Proud "Mummy" Moments

I am such a lucky person. I have the best animals!!!!!

Saturday was my second ever Novice dressage outing with Spyke. The weather was very kind to us and the torrential rain stayed away until AFTER I had ridden (thank goodness). For some reason I was very nervous about the day but Spyke was just the best. He was completely relaxed and gave me everything I asked for. Unfortunately, I don't always ask for the right things. :-) I get all my signals mixed up and get all stiff and nervous.

Our first test was 2.5 (thank GOODNESS Kristina was there as I was going to do the other test first AND my mind went completely blank at a couple of points so having Kristina to call was fantastic!!!!). It went as well as I could have hoped really for our first ever attempt. We got lots of helpful comments from the judge for things we can work on and.........we got third!!!!!!! *Insert huge grin here* So proud of my boy. The final comment from the judge was 'He's a cutie!' :-)

What was MOST exciting though was that while I was warming up Spyke was listening so incredibly to me. To get him to rein back I just had to shift my weight a tiny little bit and to change up a pace I just had to touch him very, very lightly with my legs. What a fantastic horse he is.

The second test was 2.2 which has the dreaded leg yields in it. We don't really 'do' leg yields yet and we proved it. LOL. Our comment from the judge for our second leg yield (which turned into a 'bend like a banana and shoot to the left') was 'quite unusual'. Haha. We also got an incorrect lead on one canter so I definitely fall to pieces a bit when I get in the ring. We got 5th = for that test (out of 9 people).

Overall I was pretty happy with the day as Spyke went a LOT better than his first novice day and managed to improve his placings and scores.

That evening it was the girls' turn to have a moment in the spotlight, it was the opening night of the production. They were BRILLIANT!!!! They were a little startled by the clapping that their appearance brought on and The Rabble were much louder and more enthusiastic with a 'real' audience but the girls carried on pulling and doing their job. They were fantastic. They had another performance today and were just as professional. They are so relaxed abut the whole thing. While they are out back they have children patting them, hugging them, putting hats on them running around them and jumping over them and they don't flinch. I'm very proud. I WISH I had photos to share but I will work on it.