My first ride on Friday was Skyy. He had been a bit of a booger on Thursday and I was worried that this behavior would continue into Friday. I was pleasantly surprised when he went into the warm-up and was a completely different horse. He was focused, calm, and ready to get down to work.
He was really very good for his test (Training Level Test 1) and we got that qualifying score of 62%. I was thrilled and hoping this newfound work ethic and concentration would continue!
My next ride was Kaswyn in the fourth Level Test 3 class. I wasn't sure how he would feel, since this was the first day that he was supposed to be in full work after his stifle injection. He felt just a bit off in the warm-up, especially at the beginning. Then he faked us out by improving after a little bit of work. My trainer and I discussed what I should do, and I decided that he didn't feel bad enough to scratch, so I'd go in and ride the test.
You can see that at times he just doesn't look quite right at the trot, and just as he does the down transition from the trot to the walk he takes a funny step. He got a nice score but I could tell that he didn't feel right. I was concerned that it was the right hind, so I scratched him for the rest of his classes. He's already qualified so I didn't think it was worth possibly injuring him further by showing him when he's off.
Next up was Albert and First Level Test 4. This is a horse I can always count on to do his job. He will get a bit rattled if he thinks he's in trouble, but he knows what is expected of him.
In this test during the second direction of the canter work he either got bitten by a bug or he *thought* he got bitten (or was going to be) and I could feel his swishing his tail to the right and bringing his right hind up and out a bit like he wanted to kick out at the bug. I'm surprised that you can't really tell from the video, becasue I was sure he was going to break and kick at the bug. He got a 64% which qualified him for Nationals.
One day down, two more to go.
All Good Things Must Come To An End
3 years ago
1 comment:
Kaswyn's test is taking aggggeeesss to load, and all I've seen of it is the canter in - but yes, does it look like he's hitching the hip a bit on the right side?
Hope he's feeling better!
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