A four hour wait before the Advanced Medium and he'd switched off a bit plus a new arena for him meant we didn't do a good test at all. He came in all wonky, trot work went ok but not really taking me forwards and no medium trot happened. He then jogged at the end of the walk which is one of his best bits. Canter half passes were wobbly and he managed to change in both the counter canters too late to correct it and pick up the counter canter again before the simple changes so chucked away a huge amount of marks here. He then dropped back to trot before the first change - did manage to get canter back to get the change and the 2nd one was clean although before my aids. Here is the video of the 2nd change and the final halt - the rest is too rubbish to show!
Amazed to score just under 60% and end up 16th out of 17. 63% would have got us in the top 6 so very close and very frustrating as he could have got that score without all the mistakes. Still, we've only done four Advanced Mediums and we still have gone from Prelim at Winter Regionals 20months ago to Ad Med at Area Festivals - it's been quite a journey. Give us another year to consolidate and I reckon we can be a lot more competitive. His outline has improved loads in the last year, he is much more uphill and looks much more at home at this level. I need to really improve my leg stability and keep my hands stiller in the trot work to be able to help him out more.
two pro pics I have bought and am waiting to arrive - I absolutely love the headshot - he is just gorgeous!
Some pics from the warmup:
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