Dressage at Equestrian Estates

(Photo: Fizzy and my working student, Michelle ready to go!)

The last time Fizzy and I competed in the Dressage at Equestrian Estates show was five years ago and it was our first show together. We've come a long way since then, but as fate would have it, we got to show for one of the same judge this year, in the Grand Prix, as we rode for in 2004 at 3rd level.

I schooled Fizzy at the show on Friday and he was fantastic. Michael has given me a phenomenal amount of help in the last few months making little adjustments here and there, and making me ask for better and better self carriage. Our warm-up on Saturday was super, Fizzy felt really good and schooled everything very well. As we trotted around the main arena I had to smile- for many reasons, but most of all because a year ago I remember trotting around the ring being terrified at what he was going to do (or more likely not do, like the piaffe!) in the arena. We had a nice entry, straight trot off, and then... well, let's just say the saying, "that's horses" came very much in handy!

For those of you who don't know Fizzy- he is a very bold guy. He is never spooky, and is always my favorite to trail ride or jump, or walk through a stream... you get the picture. I can count the number of times he's ever spooked with me. As we turned left after our first centerline, I heard a noise start behind me, coming from the loud speaker... It was a combination of spanish music and the worst crackling noise I've ever heard come from a speaker. The best way I can describe it is that it sounded like a tent flapping in perfect rhythm. And poor Fizzy was terrified. Our first extended trot, needless to say, didn't happen, as he bolted across the arena with me. Our first trot half pass (which unfortunately has a coefficient of x2) also didn't really happen as he was still spooking and leaping about. I was just laughing through the whole thing and patting him, telling him he was going to be OK. I finally thought I had him back a little after the second trot half-pass, but unfortunately we had another explosion when the loud speaker was directly behind us as we started our second extended trot. Finally they turned the speaker off, and Fizzy started to settle.

I got him back in time to make a nice passage and then we proceeded to do one of the nicest piaffes we've ever done in our life. It got an "8" from all three judges. The rest of the test was uneventful, with highlights in the piaffe and passage work, as well as a super left canter pirouette. I can't even begin to explain how proud I am that Fizzy came "back" for me after being truly terrified. That means so much to me as his rider. At the end of our test he just stared at the loud speaker in disbelief, waiting for it to make the awful noise again!

Although the first third of our test would have scored about a 45%, the last two thirds came out to be well over 70%. We finished with a 62% overall, scoring 63% from two judges and 60% from the other. We had the nicest comments, and all the judges mentioned something in the comments about what a bummer it was that we had our meltdown in the beginning. Did I mention out of nine scores for the piaffe six of the nine piaffe scores were an "8"?

Today Fizzy warmed up even better than yesterday, although he did keep an eye on the speaker as we walked over to our ring! He was super in the test today, scoring again 8s for the piaffe, in addition to his extended walk, the canter pirouettes, and a bunch of other movements. My favorite moment was when we were on the last centerline, a place that he used to HATE, and we were sitting at X, piaffing. I usually don't hear anything when I'm showing because I'm so much in the "zone" but today was just so fun, and I couldn't help but hear the breeze in the trees and the birds by the canal... I just had this incredible feeling of serenity and happiness all at once- like were were exactly where we were supposed to be. We finished with a 72% and won the class. What a good boy!