Final schooling day and FEI jog

Started the day off early with a lesson with Leslie on Victor.  She was very helpful for dealing with some stiffness and activity problems I've been having throughout the work, which becomes particularly obvious in the pirouettes.  She had me ride some leg yields in a long angle, in both trot and canter, and supple his neck quite a bit more than I usually do and keep him much more in control of the tempo (he tends to slow down when I bend him and she wanted me to speed him up).  Also especially in the left pirouette she wanted me to ride him lower in the neck and keep him quicker behind, keeping the pirouette larger for schooling.  She felt that the loss of control in the left pirouette is because he stiffens as I prepare, so approached it from that angle.  His canter especially felt much better after we worked through those issues.

We had a scary moment in the warm-up when he got his legs tangled up in a pirouette and smacked himself hard on his right front and came up 3 legged lame for a few moments.  It is always a very scary feeling when your horse is 3 legged lame, whether you're at home or at a big show!  Luckily he walked out of it fine, then we gave him a quick brake and trotted him a little just to make sure.  He was fine, thank god.  I think he must have hit his ankle bone with the opposing shoe on the front leg, which stings like hitting your shin bone on a table.  Ouch!!

Majek was much, much, MUCH better today.  Instead of acting like a wild 4 year old, he was able to impersonate a budding GP horse!  I applied a few of the ideas from my lesson with Leslie to Majek and felt that it improved his suppleness and activity behind.  I also ran through a few of the movements out of both the I-2 and the GP.  I particularly have trouble with the zig-zag in the GP and Leslie's approach really helped there.

The rest of the day was spent preparing for the jog.  Which mostly involved waiting LOL.  Victor passed the jog no problem.  We have unfortunately drawn the 3rd ride in the GP, at 1:28pm.  But I guess we get to set the tone for the rest of the class!  The heavy-hitters are later in the class (Steffen, Guenter, Kathleen, etc), because I think the times are drawn in order of World Ranking List, as this is a CDI-W (a World Cup qualifier).  In other words, if you have more experience in CDI GP you get to go later in the class.  I'm not exactly sure on the details; these CDI rules are downright overwhelming at times!  Majek will do the I-2 at 11:49, so I have plenty of time between tests.  Wish us luck!!