from the green pony out of control canter stuff of last year. The judge thought she looked "fun" which is a double edged sword in judge speak, but a comment I'll happily take given we also have many days of Not Fun pony.

Since show jumping was running in order immediately after dressage, I had just enough time to switch saddles and pop over a cross rail twice. Then in we went. Perfect, no time to overthink it. And...B was ON! She basically took me around and did her best interpretation of worlds best pony jumper. I was even relaxed enough to lol at her half way through the course...there was a rather large skinny xc jump that I wanted to turn just before but B locked on, like "OK, i have no idea why we're angling the Training log in the middle of our tiny show jumps, but I've got this!!" Ha ha, B, no, please no.

Our little yellow vertical in the far back, skinny log in the front right. You can see our tracks on the inside turn...but Midge wanted to go for it and angle the big girl jump LOL. As a side note, it was windy on Sunday and the flags dividing the ring caused a bit of havoc :)

We added on a second round, for which B was really excited for and we both quite enjoyed, it was forward and fun and flowed really nicely. We have video evidence coming. When we finished, it was like Bridget had won the Olympics, my coach was hugging Bridget and the barn kids were all over her too. Such has been the struggle, we get very excited when she is Good Pony :)

Its worth noting that I rode past the jump arena the night before and I was like, "huh, looks like the Starter course is already up, we get a sneak peek!" And I looked and slept soundly in the knowledge it was totally doable and easier looking than our lesson courses. Turns out that was actually the Entry (Novice in the US) course. It seems EC has been fudging jump heights a little in our lessons, LOL. Apparently "Here T, I have made this one tiny for you" actually just means it's somewhere under 3'. I've been betrayed, but in a good way, because here I was thinking my continuing tiny jumps were a sign we were never going to be able to do more. We have, and we are, I just never noticed ;).

Course set up. We didn't get any of the xc jumps in our course, but still, a nice course in a nice big arena with good footing/drainage. Well worth the $12 rounds.

 So, success!! We dressaged, we jumped the tiny jumps! It was easy! We had fun! The End.




Ha! You know I couldn't leave it there. Of course I picked up my dressage test and checked scores even though I told myself not to care.

World's tiniest 8 on there, I promise ;)

And, we got the same feedback we always get! We are cursed with 64% and "super cute pair" remarks for life no matter what test we tackle ( which, honestly is fine by me!)
 Highlight of our test was the medium walk, which earned us an 8, lowlight was a rather exuberant right lead canter depart for a 5.5. Poor B also earned herself a 5 for submission, sassy pony! That meant we earned a nice green 5th place ribbon in a large division. Bonus, because truly I was beyond happy with our weekend regardless of results  :)

Pretty

And will go perfectly with the inadvertent green color scheme we're currently sporting in the trailer lol

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