12/11/10 Schooling Show Championships

The title says it all. R, Jen, Ransom and I, dressed and loaded, headed for Houston, to the Houston Dressage Society Schooling Show Championships Saturday morning. We were qualified, and were entered in two classes.

We arrived nice and early, and got everything unpacked, Ransom settled in his stall, and even had time to fix up a few braids he undid overnight. Rested and ready, it was near time for our first event - Training Level, Test 3.

I'll add movement scores and judge comments in some time this week. For the sake of folks reading, I'll cut to the chase.

Training Level Test #3, Sue Malone-Casey, judge

67.2%

It wasn't until Sunday afternoon that this totally sunk in. A 67.2%! That was our

HIGHEST SCORE of the ENTIRE SEASON!

I found the ride a little nerve-wracking. The wind was howling in the trees to the side of the show arena, and our warmup was quite chaotic (too many horses, too small a space, plus a few wayfaring non-attentive pedestrians littering the warmup). Ransom felt a little stiff to me, and I attributed it to a less than adequate warmup. Nevertheless, when I got my test score sheet in-hand, I glowed. We didn't win first place with it, but what a delightfully awesome score!

However, that's where the delight just about ends. It will probably take me the rest of today, and maybe even tomorrow to summarize what happened in the Championship Test #4 class. I'm still stunned, confused, and maybe even a little mad.