Friday and Saturday updates from SJC

I was so exhausted yesterday I forgot to update my blog!  I'm really not used to the heat, and it has been close to 90 here for a couple days.  Totally wiping me out!

Yesterday's CDI GP Special test was kind of a funny story.  Originally I had signed up for the Special this weekend but decided instead to do the freestyle, as I wanted to just focus on two tests rather than three.  So I emailed the show secretary a few weeks ago to change it, then she emailed me back and told me I was wait-listed anyway for the two shows.  Naturally that freaked me out--I'm not driving 17 hours to be waitlisted!!  So it became about being wait-listed and I totally forgot about which test I had signed up for.  They did put me into the first show, but I only knew last Tuesday that I got into the second show here in SJC at all! 

Anyhow for some reason I assumed the test had been changed, so I figured I was going to do the freestyle Saturday (today).  I went to bed Thursday night thinking I could sleep in as I didn't have a test until mid-afternoon with Bolero.  However I had a funny feeling overnight, and woke up at 4am Friday morning with this odd feeling that I needed to look at the ride times.  A couple people had wished me "good luck tomorrow" on Thursday, and I responded "I'm riding Saturday but thanks!", and they looked at me funny but no big deal.  The more I thought about it the more I thought I needed to make sure I wasn't, in fact, riding on Friday.  So at 4am I pulled up the ride times on the CDP website, and sure enough, there I am in the GP Special at 10:09am Friday morning.  Aaack!!  I hadn't yet ridden the Special on Victor, not even schooling at home, and I hadn't ridden the test since the last time I had a GP horse, about 15 years ago.  I am now wide awake, so I pull out my test book and proceed to re-memorize the test (which wasn't that hard, since it hasn't changed in 25 years and I've watched others ride it enough that I pretty much knew how it went).

I re-set my alarm clock for slightly earlier (it's not like I do much warm-up anyway, and braiding him takes me 20 minutes), and went back to sleep (amazingly, you'd think I wouldn't have been able to fall asleep again!).  I let Lana know when we woke up, and then we were off.  I played with the idea of trying to switch to the freestyle, but figured that would be too complicated with the show management this close to the test (CDIs are a little more complex).  I was worried about the Special because I had no idea how it would ride on Victor, and I didn't want to go out and totally blow a test in front of this tough panel, especially since the last couple shows had been going so well.  In the end I decided it would probably be ok, and if nothing else it was a good test of my nerves, which at this point were a little on-edge. 

Anyway I did my usual 15 minute warm-up, with Leslie yelling a few helpful tips (mostly make him more active, shorten your reins, bend him, etc LOL) while she was teaching someone else.  Remarkably the test went very, very well and he was really on form.  It is a very aerobic test because there is a ton of passage and extended trot and transitions between the two in the beginning.  I was a little worried about the walk to piaffe transition at G, which can be difficult on him, and the pirouettes on the center-line and one-time changes between them.  But everything worked quite well, and I had no funny rhythm breaks in my trot extensions like had happened in the GP, and the ones worked very well (in fact they were better on the center line than they are on the diagonal LOL). 

We scored 67.089 and finished fourth, with one judge had me winning with over 70%.  First place was a 68.9, so competition was tough but I was right up there with the others.  I was thrilled, and kind of surprised to pull it off as well as I did.  What a good horse!!  He was really trying out there, he's not a horse I would say has a lot of "try" (he tends to be quite lazy), but he was really on-it and seems to have a sense of occasion to which he rises.  I got some great comments from the judge/commentator and several of my competitor-friends about how great he looked and how well-ridden the test was.  I was beyond pleased!!

Bolero however decided that the speakers were going to eat him and spooked through much of his test in the afternoon.  He finished with a 64, today he was again tense and spooky although overall he was better and finished with a 66.  He scored easy 8s on his big, expressive, easy flying changes but 4s when he jumped to the inside of the arena and spooked at the flowers LOL.  The judges really like him, and he looked great on the video when he on the program.

We spent the rest of the afternoon packing for the trip tomorrow.  Tomorrow we will be driving to our overnight location Starr Vaughn Equestrian Center in Elk Grove, CA, which is pretty close to the next CDI in Rancho Murieta.  After that CDI it's back home for us and back to reality!!  At least the weather is supposed to be milder up there.  It's been surprisingly hot down here the past few days.