Well I went and picked up Ritchie. He's just lovely after the work Selena's put on him. Just like I'd hoped, he is more confident, respectful and makes good choices. It was a whole-day's travel to get down to pick him up, delivering horses on my way. Buck's out at Maple Leaf Meadows now trying out their lesson program, and apparently doing well with it!
I picked up a beautiful little Standardbred mare "Angel" and took her south of Calgary. Now "Sienna" has settled into her new home and everyone is in love with her. I got to meet some fantastic people out there too!
I ended up in Carmangay about 6 in the evening, I'd left home before 7 am. It's such a lovely little town, about 2 hours south of Calgary. I travelled through Vulcan on my way so, because the horse trailer was empty, and I was sure the tourist station wouldn't be open on Sunday, I stopped in, picked up some Roctijino and Tea - Earl Grey - Hot - Make it so for my husband, a Vulcan, AB pin for my Dad and a pair of Spock ears for my daughter. It's geek mecca there.
I had a lovely visit with Selena! I enjoy her so much, just wish we weren't a whole province apart (and not the short side either!) She lives in a beautiful coolee where the Little Bow River winds around. We got to sit beside it and watched a muskrat and a beaver come to visit! We pigged out on pizza and beers and watched Twilight before bed. Wish we could do it again!!! Ritchie hauled home like a trooper, through rain and traffic. He was happy to get home, streach his legs and romp around his paddock. I put Norton in with him to help him settle for the night and both enjoyed the company.
That was the first weekend.
Last weekend saw us up north in Valley View, AB. (Check out the distance between the two on a map, that's a LOT of driving!!!) Valley View was hosting their first dressage show, an EC Bronze-rated show. Since I have some good friends up there, I thought it would be a good one for Norton and I to head to. So we loaded up the rig and off we went! This was only a 3.5 hour drive. The Ag grounds are not your typical dressage-show setup, but did the trick. My concern was the stabling. They had set up panneled pens on grass, but all the pens were connected to eachother so there were no biosecurity measures :( Norton is currently on quarantine just for caution's sake.
The judge was Marianne Middleveen of Calgary. She was just a joy to ride for. What a kind and sweet woman, not the kind of judge that makes you cry as you leave the ring. Her scoring was generous, but her comments were pertinent and positive. Very encouraging and likely a very good introduction for the many people who had never ridden in a dressage show. Saturday we rode First level test 1 and Training level test 2. After a less than exciting warm up on Friday evening, our First-level test was wonderful. I was so pleased with it, even with the couple of baby bobbles we had. He ended up with a 65% and a 4th place ribbon. Our afternoon test we ended up riding an hour early, with 20 minutes to tack up and change. I was less pleased with that ride, but I'll take it as it's all part of the experience of a young horse. In the Training test 2 test, we scored another 65% and another 4th place ribbon.
The show comittee bought pizza for all the exhibitors Saturday evening and Norton and I were asked to do a trick-horse demo. Course we were glad to! After running through the tricks and explaining the purpose of doing them, I invited everyone to come and see Norton. Marianne (the judge) came to see him and shared with me how his personaity was very similar to that of her newly-retired FEI horse! She felt he has the personality to really be successful in dressage <3 Huge kudos there!
Sunday morning we rode First level test 2, a test I'd had a bugger of a time trying to memorize Saturday night, but learned it in 5 minutes Sunday morning. I felt so good about this test and the score sheet reflected it - 71%! I saw an 8 on that score sheet! I'd never seen an 8 on my own score sheet before!! The last test we rode was Training test 1. After the morning's test, it was a walk in the park, almost litereally!! The highest score I'd ever received in my own history of dressage was that test, 71.2%! That landed us another 4th place for First level and a 3rd place for Training! The placings were so close in most of the tests, 2nd, 3rd and 4th were within 1 full percentage! Norton was the youngest horse to ride first level, and boy was I proud of him!
All in all a busy but wonderful couple of weekends. Had a lot of fun but glad to be having a quiet one to look forward to.
