March 15, 2009

Showtime!

Showtime.
Half of the mane is lying on the floor, and I'm in the middle of braiding.


We'll tie up the braids on Sunday morning, otherwise they have to be redone anyhow.
We don't have time to do the complete braiding Sunday morning.
Braiding stinks.
Sometimes I'm wondering if we should have a go at show jumping instead.
But then I think of all that material that has to be carried on and off the arena.
Maybe dressage isn't that bad after all?
Hehe.


Jungle-Jim finally starts to look like a dressage pony - yippeee!
(I've no fingers left)




The worst is the front one.
Strange that they never want to stand still?
Or stands still at first, and then takes a major shake when you are almost finished.
Yippee again. Not.





Sunday morning comes.
Rise and shine at 6.30.
At 8 am it's ready for take off.
Charlie looks like he is not quite ready to come along.
Hey, guys - maybe we should stay at home instead? Munch some hay, and stand in the sun? Whadayasay?



Another hour and a half we have reached our destination.
Elin starts to warm up.
Charlie lookes fine.
Elin has to remember to keep contact on that outside rein.
They work with collections...



And extensions...


Finally it's time for Elin.
They make a nice program.
Charlie looks active behind, but at some occations a bit open in form.
The canter work is very good.
The trot extensions are OK, but they can better.
Turn on the haunches looks good.
One of the canter-walk-canter transitions was not that good, Elin put some leg on and they got a step of trot or two. But the other was very nice.
All in all - a steady program.
Elin walks Charlie, she is the last entry in the class.
And the result is...


Third place!
Yippeeeee!!!
And a nice percentage as well, 63.8%.
Not bad for the first time in this class (LA).
So the return home is a happy one, and Charlie gets lot of extra carrots....
He's such a sweetheart.
Oh, and all the good, clear and funny pictures are taken by my daughter. The blurry. bad ones by me.

6 comments:

Anne i Hannover said...

Congratulations!! And I think that 68.3% in a LA class is very good, especially for a first-timer :D

Once Upon an Equine said...

Congratulations Elin and Charlie. Nice pictures.

Irene said...

Jättebra gjort!! Gratulera henne! Såg verkligen fint ut på bilderna.

HorseOfCourse said...

Thanks all!
Yesterday was a happy day :-)

Stephanie - Siouxzeegirl Designs said...

Congratulations to a job, well Done!!!

HorseOfCourse said...

Thank you Stephanie!