However, Logan really stepped up to the plate today and impressed me when he entered that dressage ring! I think he’s starting to get the idea of what this is all about – he was no longer eyeing the white chain ring or trying to sneak a glance at the spooky judge’s stand. Nope, he was all business going around trotting his circles and he even gave me some reasonable canter transitions. Well, up until the last downward transition that is – when he decided he’d had enough and completely blew off my half halt, threw his head up and insisted that he preferred to continue cantering rather than come down to trot! I firmly reminded him about who was in charge and got him back in time to make a quick turn down centerline and halt before Logan got any more silly ideas! But apart from the one movement, the test felt really good, certainly the best Logan has ever done in his short little eventing career, and I was really thrilled at the prospect that at some point we WILL be able to put it all together in that darn little dressage arena and perform well. It’s so nice to see the little baby horse growing up and maturing!
Of course, it would be nice if that carried over to the showjump! Heat or no heat, Logan was super excited that the boring dressage was done and over with and now he wanted to J-U-M-P!!! The footing was ridiculously hard and it was still so hot that the warm up was quick and brief, and despite him being a little hyper and strong he was still jumping well, so I only jumped a couple of fences and then headed to the ring. Logan was his typical brave and bold self and even managed to get himself flat to the third jump and knocked a rail in his exuberance – his greenness showing up here – but then continued on and proceeded to be more careful, having learned his lesson! A few good jumps and a few awkward ones but a decent round nonetheless!
And then there was cross country…. I think Logan is getting a little cocky now that he is figuring out this eventing thing! The first few fences were reasonable, as we settled into a rhythm, but after coming out of the woods and heading downhill Logan decided to take advantage of that fact and his inner racehorse re-surfaced! It probably felt worse than it was but I had to do some pretty firm demanding that he come back to me and make the downhill turn to the next fence! After making it clear to him that we were going to go at MY pace, he was much better about transitioning back to me before each fence, although he was still quite strong in my hand to most of the fences, but he was certainly being more attentive to my aids. He jumped around everything, never a doubt about whether he was going or not, and finished just under optimum time. I guess I’ve got an event horse on my hands!
Can we do all that again??
When all was said and done, Logan ended up finishing in 6th place in a pretty big professional division. He had been tied for 4th after dressage with a score of 29.6 (I’m thrilled that my goofy little horse managed to score in the 20?s!) and if Logan hadn’t pulled that rail in the showjump he would have finished in 3rd, but oh well! So this may not have been a qualifying ride for getting him to the Novice level AEC, but it was still a completion, and his first novice event at that, so we can’t complain too much! Logan is qualified at Beginner Novice for the AEC, but I’d love to get him there at Novice, seeing as Logan would probably look at the BN fences as tiny little speed bumps…. but we’ll see how the next few events go! Either way, I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to take my exciting young prospect to the AECs this year!
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