All in all it was a good first day. Always could have been better, but I also need to remember that it could always be worse too! Oslo was semi normal and we only had a few moments of tension in our test. He had a much better trot than he usually has in the show ring, so even with him breaking in the first medium and an error in our four tempis, we managed a 66.3% in the PSG which put us 3rd in the class (first place was a 67%). I was quite happy with him, especially since I was very nervous, knowing what happened in Del Mar. He still needs a better work ethic at times and to focus more, but we are on the right track!
Skippy was on the lazy side again today, but he still managed to win his PSG class! Our goal is to get him way more in front of the leg today and I need to make sure he stays that way in the show ring. I think sometimes we under estimate Skippy's intelligence since he definitely knows when he goes in the show ring!
Cashew has been a super star and I have had some great rides on her while at the show. She did have a traumatic experience though today when she was in the warm-up ring and a horse took off with the lounge line dragging behind it. This absolutely terrified her! She was snorting and trotting around with her tail up in the air. She needed a few minutes to relax and calm down, but afterwards we had a fantastic ride.
Unfortunately, the show had many scratches do the EHV virus outbreak and we are a little worried about the show next weekend potentially being cancelled. We have contacted the show organizers and it is still a go, but the show is being held at a private facility, so if that facility decides to close, the show would have to be cancelled. We are taking extra precautions in the barn areas at the show and following biosecurity practices. All the vets we have been in contact with though are not overly concerned and feel the virus has been limited to cutting horses or horses that have been in contact with the cutting horses that were at the show in Utah, where the original outbreak started. We just have to hope it stays that way!
Funny lesson learned: Don't buy gas with your credit card and then go down the street and try to take out a bunch of cash from the bank in the United States. Apparently this is normal behaviour for criminals who steal credit cards and this will result in your credit card being blocked!
We got to sneak away on Thursday for a couple of hours and visited the Golden Gate Bridge. It was definitely a pretty neat site and amazing engineering for being built in 1937! It was super windy though and by the time we walked half-way across mom and I were frozen since it is very exposed out there! Apparently the wind is always blowing in that area. Also, the traffic here is insane. Six lanes on the interstates and they always seem busy. It is rush hour every hour! I cannot believe how many people live here!
Today is the Intermediaire 1 test for Oslo and Skippy. I already stretched Oslo out this morning since we figured he needed to get out after he tried to take off while I was hand walking him. He just seems so nervous and insecure when I am hand walking him, but once I get on him he seems to relax a bit more. So hopefully we can have a really short warm-up before our test since he should be stretched and a bit more settled from this morning. We will also do a short warm-up with Skippy since he is going in the hotter part of the day and we tend to do a shorter warm-up anyways to try and conserve as much energy as possible!
Wish us luck!
Linds
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