second show!

We had our second competition today - down at Bryants Farm for another riding club dressage day. Was sunny (thankfully) but still windy. Swifty drove the truck down for me, and took a few photos of the warmup and the first test we did before the camera battery ran flat.

First thing in the morning I went down and coloured Silvi's tail (just the ends that were white). She was very patient while I had her tail in a plastic bag for it, and I think it looks pretty good. I've put in an older picture of her so you can see what the tail was like, and one of her tail in a bag while ducks steal her food (poor horse).


We had a good amount of time to warm up before our first test. Not heaps and heaps, but about 20 minutes. The first test was pretty bad (just not really listening) and the second one was a bit better. They were both prelim.

Warmup photos:


Test photos (1.2):


I felt like she still had enough energy for a bit more. I'd already entered one novice level test, but decided to late enter another. Ended up having to learn the test in 4 minutes! But she was absolutely fantastic, I was really over the moon with her performance and her maturity with all of these new things I was asking of her that we hadn't schooled. Even the judge commented later that Silvi seemed to do better in the busier tests. The second novice test didn't feel as good, but was still a good effort I thought and we had a few mishaps (just things like losing balance for a few strides after changes of direction) but she recovered from them so well - I think it's a really good trait of hers that she can just get it together again so well.

As for the results...
Prelim 1.2: 54% and no placing
Prelim 1.4: 54% and no placing
Novice 2.3: 63%, 2nd place
Novice 2.5: 63%, 2nd place

Over 60% for her very first novice test, I was really proud of her. A little crazy that we got the same percentage in each test (different only so slightly in the tenths of percents) at each level. Also got to chat to the novice judge after and she gave me some good tips for things I can do at home in our schooling sessions to improve.

A very successful day I think. Though I promised Silvi I'd buy her a fancy new browband if she got 2 ribbons... so I guess it's going to be a bit more of an expensive outing than I'd planned!