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I
arrived at Carlton Farm and the first
thing I saw was Cheryl with a big smile
on her face. What a great start for the
show. It was a beautiful day after the
heavy rains in Williamsburg on Saturday.
The warm up arena and one of the normal
show arenas were very muddy with lots of
puddles, so they decided to use the
indoor arena. |
Jody Swartz riding Apollo |
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Cheryl and I had no idea how Apollo and
Tjerk would react in this dark arena and
were not even sure if our horses would
enter the arena because of the very tall
bushes on both sides of the entrance.
Those bushes made it look like you were
entering a tunnel of darkness!
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Well, to our surprise, Apollo and Tjerk
entered with no hesitation at all and
seemed very calm, just looking around.
The judge was very kind to allow us to
walk and trot around the arena to get
the horses used to the dim lighting.
The arena was not big enough to enter
from outside the arena so you had to
enter at "A" within the inside of the
arena. This made it a little harder to
hit center line but thanks to Catherine
drilling into me "do not pull that
inside rain and more outside leg" we did
it! Apollo was very relaxed and I was
very happy with his test. I felt we had
made the 62% to qualify for the BLMs at
Training Level 3 but we only got a 60%.
I
then took a scratch and rode Training
Level Test 4 and Apollo was very good. I
made several mistakes on transitions
down from canter to trot and I also
pushed him a little too hard on the trot
loop so he broke into a canter for
several strides. We got a 60% on this
ride as well. Over all I was very happy
with how Apollo handled the indoor arena
and one of these days I will get rid of
that one nasty "5" mark in all my tests.
I need to work harder on my seat and
legs to get Apollo more on the vertical
and forward without rushing. It was a
very fun day and with luck, maybe at my
next recognized show I will get my 62%.
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Now, Cheryl is a different story!
Cheryl
and Tjerk were magnificent!
She had
Tjerk very forward and their transitions
were on the marks. Cheryl's scores were
69.231
at
Training Level 4 and
67.500
at
Training Level 3. Both earned her second
place!
Cheryl had one mistake on one of the
tests and got a "4" on that transition
and still came out with a
great score! Can you
believe that? That shows how high a
score you can make if you only screw up
one or two transitions and the rest of
the test are 7s & 8s.
That taught me
that you should never fret over a
mistake but try to make the next
transition the best you can.
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Click to see larger image. |
Cheryl said she was able to get Tjerk's
back round in the warmup-puddle arena by
letting him stretch down and check out
the puddles. Now why didn't I try that?
She came in 2nd at both Training Level 3
and Training Level 4, Reserve Champion
at Training Level, Champion Amateur
at Training Level and Amateur Adult
Champion. Now that is the best
way to finish up a show! Cheryl is a
very serious and dedicated rider. I hope
some day to get as good as she is now,
so I can hit the 68% at training level.
It was a very fun day to spend with
great friends and it was so nice not to
ride in the rain and cold.
I
would also like to thank Molly
Armentrout for calling the tests out to
Cheryl and me, and Bill Hartenstein for
shooting the video and both for being my
grooms. Without their support it would
not have been a relaxing show.
Stay tuned for next month's recognized
show to see if I will get that 62% I'm
working for and if Cheryl will get over
the 70% mark. |
