Today's GP with Victor and Bolero Third level

I started the morning off early today with Bolero's test at 8:08am.  It was actually a little chilly this morning, surprisingly, so I made sure to get on a little early to make sure he was settled.  He was actually really quite good in the warm-up and his test, and there were many highlights.  Unfortunately he was grinding his teeth some which affected our marks, plus he threw in an unscripted flying change after his very good flying change and so got dinged there as well.  He ended up with a 68.333, which was a very good score considering the problems, and won a class of 5 horses.  I was very pleased with him and especially pleased with how much more uphill and active he looked on the video.

I rode Victor a little in the morning and he was really, really good, much better than he's been. I played a little with the piaffe, seeing if I could put it more on the spot, and then worked a little on my ones which were an issue last weekend.  I was a little worried about the weather, as it was pretty warm today and my GP was scheduled for 3:14 in the afternoon.  It probably made 90 today although thankfully we had a pretty strong breeze which made it feel a little cooler. 

He warmed up well for his test and had good energy despite the heat.  I had a couple little mistakes again and some straightness issues (with the haunches wanting to drift left at times) but I was happy to have another active and energetic test despite the heat.  I was also happy to get my ones after they were such an issue last weekend.  The judging was pretty tough today and we finished with a little over 64%.  I wasn't thrilled with my score but I was very happy with the improvements from the last show.  Tomorrow he gets a light day then we do the freestyle on Saturday.  Bolero has a Third level 3 test tomorrow afternoon just before 4 so he gets to go in the heat!