Well, Saturday turned out great, even though I had some concerns. I got a first place blue ribbon (much to my surprise and satisfaction) and earned a total of 152 points (about 66%) out of 230. After my test I found myself thinking that I could have done more tests, but I think the one was stressful enough, so next year I'll probably do all the tests in one division.
My worries were pretty much not needed at all (and I knew they wouldn't be). Captain was perfect, giving me a good canter and trot the whole time, even though he was a little grumpy about getting his girth tightened. I was surprised and grateful to him that he wasn't sluggish, because I had figured he would be since so many kids had ridden him earlier that day.
There was a downside to that though. My lesson tonight was good and fun as usual, but tonight was fairly challenging after Saturday, because I think all that work Captain did for the show finally caught up to him. It was really difficult and frustrating sometimes to get him to trot fast, very hard to get him to canter, and even harder to keep him in that canter. Even his walk was really slow. But I don't blame him. He's old, and it was pretty warm out tonight. Also he spooked at something twice, so I guess his mind wasn't really focused. But I still love him all the same, of course.
So tonight my instructor had me work a lot on turning, which sounds simple, but it's really not. You can't just pull on the reins and get him to turn correctly. I mean, I guess you could, but without a proper turn from your 'center,' you won't have a good connection with your horse that will be beneficial later on. So a lot of the time I spent working on turning from my center without any reins at all - I had to drop them around Captain's neck and completely rely on my seat and legs to turn him, which could be difficult and frustrating at times. But I think I'm getting better (well, I hope I am) and I'll continue to work on that.
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