So, this happened:

Cabin Branch Series Championship Leaderboard

Cool! Not like, of course, we have any chance of winning (extra points for Foster’s good looks? no?), or really getting anywhere near the top, but it was neat to see. My luck has been that we’ve either placed in the top 4 or the bottom 2 (mostly thanks to me going off course in some way or another) at pretty much every competition for the last year. Foster’s dressage scores have been as follows at the last 3 shows:

• CHP May HT: 31.3
• Recognized Show @ FENCE: 30
• CHP October HT: 31.7

So we’re scoring pretty consistently in the low 30’s, and my goal for this next show is to bring any 6’s up to 7’s. Here’s looking at you, canter departs! Also, I’ll be disappointed in myself if I get comments about his haunches being right. For jumping, I just hope to go double clear in both phases, and not have a sticky jumping round. Our jumping record for the last 3 shows has been this:

• CHP May HT: double-clear SJ and XC
• Recognized Show @ FENCE:  2 rails SJ / double-clear XC (with rider timing issue)
• CHP October HT: 1 time fault SJ / double clear XC

Not perfect, but I’m not complaining. The 2 rails at FENCE were mostly my fault- he was unbalanced for the first, and a little flat for the second. Going double-clear this weekend would mean a lot to me, and I have faith in Foster’s abilities to make it happen!

So our more specific goals for the weekend are this:

• 7’s on canter departs and downward transitions
• 8 on free walk/medium walk
• no comments about haunches in
• square halt
• no time faults showjumping
• land on the correct lead every time
• balance before every fence
• no jumping or time faults cross-country
• forward, forward, forward!
• Have fun!!! (So excited- we have a huge group going!)

Woohoo!