Almost time!

Just watching the beginning of the CDI I1 class and waiting for Esmee to go at noon. It is another beautiful day, but it is a bit breezy.

Some of the horses here are absolutely gorgeous and they have definitely have some very good quality horses. The PSG and I1 class in the CDI has 35 riders! And the Grand Prix class has almost 20 riders. Quite the large CDI classes. They do like their horses quite big here though it seems! Some gigantic horses. We also noticed that there are way more male dressage riders here. Interesting to note the differences.

Lucy, the rider representing Ireland had a good go today and managed to make her horse get a couple clean right to left changes - he has been giving her a number of troubles but holy crap can Lucy ride! She did an amazng job and got everything out of her horse that I think was possible. She is a great rider and a very fun person to be stabled beside! Now I really want to go to Ireland and visit her!

Ana and I had a ride again this morning to try and get some of the I1 stuff figured. Ana seems to know the two tempis too well so I really need to make sure I control the straightness and make her wait when I first turn onto the diagonal. She is also so quick in the rein back so I need to be especially careful and gentle with the aid for that. My biggest concern is that we are going to have to be very strategic in getting a compromise of forward and roundness. When she is super round she tends to fall behind the leg and it is very difficult to get her going again! On the other hand, when she is nice and forward it is very difficult to keep her over the back and round enough. Hopefully we can figure out the perfect compromise though. We are planning for a very short warm-up because I have a feeling Ana might be a bit tired and we want to make sure she has enough gas in the tank!

Wish us luck! =)




Lindsay and Ana