Lead Up to the Show

In the past week I've been riding with more resolve, and it's worked in making Cupid less lazy without having to do much.  Since we are coming up on our show this weekend, it's been a fine balance of getting prepared and keeping fresh.  I'm still usually only cantering every other day, so when we do it we can be successful and build good muscle memory.

Saturday - About 40 minutes walk/trot.  Cupid was very good with several other horses in the arena.

Sunday - Lesson.  I contemplated putting on my jumping saddle so we can do some poles/cavaletti and maybe even some small jumps if everything goes well, but then I chickened out because I thought the arena might be too busy, so we did flatwork.

Monday - Ground driving, ending with a canter on long lines.  We did not get the left lead the first try, but got it twice after.

Tuesday - Lesson. The outdoor arena was open for the first time since the clinic, and Cupid thought it was very exciting.  He started out very distracted and kept shying on one of the long sides, I couldn't figured out what it was over.  But he wasn't doing anything too bad, so we just worked through it.  We managed to get the left lead canter, though Cupid was kind of racing around with his head up feeling pretty unbalanced.  Eventually he broke to the trot, and I told my trainer we probably should have down transitioned sooner but she said she was waiting to get him to relax.  So we picked it up again just for a circle then back to the trot. 

Wednesday - Day off.

Thursday - Lesson.  Outdoors again, and Cupid was much better.  We did Training Test 1, then worked on increasing the contact just a little.

Friday - Cupid and I walked around the property, and popped into the outdoor arena for about 15 minutes.  We trotted some cloverleaf patterns to practice our centerline turns, and trotted some 20 meter circles.  Then we continued walking around, just about half an hour total.  Then I gave him a bath (the weather was great, about 70!), and cleaned my tack.  It's going to be an early morning so I tried to get as much done today as I can - put all my tack in the trailer, filled the hay net in the trailer, and standing wrapped Cupid's legs.  I also separated his mane into sections for braiding tomorrow.  I don't know how much time that saves.  Any other show prep hacks I could use?

Bath time - not Cupid's favorite

Treats please