Show Photos

These are the photos I purchased from the show photographer. She did a great job and I hope the club can use her in the future.

Dressage Phase 

 His eye has always been the truest indicator of who he is.

J recognized it the first moment they met.

He is so much more comfortable with contact then he was six months ago.

I can see the changes in his musculature; his neck, shoulder and withers are ripped.

This was our first halt, which was judged as not square. I don't know if he will ever stop resting that left hind whenever he can. I truly believe it stems from his patella injury as a colt.

We need to work on me relaxing.

 And our turns to the right.

 As contrasted by our turns to the left.

He gets a bit of rein to cue the canter, because we do not need head flailing and thrashing in our dressage test

 Left lead canter first.

 Canter circle

 Canter depart to the left

 The beginning of the canter serpentine loop

Final salute. Whoooo.

Ease of Handling Phase

 See the bright, sparkly silver thing? Eats horses.

 Doing the pen with the garrocha.

Doing the figure 8 with the garrocha.

 I am holding the garrocha a bit low here. The tip should be between the horse's shoulder and his nose, or it can be carried upright behind the rider's leg. I can see an application for holding it upright (like a jump or bridge with the garrocha) and will have to play with it to see what is the most effective.

 Depositing the garrocha.

Need to remember to lift, not pull, in order to turn.

 Again with the right turn.

 Around the drums

 Not square at the pitcher.

 Switch a cup, when I was trying to figure out what I was going to do.

 Moving to the right is more difficult

Final gate

Speed Round

 He knows we are back in for the speed round.

Waiting for the judge to ring the bell

Our first gate

 He's so focused on where I want him to go.

 Have the garrocha

 Trotting the pen, on our way to the bull.

 Figure 8 at the canter with the freaking pole

 And the left circle. He did such a great job of picking up the canter whenever he could.

 About to drop off the pole and then make a sharp left turn.

The first time he popped quick enough I lost both stirrups.

 About to make our first left turn.

He cantered all of the left turns, but we had to trot the right. 

We will figure it out though.

 Coming out of the single slalom, needing to make a sharp left turn to the Switch a Cup corridor.

 The second time he about lost me. He just turns so darn quick sometimes.

You can see I lost my stirrup.

Next time I will shorten them a notch and see if it helps.

Galloping to the sidepass poles

 He's so good about slowing down and sidepassing without getting anxious.

 Except I turned him off of the pole a stride to soon and we tipped it over.

 Last obstacle, which he rocked.

Racing back through the start/finish line. 

Doesn't he look like a race horse here?

Receiving the awards