Life is a seirous of roadblocks…..or at least for any dressage endeavors

Getting back to my GAIG qualifying…..

Roc and I earned one score of 62+% at PSG in Lexington, VA, meaning we only had one more to go before we were successfully qualified.  I sent in my Labor of Love entry, with the Young Rider Individual and PSG (same test as Young Rider Team) being my two classes.  Roc is a bit large so more than one class a day is WAAAYYY too much for him to handle (riding these high-maintenence Warmbloods really makes you have a great appreciation for all of the deadbroke cowponies in the world, doesn’t it?), so I figured that out of two days, we were sure to earn our final score.

The week before move-in, Roc decided he really wasnt feeling the whole “showing thing”, not to mention the “qualifying thing”.  He decided to take the weekend of LOL off, by coming in lame that Tuesday.  I was kind of in a predicament at that point, as to whether or not I should scratch, see if he could come sound in 9 days, or substitute a horse (the only problem with that was Roc was the only horse trained thru PSG in the barn!).

I waited a few days to see if Roc would get better, but upon realizing how serious he was about his vacation time, decided I’d better go ahead and ask Debbie if I could use Aussie, again.  We had one week to take Aus from 4th to PSG, meaning installing the tempi’s and pirouettes.  Being the trooper he is, Aussie complied and we moved into Raleigh on Friday, praying for the best. 

Turns out, riding a “solid-citizen” (as Janine Malone calls him) thru the PSG is a lot more fun than riding the biggest weenie on the planet.  Although I missed having that experience with Roc, riding Aussie gave me a chance to build my confidence in those tests.  On Saturday, on my first time riding the Individual test, we got a 62.032%, and even if we had gotten a 30%, I was so thrilled with the performance.  Sunday, we warmed up great, and got a 62.6%, coming in 2nd to a horse who was also competing at I-1. 

I was just sooo thrilled with how we did this past weekend, and, though Roc is really my pony, I loved being able to go thru this with Aussie, from Training Level in March, to now being at PSG in September.  This journey with him has been fantastic, and I know all horses teach you something, but Aussie completely reinvented my riding.