Turn Right! How I wish I had thought of that just before the test began.
We left the warm-up arena, and proceeded to walk around the outside of the show arena. Walked down the long side, behind the judge's booth, and OH! What's that?! It's a water squirting monster in the pond! Oh My! Ransom looked solid at the fountain, but dismissed it for the most part.
Judge rang the bell as we were heading down long side. So I picked up a trot, turned the corner, and headed directly down centerline into the arena. Quickly I realized this footing was coarse sand, with what looked like some larger sharp rocks. Yuck! I could hear Ransom's hooves hitting, sounded almost like stomping.
Halt. Salute.
Proceed working trot rising
I turned left.
Darn it!
As I turned for the diagonal, something didn't seem right, but I kept going.
RING! Judge hits the bell, and says to me, "halt. We're confused. You're riding Test II, right?"
"Yeah."
"You were supposed to start out turning right."
"oops."
"Do you even know the test?"
"Yes Ma'am. Sorry about that."
"Well it's only two points. Go on and start again."
I got back on track, a bit frustrated with myself. Oh well, figuring I had this chance to make a cheerful impression dispite screwing up. It wasn't even nerves that caused the blunder. A complete lack of thought for me.. Ransom happily did his job the rest of the test. He felt a little slow, but still fabulous. One "look" back at the fountain, and he again realized it was no big deal. A good ride.
Score? 60.47 Lots of comments that we were tense, and not enough energy. A remark that the reins weren't long enough for free walk, but mostly comments about being "tense".
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