Osierlea - From a New PR to Humble Pie

Cupid and I had qualified for RAAC - our regional adult amateur championship.  However after our last show my confidence was pretty shot and I felt like it wasn't worth going just to be so far behind everyone else.  Even though I had been looking forward to it and it was a goal for the year.  There was another show the same weekend, and I tried to justify going to that one instead because it's closer, cheaper, a place we've been before, and I figured would be less hot and less likely to have bad air quality.  Well it was still hot, but 90 degrees instead of 100 at the RAAC show.  And then the second day, when the actual RAAC classes were held, apparently the AQI was 150+ so from the perspective we made the right choice.

With the heat I decided not to lunge beforehand.  But I still got to the warm up ring way to early, especially after I found out there was a 15-20 minute delay.  The covered arena was being groomed, but as soon as it was ready we went over there for some shade.  Cupid was definitely on the lethargic side so I tried some transitions to sharpen him up, though I feel like our workout could have been a lot better planned.  It was kind of spurts of work followed by several minutes of walking/ambling due to the heat.

We rode Training 1 and 2.  We only had about 15 minutes in between tests, so we grabbed some water but didn't get to see the first test sheet or scores before our second round. They felt okay to me, but I thought maybe a bit more like a pleasant hunter under saddle style then dressage.  Plus we had a rare off course in Training 2, which considering how many times I've ridden the test shouldn't have happened but I think the heat melted my brain a bit! Scores from the morning varied from mid 40s to low 70s, so I figured this judge was not overly generous but rewarded when appropriate.  But I guess they looked better then they felt as we got a new personal record of 66.7% for our first test!  And 63.9 for the second (if only we didn't have that darn penalty!)  Not only that, but we got our first ever 9!!!  On reviewing the video I think that was rather generous since the hind legs weren't square, but I'll take it.  I was a bit overwhelmed and had literal tears when I saw my test sheets, feeling like our hard work the past few months has paid off.

It's been a while since we've stayed at a show overnight.  Well, Cupid did, as I drove the ~1.5 hours home to have dinner with my family.  I know a lot of people like to go to the showground a day before to settle in, but I've always felt like for whatever reason we've always struggled a bit on a second day.   Cupid had a large 16x24 stall and seemed quite content.  Our classes the second day weren't until the afternoon, so I spent the morning taking him for walks, letting him roll in the lunging area, grooming, and braiding.  It was hot again, though a bit cooler then the first day.  We were lucky though because a bit of smoke came through in the morning, but it cleared up.

I didn't want to start warming up too early again and got on about half an hour before our first ride time.  When I got to the warm up the steward told me they were about 15 minutes behind again so we were kind of just ambling around taking our time.  The steward confirmed the delay a few minutes later.  We just started putting it together when someone else came to the ring and said no, everything is on time and the rider before me just finished so I need to get there immediately and as I was approaching the ring someone said they already rang the bell so hurry straight in without circling.  I tried not to feel flustered and tried to recapture the magic of the previous day, but I knew it wasn't coming together as easily or well.  The day 2 curse struck again, and we were (deservedly) in the high 50s for both tests, with the same judge.  I don't know if it's fatigue or what because Cupid doesn't seem upset being there, he is very relaxed in the stall and eats and drinks well.  So I guess we have to either do it more often and get used to it, or not at all. 

In the end I'm happy with my decision to skip RAAC.  I kind of regret my decision to show 2 days because the first day ended on such a high.  But progress is not always linear, and we are lucky we get to do what we do so I'll try not to complain too much =)