"Naughty horse - but you ride really well"

Three and a half days at Waterloo… and I am happy to report that we didn’t share Napoleon’s plight.

By yesterday afternoon I was pretty exhausted, but it was a good experience. We had a great schooling session with Sandy on Thursday evening, and then good rides on Friday. The changes were still iffy, but the rest was fine. Saturday we had some issues, and couldn’t get the flying change from the centerline to left lead canter. The judge rang the bell and let us do that line again, which was actually really nice. Perhaps she felt bad because due to a computer glitch we were waiting around the arena for what seemed a very long time before going in. All that in the “FEI” arena, with plenty of spectators looking on. Second time we still didn’t nail the movement, hence the comment on the score sheet I quoted in the headline.

Yesterday Saumur had one huge spook right in front of the judge at C, all I could do is get him on a canter circle and go on. From there we had to go straight to the extended canter, and I was concentrating on “you will NOT run away with me”, which he didn’t – and we got good scores, even an ‘8’ on the last trot down the centerline.

What I am most happy about is that I kept my cool. Saumur’s little quirks didn’t rattle me, and I could laugh about it, and even joke with the judge and tell her to “stop scaring my horse”.

We were pretty much in the low 60s due to the mistakes, which -even though I would have liked higher scores- is encouraging, because we can build on this. All in all it was very good for the first time out, and we also ended up with the 3rd level AA championship.

Of course, once again, I couldn't have done it without our support team! Between jobs as groom, reader, and loading the equipment in record time, JP made sure I ate (not always a given for me). Sandy was my 'voice in the ear', keeping Saumur and me on the straight and narrow during the warm ups. I love the wireless for schooling, and some of the comments are definitely better kept between us. Especially a very unique suggestion on how/where to breathe through..