SUPER awesome first day here at the Mid-Winter CDI

Very, very happy with my rides today at the Mid-Winter CDI.  Majek started off the day with a very nice, if conservative, ride in the I-2 (his first I-2) to score 63%.  His piaffe still needs a ton of work but it is much improved from last year.  I scored 5.5's in the test today, much better than the 2s I was getting this time last year!  Tomorrow he will do his first GP, so it will be a big day for him!

Victor was just a rock star today in his test.  I rode him for 20 minutes or so first thing in the morning, before Majek's test, just to get him loosened up and worked through some of his stiffness issues in the pirouettes.  Then I did a 15 minute warm-up before the actual test.  I've found this strategy works really well for him, as I can get him supple and going forward but save our energy for the test.  He's a little lazy so energy management is really important for him. 

I rode the test for pretty much the maximum for where we're at.  And it worked!  He was really, really good, lots of energy, piaffe was super active and on the spot, and even the canter tour worked really well.  No major mistakes.  Even Leslie, who is super picky, couldn't find much wrong with the test outside of a little unsteadiness in the extended walk.  I think for where we're at, it's the best we could have done.

And the judges liked it!!  He finished with a 69.6, by far his best GP score to date, with 8s across the board on his piaffe and even an 8.5 from one judge.  He finished 4th in a very competitive class (Steffen Peters won, Kathleen Raine was second, Guenter Seidel was third), and we just missed 3rd by .06 percent.

It was one of those days that makes it all worth it!  When everything goes the way you'd hoped and planned.  Not often we get days like that in the horse world, so I'm enjoying it while it lasts!!