The last day of showing was definitely better.
We had a great judge today. Our riders took high point and reserve high point riders of the day! Congrats, girls!
I, on the other hand, only got a 6th.
I have to admit, I wasn't that crushed. It was my first time competing in this discipline and I wasn't expecting much. All I wanted out of this class was to get my horse to canter without having to kick a bazillion times and you know what? I did it! The girl in the class before me, not from my school, looked like she had a hard time getting him to canter but my brother gave me a good inspiration: "Just pretend it's Brie and she stopped in the middle of the ring AGAIN." It definitely gave me the desire to show that horse who's boss.
My ride was good and I felt beautiful when we cantered, we even got the correct lead! And I never had to correct my diagonals because they were perfect today. He was just a really bouncy ride and I had a hard time sitting deep in the seat and keeping my heels down, so among trying to get my stirrups back to the balls of my feet, I stopped concentrating on keeping him cantering so he trotted...and I still never got my stirrups back where they needed to be.
I feel like as much as I would love to pat myself on the back and ride easier horses at Nell's, I need to be put on the bouncier ones that she has in order to be competitive in the next show...which is at our barn! Home advantage! I only have two lessons until that show so I need to make them count. I'm not even worried about improving my jumping right now: I need to focus on the flat that way I can point up out of there as fast as possible!
It sounds like you did great! 6th place is something to be proud of, especially since you're not really used to trotting horses! Keep up the great attitude, before you know it you'll be high pointing too!
ReplyDelete