Oslo and I have amazing news! Saturday we had a great Intermediaire 1 test with only one mistake in the last flying change in our half-pass zig-zag. He was so much more with me and he felt so on the aids. He just felt great. We had a bigger trot as well which bumped our trot marks up. In the end we got a 67.4% which made us the Reserve Champions! Sunday we got even better! We rode the Intermediaire 1 Freestyle and Oslo came out very nervous. We were warming up right beside the show ring and he was not a fan of the other freestyle music being played. He was very tense and we did not really have a walk. Once it was our turn to go though, our music came on, and I swear, Oslo took a deep breath and relaxed. It was like he recognized his music and became so rideable. Holy crap, he felt so good!!! Our freestyle was error free and he was even more supple today (which was what we really went for since Brenda Minor commented on the need for more suppleness the previous day). We ended with a score of 70.7% which made us the Champions of the Freestyle! They played the Canadian anthem for us and then we got to lead the victory lap, at a TROT, because once again Oslo was not a fan of the music being played during the presentations and was very far from calm. Axel Steiner commented that "it was probably safer that way" (us trotting)!
Skippy had another sluggish test on Saturday, but near the end I got him more in front of the leg and I am hoping he is starting to figure out that he needs to work in the show ring as well! Sunday he was much more forward for the freestyle and he finished with a 67.9%! Even though we had some mistakes in our changes (which is SO weird for Skippy - we needed a better connection) we were happy with his forward! One step at a time!!
Cashew was such a good girl at the show as well. We just schooled her in the rings and trail rode her, but she couldn't have been better. Hopefully this means she will take on to the whole show thing really well once we actually enter her in some classes!
We are currently in the Sacramento area, staying at Michael Etherly's farm where the horses can get out in big turnouts with grass! They were so happy yesterday to get off the trailer and head straight to the pasture. They have been in the trailer, stalls, or dirt turnouts for almost 5 weeks now, so we thought they were in need of some frolicking in grass pastures! We will depart for the Flintridge show in LA first thing in the morning on Wednesday. It will be approximately a seven hour drive. Flintridge will be our last show and then Sunday afternoon or Monday morning, we will be homeward bound.
Hopefully the horses get some much needed R&R time in their pastures here and are all ready for the show in Flintridge on the weekend.
We all say hi to everyone back home!
Linds
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