| Gold Coast Opener |
January 25, 2006 -
It was an incredible weekend. Many fabulous horses and riders. Lovely weather (hot but no rain). We've been pushing d'Artagnan to a new level of activity and self carriage. He was much more grown up this year. Remember last year we debuted at First Level at this show. Still got "puffed up" in the arena, but alot less distracted with the blowing tents and trees. Perhaps going to the Mounted Police Clinic helped!
We showed Third level Test 1 on Friday. Had an error. I remembered the serpentine with flying changes of the center line. The judge blew the whistle and said "Lovely flying change, but it should have been a simple change". We would have placed second, but with the error finished third with a 68%. Jeanne McDonald comments: "Work on more relaxation"
We showed Third level Test 2 on Saturday. No errors. Judge, Joan Humphrey commented "Conservative - ask for some brilliance" Go figure! Placed third with a 66%
On Sunday, we tried the Fourth level test 1 for the first time. d'Artagnan was a bit tired, but he tried his hardest in the test (and so did I). We placed third with a 64%. So we came home with 3 big beautiful yellow ribbons and lots of work to do to get more self carriage, brilliance and relaxation.
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| Wellington |
Febuary 02, 2006 -
What an experience this has been.... so far. How I've been looking forward to showing d'Artagnan in Wellington. Last year I did not. Mostly out of fear. Wellington is the most "electric" show I've ever been to. Somewhat out of consideration for d'Artagnan's confidence level. I don't know how many thousand horses there are on the showgrounds now. Many. Four wheelers roar by you, assuming your horse is accustomed to them. Mopeds, tractors, water trucks (spewing water), front end loaders. Nobody slows down. If your horse freaks out - tough. Not to mention that next to the dressage arenas are jumpers jumping anything up to six feet. Fences flying. Horses flying out of control. You get the picture.
d'Artagnan was (somewhat) ready for it. I talked to him alot. The warmup threw him for a loop. He was so amazed to see horses jumping over rails. It totally intrigued him. He kept wanting to watch them jump. I had different priorities. After I (finally) got his attention, he was nicely "up". I tried to combine the brilliance he was offering with some relaxation. As our time in the competition arena approached, I tried to build on the brilliance. As we did our loop around the arena, waiting for the judge to blow the whistle, I backed off a bit. Hoping this strategy would allow for some of the relaxation the judges seem to like, but retain some of his brilliance that get the "big scores". The test was a blast. Only at one point ... the extended canter .... I thought to myself "This is mighty forward, but I have little chance of getting him back at the end of the long side". It's called "lean back and pull". Other than that, d'Artagnan was a star. He won the "large" class with a 67%. Was awarded a long blue ribbon and a duffle bag that brags "Wellington Dressage 2006". I'm so proud of him!
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| Wellington |
Febuary 04, 2006 -
So Thursday we won the Third level one class. In good company I noticed later on. But now we have the Fourth level one class to face. We had ridden it once (three weeks ago at the Gold Coast Opener). Now I wanted to repeat our performance from the previous day. Friday was about 10 degrees hotter and steamy. By now, d'Artagnan was a veteran of Wellington. No four wheelers or water trucks were fazing him. He walked the mile from the stabling to the warm up arena on loose rein. He knew he was a star. Since I the warm up from the day before had worked so well, I decided to repeat it. He blazed into the arena with his head high, and well in front of my leg. I honestly think he enjoyed himself. I know I was having a blast. No mistakes. We came to our final salute. The judge stood up, smiled and said "That was a lovely test. I enjoyed judging it". WOW! Needless to say, I was on cloud nine. Then I got my score ..... 73% and first place. That bumped me up to cloud 10. What a day! !
Febuary 05, 2006 -
News from Wellington! We were Fourth Level High Score Champions and Third Level Reserve Champions. In addition to big beautiful ribbons, we earned $500 in prize money. Wahoo!
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| Schooling Day |
Febuary 19, 2006 -
Donna Christopher shot this picture of us schooling.
Tomorrow, both Jessica and Cathy give me a lesson together ..... heaven on earth!!
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| Working Together |
Febuary 25, 2006 -
I had three days in heaven this week. I had Jessica Ransehousen and Cathy Morelli working together to help d'Artagnan and I prepare for our first Prix St. George's next Friday.
Day one: Jessica and Cathy agreed that it would be good for her to pretty much watch Cathy and I work together to get a handle on what we were working on. She had some suggestions, but mostly observed. She liked how much more dynamic d'Artagnan was but wanted to "tweak" some things the next day.
Day two: Cathy helped me warm up in our usual fashion, and then Jessica stepped in to begin helping with the PSG movements. She wanted more extended trot - from letter to letter. Steadier angle in the shoulder in. Little more bend in the half pass. Really liked the halt/rein back. We had trouble getting into the right shoulder in after the rein back though, so she helped us work through that. We spent alot of time working on the walk pirouettes. The approach into our canter half pirouettes also needed help to set d'Artagnan up more successfully. We worked on our four time tempi changes. Trying to make them more uphill with less swing. By then, d'Artagnan was tired so we agreed to begin with changes the next day.
Day three: Cathy and Jess warmed us up together today. After warm up we began working on the tempi changes. Then we ran through the whole test, but did redo's when necessary. Jessica called out scores and comments. Lots of 7's. A couple of 8's. One 9. A few 6's. Very educational and a great confidence builder. Now I've got less than a week to work on making the 6's into 7's. What a great experience!
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| Palm Beach Dressage Derby |
March 9, 2006 -
Friday, 8:18 am: I couldn't help reflecting that at this very same show, only one year ago, d'Artagnan was making his debut at First level, and here we were making our debut at Prix St. George's. It was almost as if he knew he was making his international debut when he saw the three judges surrounding the arena. He was a bit tense....which translated into getting strong into the bridle.....but he stayed with me. We had an almost flawless test, but it lacked brilliance. That was OK with me, since my goal was to just get through the test this time ... without forgetting the test....and without making any huge mistakes. We achieved our goal, and placed 8th (out of 17) with a 61.5%
Since we were not showing again until Sunday afternoon, I decided to take him home so that he could be turned out and have a relaxing day on Saturday.
Sunday, 3 PM: Now that we had our first Prix St. George's under our belt (saddle) I thought it was time to go for a bit more pizzazz. I was able to get him a bit more through in the warm-up, so we went for it more in the competition arena. We had a spook on one of our eight meter trot circles, one mistake in our four-time tempi changes, and one of our walk pirouettes was a bit shaky. Except for that it was a fairly good (better) test. We were awarded a 63.75% and third place. Don't you love his ears?????
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| Dressage at Equestrian Estates |
April 1, 2006 -
Here we are at our final show in Florida, Dressage at Equestrian Estates. My class reads like the who's who of the dressage world. Cesar Parra on Wild Dance. Patrick Burssens on Dark Secret. I have the inside word that both these stallions were purchased for over a million dollars. Ashley Holzer on Maxamillian. We are warming up with all these fabulous horses. Showing in front of an "O" judge (Elizabeth McMullin from Canada). d'Artagnan must be starting to look like an FEI horse since he placed 2nd with a 66.250%. Don't you love the engagement of his hindquarters? Isn't he a HUNK!
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| Lynn and d'Artagnan are happy with a job well done in of Florida 2006 |
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