L'Apertif Show

This past weekend we took some of the horses to the L'Apertif Dressage Show at Bridle Trails. What's nice about this show is, it is a 20 minute drive from the barn and has a very low key demeanor (think a dressed up schooling show).

This was very good as I took Falcon out for his first ever show. We had ridden in a schooling show at Bridle Trails the month prior with him to prepare for the show.

Falcon has been in my program for a little less than a year. Prior to me he had been with an abusive trainer and Falcon lost all sense of confidence and was/is very nervous. Falcon could barely walk or trot without having a massive meltdown. At that time, last June, cantering was completely out of the question. With a training program that emphasized the positive and without any rushing I have been able to bring Falcon around to being close to a "normal" horse. He still has his moments but the last two weeks of training have been absolutely solid.

The fact that I felt confident enough to take Falcon to a show is the biggest success of all. Our goal was simple, go out and have a positive day with no catastrophes.

Mission accomplished and then some. Falcon put in a very solid test (T-3) for his first ride. We inevitably had some tense moments and he sucked behind me a couple of times. Overall, it was a good picture and something even 3 or 4 months ago was almost impossible. We scored at 64.8%, winning the class.

The second ride (T-4) didn't go as smoothly. Mostly because Falcon was a little tired; more mentally than physically. He got behind my leg and then curled up on me during some sections of the test. We scored a 58.9%, but I feel that I was a little to low. After the final halt salute I felt we were more in the 60-62% range. Regardless, it doesn't matter Falcon went well.

I'm very proud of Falcon and look forward to making him into more of a dressage horse! A thank you to his owner, Alanna Danna for allowing me to show him.