Gia - session 956 and 957 - War Horse schooling and show

 I took Gia to the War Horse schooling and show this weekend at the Carolina Horse Park.  When I got on Saturday morning, she started out quite tense - wanting to go up in the front, and up in the back as well, but not really wanting to go forward.  I finally did get her forward, eventually, and slowly, and we made it to the stadium warm up.  After warming up with some trot, and over a few jumps, we schooled the stadium course.  She was a bit nervous, but did OK otherwise.  So, on to cross country schooling.  She felt fairly the same on cross country - a little nervous, but at least by that time, she was moving forward.  She was a bit nervous about a couple of the jumps, and some of the soggy ground.  We "discussed" it, and then she was able to get over/through it.  She felt a lot more confident by the end.

On Sunday, she felt fine when I got on for dressage.  I warmed her up in the grass, near the barns, first, where she could stay calmer.  She was fairly responsive and relaxed.  After walk trot transitions, changes of direction, leg yields, haunches-in, and even a little bit of canter, we moved up into the warm up ring.  She still felt good there, until we worked on the canter.  I was only able to get small spurts of canter, without bucking.  Finally, we had to go in.  The test was not great.  Her trot and walk work felt fine, but the canter work was too tense.  We scored 36.7%.  

When I got on her later for stadium warm up, she felt a little volatile again.  Not as bad as the day before, but she still didn't want to go forward, and I had to work my way up to the warm up area very slowly.  Once up there, she was great!  We warmed up with no problems, and probably had the best jump round ever!  She was very obedient and very rideable - very adjustable!  We went double clear!

On to cross country - We took one warm up jump, and went right to the start box, where she, surprisingly, stood very calmly and quietly until it was time to go.  Then we had what was probably our best cross country ride to date!  Once again, she was very obedient, adjustable, and every single jump came up just as it should!  We went double clear there as well!

We ended up in fourth place, but on a very high note!