Arabian Sport Horse Nationals 2015 - Day 5: Training Level Dressage

The test itself was not the exciting part of this game...  It was, honestly, mediocre.  Not bad.  Just not spectacular.


Some local friends had come to cheer me on, and they were right there at the ring when I exited.
Another friend competing, went RIGHT after me, so I stayed to watch her test!
(That test is another story, and not mine to tell)




So, after all the excitement was done, we headed back to the barn.  And the volunteer stopped me on my way out to check my bit and any whip or spurs (which I didn't have).  It never occurred to me that she might be waiting...  She told me, "I was wondering when you were finally going to come over.  I watched to make sure you weren't wiping any blood off or anything!"  OOPS!




Of course, she totally understood me wanting to watch my friend's ride, and it wasn't like I had actually done anything wrong... But I felt like such a jerk!
I guess at Nationals, it's not random - EVERYONE gets checked!






*note*
I tried to upload some pictures, but technology hasn't been cooperating, so this one is going up media-free because I'm so tired of waiting to get it sorted out!!


More stories in the queue, plenty more opportunities for media...

Arabian Sport Horse Nationals 2015 - Day 4: Arabian Working Hunter 14.2 and Under, Arabian Sport Horse Under Saddle ATR, and Arabian Hunter Hack ATR

NOTE: I tried to round up media, but I guess it wasn't a good media day that day...
The getting all the words on "paper"...
I apologize if I was too verbose...  THIS is day 4.....

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This turned out to be the longest and least fun day at the show...


Of course, for every horse entered in Arabian Working Hunter 14.2 and Under, there were 2 courses, and usually a warm-up round.  I don't know how many horses were in the class, but it went on F O R E V E R!!


I decided the warm-up round wouldn't hurt us any, so I piloted the Fancy Pony around, unjudged, and she nailed every single lead on landing!!  It felt PERFECT!
There was some chaos around announcing and what was actually going on...
In order to keep things running smoothly, I came out after my warm up round to let another competitor get their warm up in.  Then, for the sake of time efficiency for everyone, decided to stay in the ring and ride my first and second judged rounds back-to-back.


I heard the ring attendant convey my information over to the powers that be, and I was told to go ahead and begin!
I picked up my canter circle, established a very steady, confident canter, and headed to my course!  I knew Whisper was going to go over everything without a glance, so I merely focused on landing our leads.  And we blew at least half of them...  I was able to get a couple trot lead changes, but in one corner, she thoroughly blew me off and refused to even consider changing.  Rather than have an ugly argument in the show ring, I decided to just counter-canter to the next line...  Compared to my warm-up round, it was appalling...  What did I do that messed us up??


Well, if you dwell on the line you just rode, you can't focus on the line ahead of you, so I promptly moved on to keeping my focus forward.
I finished my course, and came down to the walk until the judges were ready for my second round.
I was nodded on, and as I cleared the first fence, I heard the announcer tell the world that I was riding my first course.


REALLY?  I totally lost my groove.  Was I being judged as if I was riding my first course?  Because if I was, I was going to be marked on the WRONG course!  What am I supposed to do now?  I can't very well ask the judge as I ride down my line!
I don't know how long it took me to decide the only thing I could do was ride my second round like I owned it and just try to sort it out later, but I'm sure it didn't help my round while I worked through all the nonsense...


I think I landed on ONE correct lead...  It was as if Whisper thought it was a fun game to swap leads over every fence...  I'm really not sure what was going on.  It was probably just the pressure getting to me.  Knowing this one thing that really hurts our performance...  Focusing on it too hard...  Overthinking every move...


We were jogged in as reserve for our first round (that would NOT be reserve champion), and we weren't jogged at all for our second round.


We retacked and headed in for the flat, which I insisted was spectacular!
Well, we didn't make Top Ten...
I was sad, but not really surprised...

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We headed over to the main arena for Sport Horse Under Saddle ATR.  For the uninitiated, this is an Arabian breed invented class...  Walk-trot-canter on the rail, perhaps a lengthening each direction.  Shown in dressage or hunter tack.  I'm not sure any of us are actually sure what the judges are looking for...

There were 61 horses entered in the class, so we were riding in a section of 20-ish, and hoping to make the cut!

I went in and gave it everything I had!  I asked the Fancy Pony to be as fancy as she has ever been!

I felt like she was consistent, but she may have dropped behind my leg for all of a stride or 2...

As far as I was concerned it was a beautiful ride!

But, it wasn't my day, and we didn't make the cut.

Later, there was some discussion that 8 horses should have been moved forward from each cut, and only 6 were moved forward.  Regardless, we still wouldn't have made the cut...

THEN, it was going to be another half an hour before they started us up for Hunter Hack ATR.

So, we hoofed it back to the barn for a short rest...

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It was already feeling like a long day, and we'd spent most of it just standing around...
We ran another hunter hack class, but the competition was super stiff!
It ran just like the last hunter hack class.. you know - where we won a top ten??
Well, it wasn't in the cards this time, and we didn't make top honors.  I was still proud of all of our rides!  For crying out loud I WAS RIDING AT NATIONALS!!!
All we had to do was survive one more dressage test.......