Sunday 30 September 2012

Prelim 1B - or How I Got Over My Nerves

I had been so nervous about my test over the last few weeks.Mainly the canter and the fact that every time I rode the test I got all tense which made poor Als tense.

I decided to mentally turn that nervousness into excitedness. I told myself I felt that way because I couldn't wait to do the test, I would have fun, yada yada yada.

Then on the way there this morning, Natalie played this song in the car and it just got me in the perfect mood. Just as I was about to turn at A to go down the centreline I recited the lyrics "10,9,8,7,6,5,4,321 a rocket ship went off like a gun!" and we went from there!

There were a few wobbles (like a shy at god knows what right in front of the judge), but overal I was super pleased with her.

Here is the video (link here if the embeded doesn't work):



I won't bore you with my whole test sheet but Highlights included 7's for "smooth" transitions (yay!), a "fairly supple" medium walk (double yay!), a 7 for paces (as per usual) and a 7 for rider. Overall comments were "Some smooth down transitions shown, well ridden, but horse was nervous and tense today". I can work with that!

Have some photo spam:


Linda and Hoodie came too - He looked awesome!

My lovely new stock tie!




Nice neck. Pity her eyes are closed.







When she picked up the right canter I couldn't get the grin off my face for the rest of the test!

After the test. So happy!


Top grooms - Nat on the left, her friend Madi on the right.

Allie is pooped!









6 comments:

Karen said...

What a lovely pair you two are! Keep up the good work!

Ruth said...

Awesome pictures and videos. You guys look super awesome. And very pretty.

Val said...

She looks so gorgeous! So do you! :)

Congrats on achieving your goal and having a great time. I think that fooling yourself into being excited about the test is a very positive way to deal with show nerves.

Kelly said...

Great job! Your canters looked lovely! You had nothing to worry about. Such a nice square halt at the end also. Thank you for sharing the videos and pics :)

Lisa said...

Thanks everyone!

Lisa said...

Thanks Kelly - cant wait for your recap post on your show. :)