Working Equitation Schooling Show

Since the clinic I did some very rudimentary practice with cones and a rope gate (I was too lazy to set up much more), and mostly focused on transitions and memorizing the dressage test.  I went through it a few times in my lesson last week, and my trainer set up a short court which was very helpful since everything comes up so much quicker!  So I wouldn't say I was super prepared, but I felt good enough to go out there and have some fun with it!

The dressage test for intro is just medium walk and working trot, but also has a rein back and five meter half-circles at the walk.  The halts are also supposed to come from the trot with no walk steps, but my plan was to allow minimal walk steps to make it more smooth, though we have started practicing from the trot (thinking ahead to First Level!!) I didn't feel quite ready.  But not having to worry about whether we would get the left lead canter made it a lot less stressful! 

We had a good warm up in the covered arena.  Cupid relaxed pretty quickly, despite the birds in the rafters and the connected stalls.  After walking we trotted around, then got on a 20 meter circle with 10 meter circles both to the inside and outside both directions and finished with a little shoulder-in both on the circle and straight both directions.  We walked outside several minutes before our ride time, and Cupid tensed up, though I'm not sure why.  I got him back in the warm up and did a quick trot, thinking that might be better than trying to get him to stand. 

We entered the arena and I let him walk close by the letters with the pumpkins on them but luckily he didn't seem bothered by them.  He did however spook a little the first time we passed the judge's table at C!  They hadn't run the bell yet though so we had another pass around.

I felt quite good about our test, though of course we need to be rounder.  And my elbows are abhorrent, I cringed when I saw how straight they still are :(  I think I'm just going to have to tie them together behind my back...

Video of our test:

We had a few hours before the obstacle portion (or Ease of Handling as it's actually called in Working Equitation).  I walked Cupid around a bit, but he was pretty content standing by the trailer eating hay.  I was happy to see the same obstacles we practiced with in the clinic, though with a few additional pumpkin decorations by this point I figured wouldn't be a problem. 

A funny note from warm up: Cupid was quite unnerved by a loud leopard appaloosa!  He would tense up every time it was close to him.  It was pretty surprising, I've never seen him react like that to another horse.  He's seen pintos and more roan-type appaloosas, but he didn't seem to know what to make of dalmatian spots.  There was a mule at the show too, which he was totally fine with.  And he's seen cows and minis and donkeys in the past.  Luckily the appaloosa left and we had time to settle back down before we started.  (Though now I don't know what we'll do if we do a rail class in the future and there is a leopard appy in with us!) 

I kept it pretty conservative - down transitions a little early and loops pretty big, but was super happy with how Cupid did!!  The cup on the pole was our worst one again, as we overshot it a bit and had to step back.  We had comments to work on our geometry (not sure if that means circles/loops were uneven or just too big), and more energy at the walk for the ring spear and going through the donut-shape.  But no major mistakes. 

Video of our round:

It was a fun day, and Cupid and I ended up in third place!  I'm definitely interested in doing it again.