Day 2 In Murrieta

I had two rides on Friday with one once again in the early morning (8:30am) and one in the afternoon (3:30pm).

We took the same approach with an early morning lunge before getting on him. While longing him, I could see in front of me a horse that was more relaxed and willing to work with me.

For the first test we rode Third Level Test 1. In the warm up, I was beginning to get more from the horse, but still knew a complete package with Meyer couldn't happen in that ride. Because of that I got a little tight in the test and we did not ride as fluid as we could. I knew a lot of the nervousness was from not riding for such as long time and being on horse I was not familiar with. We rode a respectable test with a couple of errors that did cost us. We scored 58.7% and finished 2nd (1% out of 1st).

It was nice to have a few hours to recuperate. In the 6 hours between the rides, I hand walked Meyer a few times, and helped school a few of Amanda's students. It was a lot of fun to coach riders again.

Originally, we had only entered classes for Thursday and Friday. This next ride could possibly be my last ride on Meyer and I wasn't going to waste this with nervousness or apprehension. We got back on about 45 minutes before the beginning of the test to warm up. From the moment we began trotting I knew this was going to be a strong ride. I knew my feel was getting back and the horse was responding to what I was asking for. We had a couple of moments in the warm up where Meyer didn't want to do what I was asking for. Previously, if we had one of these "discussions" then I would be dealing with a horse that may rear or buck. I could feel Meyer beginning to trust me more and more; this time he worked through the correction obediently and confidently. Amanda was giving us an eye and she could see that I really wanted this ride. When I was putting on the show jacket she said I was showing the confident "look" again that she used to know from me.

We rode Second Level Test 4. Riding around the ring before being rung in, I knew this was going to be the ride I wanted. Meyer was with me and I wasn't going to let myself ruin it.

In this test there are 3 simple changes (canter to walk to canter) transitions. In previous days we had some difficulties with these. In the test we nailed all of them scoring two 7's and one 8. The test was going flawlessly until the last movement, a medium canter (longer stride) down the long side. I didn't set him up well and it went horribly with Meyer flinging his head into the air. We recovered for the final halt and salute (scored 8's on both halt/salutes).

I left the arena feel very happy with the ride, but slightly frustrated with the error. Nevertheless there was a big smile beaming from my face. About 10 or so people were watching from the barn and all we're going ballistic because I was able to put together a solid ride on the horse. It felt very good to have that ride and it felt great to be on horses once again.

We scored a 65.8% and 3rd place. Without the blow up, I would have finished 2nd.