ADT #1, Prelim Pony

A few days left to go and I finally (think) I have my dressage test memorized. I thought I had it and would go through it in my mind... look at my printout of the test and dang it if I didn't forget something. Like the serpentine down the center of the arena. That's kind of a big one...


We moved up to Prelim and will soon find out if we are ready for it or not.


Then I was looking online for the cones course and the hazards.  Hazard 1 & 2, Hazard 3 & 4


No callers allowed for dressage at any level, as per the ADS rules, so I need to have that one burned in my brain. No cheat sheets, no visual aids, zip, nadda, nothing. We are on our own out there. You either know it or you don't. Even still, there are and will be times that in the middle of the test, your mind goes blank. Just like I did last year after the halt, wait, back and WALK to G, halt and salute the judge... I could not for the life of me remember if I was supposed to walk or trot. We did a little of both so one way or the other- half of it was right.


Cones- Jim has once again out done himself. I was looking at the map and thinking about how to do it and found myself lost around cone 12. At least they are numbered, if only I can remember to keep the red cone on the right. Oh and at Prelim, we are allowed to run. It will be challenging to see how many balls remain after we are done. At the Darby in December? We started out by running OVER cone #1. I think we hit cone #3 and from there it was all a blur.


Hazards- again we are allowed to run. I'm not sure if I will let him the whole time, but I will feel him out and see how energetic he is feeling. It should be interesting. He has gotten a lot more brave and confident as far as obstacles and hazards, but I don't want him to be too brave to the point of being crazy or reckless. That's where things go wrong and people get hurt. I'm not on board for that.


I did drive Kat over the weekend and we did walk the entire pattern. Once. That was all, walked the whole time and I didn't want him to anticipate anything.  After that we worked on circles, bending, shortening our turns and opening them back up. Spiraling in and out, smaller, then larger and changing our direction to do it the other way. We did a LOT of halts, up and down transitions and some serious serpentine work. Can I just say that the last two times I have driven him, he has been just A.W.E.S.O.M.E!!!


I met another neighbor who was riding her bike and seen us. She is into roping and gymkhana right now and lives in the neighborhood across the street. She is interested in driving and I have invited her to come try it out to see if she likes it. Super nice lady and who knows if she will pursue it or not, but the offer is out there.