Well as it was the final show of the season at our yard I decided to throw caution to the wind and do Prelim 12!! Amy said she would come and video us so I was really excited! But when I got my time, the class was so huge that we were not riding until 2.24pm which meant Amy couldnt make it :-( But luckily one of the girls at the yard videod my test for me which was so nice of her :-)
Well Antsje warmed up so beautifully and felt so relaxed but responsive I was really excited about doing the test lol!! As soon as we got in the arena though we lost that relaxation as Antsje was a bit 'gawky' especially at the camera man, and I got a bit of the nerves kicking in too!!
But despite this Antsje did listen to me and I tried hard not to fiddle and nag and trust her to relax into my hand - which she did at times :-) Canter was still a bit gung ho!! In these situations we are BOTH still a bit anxious of it and preparation and relaxation goes out of the window lol! In fact I think I suprised her with the right canter transition and she took off disunited! I suppose I should have stopped and restarted but I wasnt sure if this would upset her even more!
I was a bit dissapointed that we didnt go as well as in the warm up and felt the test was a bit lumpy in places - but I was mindful we hadnt done a test since June so in retrospect it wasnt awful as she had done everything I had asked :-)
When I went to find my test sheet I couldnt see my name anywhere! I looked through the pile twice, and then just happened to glance at the sheets with the rossettes attached and lo and behold they we were!!! in 5th place!! I couldnt bloody believe it hahahaha!!! we got 66% and some very nice comments. So although when looking at the video I can see lots of things to work on, I am absoloutely thrilled to have eneded the year on such a good note :-)
She has gone a bit fussy in the mouth again this last week or so, so she is having a visit by the dentist today. Im hoping all will go well and there wont be too much of an issue other than routine stuff ;-)
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