If It's Not One Thing...

...it's another.

Actually, before I have you thinking otherwise, the show went very well. Blue was quite good for his younger rider, and right on par for me. We swept Low Hunter, taking every blue ribbon, division Champion, and year-end Champion. So Blue now has another plate for his collection. ;)

I was a bit disappointed with my equitation. I think I really have to stop working gate the morning of the show because I just get so tired and unmotivated by the time my classes come around that courses wear me out. I do just fine, but I feel I don't compete at my best. But we have another show coming on the 2nd (my 1/2 birthday, coincidentally) and I now have my sights set on that.

We had a rather small lesson on Tuesday, just three of us, and it allowed us some time to really work on things. We first worked on straightness. I never realized how much Blue leans on the rail before now! He really does, and he's the type that likes to dip his shoulder around turns.

Over fences, we did some turning. Ironically, the straightness exercises really helped with turning! We found nice distances to fences each time, sometimes getting a little tight because I felt he needed to collect more to make the turn after the jump, but he changed his leads over fences and felt really responsive around the course. Blue tends to lose his head a bit jumping because he gets overexcited. We had a two-stride in-and-out that Blue kept getting long and flat over at the show, so I rode him to it so he'd get a tighter distance and really have to round over it. When my trainer asked about it, I told her about what I had observed at the show and told me I was really starting to figure Blue out! It really made me feel good, because I really respect her opinion.

Talk to ya later about tomorrow's lesson!