winning ribbons, losing shoes

Hard to believe there are only 2 more Ashmore weekends left. Already thinking about what happens back in PA and how to get Keegan home to Blue Hill, but meanwhile, this past weekend was great. In addition to the riding, I fit in running, the Bar Method in Winter Park, group kick and yoga at RDV. The riding was great. I had a super lesson on Keegan, who seemed not to have forgotten anything in his 16 days of shoeless no riding. I also rode Finn a bit and Hilda shot more video. Someone really needs to buy this guy. Saturday, we headed off to Rocking Horse for the schooling show. The plan was to see where we are on the journey toward training level, doing the Training Level A dressage test and both the 2'11 and the 3'3 show jumping. He was quiet and attentive as we warmed up for dressage and we headed into the ring feeling pretty good about things (despite the recognition that we don't have lengthenings yet and the test calls for 3). Two moves in and the whistle blows... WTF?! I'm sure I'm doing the right test. And I was, the judge had the wrong test in front of her due to a little ride order randomness ala schooling show. So, we started over, all went reasonably well (though there were no lengthenings in either trot and the canter transition was a little logey). And then the whistle blew again. This time because I had forgotten the canter lengthening, so we picked up, got the tiniest bit of lengthening, but then no downward transition. Quite a good halt. We ended up with a 44, so not bad, but not quite ready for prime time. It did get us a little schooling show 3rd place ribbon (out of 5 horses). Onward to the jumping. He totally rocked the 2'11. We ended up winning that one. I thought there were 14 horses, but 3 were riding HC (why do you ride HC in a schooling show were there don't seem to be any rules about who can be in the division)? Anyway, it was super easy and he was super good. We watched a a bit of Annalise's dressage test, though they had a couple issues. You can see the test here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oi_xmac0MLE&context=C41ae799ADvjVQa1PpcFPV0ZAd2O70Tei2rhbzxed0YR0r0wi94O8=

I headed back over to warm up for the 3'3. Considered not warming up, but thought I would just jump one vertical and one oxer. On take off to the vertical, Keegan threw his shoe and that was the end of our day. Oh, well. Mark is coming out today to put the shoe back on. Todd is going to have fits when Keegan gets home. Despite supplement, Keratex, etc, his feet just aren't that good at this point.

Saturday night, I had dinner with Jeff, Bonnie and Annalise at Mitchell's Fish Market in Winter Park. Quite yummy. They did the key lime pie with a macademia nut crust, which might be an innovation worth adopting. Dinner was fairly late and then the time changed, so I had a later than usual start Sunday morning, waking up shortly after 7 to rain, lots of rain. It was a good chance to do a bunch of work. I headed to the barn mid-day as the rain was tapering off. Tried the Barnsby NGage on Keegan. It was a bit narrow for him and for me, the seat felt a bit too deep, although I liked where the block put my leg, so back to the drawing board on the saddle front. There are a few I am considering, pretty much all British made. I'm still waiting for the aaaaahhhhh moment I got from my Wise-Air jumping saddle to appear in conjunction with a dressage saddle. Dinner Sunday night went even later. It was at the house with Hilda and Annalise. Hilda made yummy homemade salsa with heirloom tomatoes and also did scallops and Annalise made from scratch Minestrone soup that was really good. It did make the 3:20 alarm clock seem really, really early. More like night. My rule of thumb is that before 4:30 is night, so add in the DST thing and it was pretty much the middle of the night, but got up and off to the airport. Enjoyed last nights light after 7 pm much more than this mornings dark after 7 am, but it certainly feels like spring is coming.