06/27/2024
Finally getting the update for last weekend’s show, The Great Dressage Get Together in Hinckley. It was the first time showing dressage inside for most of the Smart Start horses. The horses all did super, Krystal and I earned our second score earning us our Silver Freestyle Bar!!! Maddie Kanda did our choreography and Sam Martinson did our music. Opus Dei (aka Oops) and I had great rides, earning a 71% in Third 3!!! It was an awesome ride. Photo of the judge’s comments below. Our nemesis is flying changes, it feels like we will NEVER master them but they are getting better and better. (Dressage is HARD). Oops and I scored an 8 on one walk pirouette and a 9 on the other!! Walk pirouettes are the epitome of HARD, they have every piece of good dressage training in them. 9 is a personal best for me on them. Maia Becken and Afires Spellbound (Sven) tried Soort Horse In Hand (halter for the non dressage peeps) for the first time and scored a whopping 84 and 85%!!!! They also won all but one of their Second Level rides scoring up to 70%! Emily Disalvo and First Striped Edition (Eddie) tried out First Level and did great! Eddie ride the first test great but got a bit nervous in his second ride when a door slammed so hard Emily thought a gun went off! The next morning Emily rode Eddie beautifully and guided him through a lovely confidence building test!
Maddie Kanda showed her two training horses Mister Maximus, owned by Maggie Bourassa, scoring a whopping 74% and Kris Robinson’s horse Jaantje scoring 67% in First Level and then Kris rode JJ on Sunday, her first time showing in many years, they had great rides and scores!
The icing on the cake, the top 3 Highest Scores, with handicap, were all 74%, with Anne Cizadlo winning, Oops in second and Max in 3rd!! (Suzette and Maddie take lessons from Anne 💖💖💖)
Thank you also for the guidance from Bridget Bursey and Jane Braddock, with a special thanks to Jane for Oops’ walk and walk pirouettes scores as that’s what our last clinic ride worked on.
