White Fences and Global
I've been a little late catching everyone up on what's been going on since our last CPEDI3*, but Taco and I have been very busy training and testing out new equipment. We were at a point in our training where we need to push ourselves to the next level. And that's what we've been doing. After the last CPEDI3*, we've been testing out new bits, pushing for a bigger trot with more collection, and asking for more. Taco has been super and never saying no. I've been trying my hardest and pushing past my limits some days and needing extra naps! haha....
We entered a show at White Fences Equestrian Center just a couple days after making some new bit changes so we could test it out in the show ring. I rode through my Team Test and came out with a 68.9%. We had a lot more energy and activity, which was great. However, it was a bit much for me and at times felt a little uncontrollable. We decided to work more through the week with new bit changes. The following week I had another show Saturday and Sunday at Global to try out more changes.
We spent all week testing out new bits and on Friday finally settled on something new to go into the show ring with. After only having one day to school the new equipment (the set up on my bridle has so many moving pieces, and thank goodness Sara spends the time to figure it all out!), I'm pretty happy with how the weekend turned out. Saturday we rode through the Grade 2 Indidivudla Test. Some things could have been stronger at the end, but with a very tough judge, we got a 65.4% and many 7-7.5s.
Sunday we rode through our ABBA freestyle with music created by Debbie Marriott. We made some adjustments based on the ride on Saturday and got a 69.4%. We even received an 8!
We're definitely heading in the right direction and are continuing to work on improving things. Taco is always so super in the show ring, but he really felt relaxed and more willing to move forward for these two tests.
