Gia - sessions 746 + 747 - War Horse schooling and show

 I took Gia to the War Horse event at the Carolina Horse Park this weekend.  On Saturday, we schooled stadium and cross country, after she warmed up a little on the lunge line.  She was a bit distracted, but quiet on the lunge.  In stadium warm up, she trotted off very quietly and confidently, and then trotted over the warm up jumps just fine.  On course, she was a bit slower than usual - more trotting than cantering, but there was no bucking, and she did all the jumps just fine.  We schooled all the Green as Grass cross country jumps, as well as some of the Starter jumps, and even a few Beginner Novice jumps.  She stopped at a few of the jumps, but made it over on the second try, sometimes with a little help from Ali.  She did canter through the water though!

On Sunday, after another quiet lunge session, we warmed up for dressage.  She was fairly quiet again.  Not really looking around, and more looking to me as to what she should do.  However, about halfway through our dressage warm up, a huge storm came through.  We got poured on, and the show was paused for about an hour and a half.  Once the show resumed, we went back to our warm up.  She still felt fairly good, so I tried a little bit of canter.  She was tense, and hesitant to go forward, but we worked through it, with only a small buck or two.  It started raining again as we started our dressage test, but it was fairly uneventful, and we scored a 34.7%.

She warmed up well for stadium, no bucking.  On course, she was trotting more than cantering, and was a little discombobulated with her legs and tempo.  She did pull one rail, but went clear for time.  In the final phase, cross country, she warmed up quietly, and started the course quietly as well, trotting the first jump.  After that, she picked up a nice canter, and cruised around the course.  She did not really give me any problems or stops or bucks!  We ended up finishing our weekend in third place overall!

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