Friday, June 19, 2009

Saturday Show Videos

Saturday I had Skyy to ride first at Training Level Test 1 again. His warmup was even better on Saturday and I was anticipating another very nice ride from him.



I personally think this ride was better than Friday's ride, but this judge was much tougher. I wouldn't say that she didn't give out high scores, because some of the horses who rode before her got high 60's. I think she has a clear idea of what she wants to see, and if she sees it you get a nice score. However, if she doesn't she's pretty critical.

She wanted to see much more of a connection than Skyy has had before. It's too bad because I think this test went really well. That connection to the bit is coming, it just wasn't there yet.

Since I had a six hour break before my next ride, my trainer and I went out to the lunging area and took video of Kaswyn. At the beginning of the work he actually looked pretty good and I was starting to think I was a little quick to scratch him. However, the more work he did the more the lameness showed up. At the end of the video he takes one of those "stepped in a hole" steps that are obviously painful. Then I knew that I had made the right decision to scratch him.



Later when Dr. G viewed the video he thought he looked pretty good in the beginning but then the lameness showed up on the left hind, especially during turning and changing direction. He said the canter wasn't really helpful to watch and that the trot and the walk are the most important to see. I'll keep that in mind when I video him next time.

I was so happy when it was finally time to ride Albert in his Training Level Test 4 class. Again the little trooper was right on the money and laid down an awesome test.



So, here is what happened in the walk. The movement is Walk at C, Working walk from C to B, Free walk from B to V, Working walk at V. First, I didn't look at the test enough before the class, which I should have done - shame on me! Then, when I heard my reader say "Working walk from C to B" I thought she said "C to V". B and V sound a lot alike, and I totally don't blame her. But I started to head towards V, and then I heard her say "Free walk from B to V" and I thought "Wait, there is something wrong here, I'm already going to V."

Then I heard a whistle.

There were three arenas set up for the show, right in a row. They try to have the judges in all three rings have a different signal to tell the rider when to enter the ring, or when the rider had made an error. In the past it's been brass bell, whistle, and cow bell. This time they had the two brass bells on the outside arenas and the middle arena had the whistle. When I heard the whistle it sounded like it had come from the other arena, and not mine, so I kept going. I didn't hear another whistle so I never stopped.

I realize now that it was in fact my judge blowing the whistle at me. The reason I know this is because I just happened to be riding in the far left arena at the same time that my trainer was riding in the middle arena, and her trainer was in the far right arena. As I was leaving the show area after my test I happened to be coming out at the same time that my trainer's trainer was coming out too. His arena also had a whistle, and I think he was doing Second Level. There is no way his judge could have blown the whistle to tell him to enter the arena while I was walking and have him finish his Second Level test in the time it took me to do half of a Training Level test.

I told this to my trainer later and asked her if I should have stopped since I was unsure if the whistle was for me. She said that if I was unsure I should not have stopped, and the he probably saw that I had gotten back on the right track so he didn't blow the whistle again. She said that if there is a doubt as to if the judge blew the whistle or not that I should keep going, because if I had stopped and the whistle was not for me then I would have to get an error for nothing. If the judge really wants to stop me they will blow the whistle (or ring the bell, whatever it happens to be) again more forcefully to stop me.

Anyhow, I was already partway to the centerline when I realized my mistake, and I wasn't sure what to do. You can see that for a second I decided to head back over to B, but I realized I would not make it so I just did a free walk over to V. I was really bummed about this because the test had been going so well up till that point. The whole test is 7's until my error, which got a four and a five, and that really effected the score.

I'm still frustrated with myself for making this mistake. I know he still got a 67%, which is an amazing score. But it was my error that kept him from getting a higher score. He was on his way to a 70%, and 70% won the class. I can forgive the horse for making a mistake, but for me to make such a stupid error that cost so many points is just poor preparation on my part.

One more day to go!


2 comments:

Stephanie - Siouxzeegirl Designs said...

Bummer on Alberts test with the mess up! That sure is frustrating. But you still scored quite well even with that bobble in it.

and if I remember correctly you were showing with a bad head cold on top of having 3 horses... pretty impressive to me.
Nice videos and looks like a nice place to show!

craig said...

It's about time you posted some videos.

 
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