Free tongues!

Ben and I went to a Majestic Oaks schooling show on Wednesday. We were testing out our studs and getting some confidence back on a very familiar course. I worked until 2 the night before, so very much appreciated that I rode dressage at 2:15, stadium at 4:30 and XC at 5. I've sprinkled more Rocking Horse pics in here because I don't have any from this show. There is a video of dressage, stadium, and part of cross country, but I uploaded it at my dad's and didn't think to divide the phases, so it is a whole lot to watch unless you're super interested. 

Dressage: They were running ahead and offered to let us go in early, so I trotted a few serpentines, cantered once each way, took a walk break, and then went in after about 10 minutes of warm up. Usually I add in one more set of trot and canter with one more walk break, but it was bloody hot and we were here for the XC, not for a tired horse after dressage. With the goal of keeping it low key, I let Ben fly his tongue his whole dressage test with no flash and no sugar cubes. The dressage judge was less than thrilled and gave us a 33. To be fair, there was some good, useful feedback in there in addition to the remarks about his tongue, and I gained some insights from riding the test (training B) at a show. Our stretch circle correctly earned us a 5. I've been slacking at home and we usually do about 2 stretch circles to get a really nice stretch. I need to make this more prompt. Also I have been working the canter-trot transitions, but really managed to still slam him down into one of them with no prep. 

Stadium: The warm up ring went from empty to packed in a span of about two minutes, and I hate warm up rings anyways. So we jumped a smaller oxer once, chipped to the base of the bigger oxer, then took the long spot. I got left when he took the long one, but he was trying and I was fried, so we went on that. He spooked in the ring a decent amount, but I now expect it so it didn't really throw me off. I did have to ride fairly assertively to a few of the jumps, but if I was asserting, he was stepping up. We did 1 in the 1 stride, 5 strides to the next after it, like it walked, and then 2 in the 2 stride. I hadn't walked the course on foot and was a tad bit surprised by the turn to 9, kinda turning and going "la la la la OH SHIT there's the jump" but I put it in my head to still ride it like I had to sit up and turn again after and he jumped it well. We ticked about 4 rails, but managed to knock NONE of them. 

Cross country: Ben was a GOOD BOY. He did not run and spook heavy into my hand, he listened to half halts up, and he TRIED so hard the whole time. I rode like an idiot to a couple of them, but he still went and was trustworthy. 

He was a bit squirrely to 9, the one he ran out at when we schooled the first time without studs. But looking at the event entries results, two people had a stop or run out at that. I think the surprise wedge after a looooong gallop up from the water threw horses off a little. 

Rocking Horse wedge because I loooooove this picture

If you watch the video to the end you can see a bit of XC. You can also see me pull the distance away from us to a rolltop and the first wedge. Dumb. So I could be riding better out there too. 

We ended up tied for 6th after dressage then tied for 2nd after stadium, then winning our division after XC. Good boy Ben! As JT said, it wasn't the win we needed to qualify for AECs, but it still felt nice to come out and put all 3 phases together again. Next up is Rocking Horse the first weekend in March.