Wow, your stories are making me feel a bit better. I usually treat each movement seperately (of course), but hers just kept going. buck, buck, canter, canter, trot and trot, all in the wrong places. Oh while becoming extraordinarily heavy.
We have a show coming up in November and I’m debating if I should do training 1 and 2 (to teach her to get in gear) or stay with 1.
[QUOTE=Caps1;7201847]
Wow, your stories are making me feel a bit better. I usually treat each movement seperately (of course), but hers just kept going. buck, buck, canter, canter, trot and trot, all in the wrong places. Oh while becoming extraordinarily heavy.
We have a show coming up in November and I’m debating if I should do training 1 and 2 (to teach her to get in gear) or stay with 1.[/QUOTE]
If it makes you feel better, I have personally received scores in the 40’s on seasoned show horses, tests where a 6 was an accomplishment. Sometimes things just fall apart.
I like T2 better than T1. I’m not a huge fan of the weird half circles, but you do have to be able to maintain the canter a bit better for 2. I bet if you focus a bit on schooling really crisp transitions at home, and then recreate that next time in your warmup - you’ll do just fine.
The one I remember inspirationally, and I saw it live. Have often reminded myself of this one over the years, and not just in horse matters.
1996 Olympics. Monica T on Grunnox doing her test as anchor for her team. Enter the ring, halt, salute the judges, and then proceed in the wrong gait. Right there at the start of this high-pressure test. She corrected smoothly, went on like nothing at all happened to put in a smooth ride, and her team won the gold. 
Personally, it was a test years ago on my big black ASB. He was the most difficult horse I’ve ever ridden but was definitely not spooky. Wherever he was, he was always the same (though difficult). I could have ridden him in the median on the interstate. So I totally wasn’t expecting him to do a neat little “pop,” like a spook with a sideways jump, and go over the rails as we trotted down the long side. Up, over 2 feet, down. I put hard outside leg on and gave a growl, and he did the exact same in reverse, popping back over the rail to inside. Two miniature elevator jumps. We were eliminated, but the judge went ahead and scored the rest of the ride just for feedback, and everything else was a good score. Totally out of the blue. If she’d looked down for four seconds, she never would have known it happened.
I have 2 ‘oh shit’ moments. First one was at a gold show, my mare was being especially spicy that weekend and enjoyed bucking during warm up. It was exceptionally wet and muddy that weekend. During warm up my coach said “you are wearing too much white to get piled in this.” Well that did it. During my test while we were cantering, a truck’s air brakes (don’t ask me why the heck this semi truck had to pull in right near the show ring!!!) spooked my horse. She took off bucking. I ended up bailing off of her because she was heading right for this metal gate and I had flashes of me falling into it. So into the mud I fell. The judge felt bad for me (due to ridiculousness of the semi truck) and she said I could get back on and finish my test. How do you say no to that?! I finished my test covered in mud from head to toe, and to a third place finish to top it off!!
My second ‘oh shit moment’ was this summer. I was trying out doing a test without a reader. I halted and saluted at X, tracked left and suddenly my brain had fast forwarded 3 minutes and I picked up my canter. I realized what I had done as soon as the judge rang the bell and I actually said “I am waaaay ahead of myself here!” Oops.
This year I made my debut at PSG. At one of the shows, it was day 2 and my horse had the best warm up all year. Everything was there and with relaxation, which is not this horses’ strong point. Anyway, warm up fab, come outside, and the arena doesn’t have enough room to go around, so they let you go in the ring before the bell. As I made up by the judge, my horse stopped dead and wheeled around. There were irrigation hoses coiled up next the the judges box. No way was he going to go near those horse eating pythons. The judge said “oh my”! Completely ruined the beautiful relaxation, plus any movement at this end- one line of tempis, a pirouette, etc. Horrendous!
Yesterday’s show was one long “oh shit”. The Separation Anxiety (from his trailer-mate) was strong… Damned mule would NOT STOP CALLING, or wanting to run back to the trailer mate rather than work in the arena. (Trailer mate was not working while we were.)
Everyone was so nice - he was being such a turd, and all I could do was keep apologizing and threatening to strangle His Loudness. sigh
I’ve been on the wrong horse at the wrong time. I was showing two horses at one show and got the horses switched around. I also knew a girl who’s horse was hauled back to the farm and she still had a class left to ride in at championships no less. Luckily they got the mare back in time and I was a part of the fasted tacking a braiding session I’ve ever seen. I believe she won reserve in that class.
Mine is etched in my brain for ever! Was winning regional award at psg level. Just had one show to go where I needed to ride my freestyle and basically obtain over 45 percent. ( we had been getting in the high 60’s so seemed ok)
VERY bad week at work meant pony had little work but off we went. Got on and bucked out the length of the arena scattering all around me as I had NO control. Destroyed arena boards!! Take deep breath once I had wrestled control back, muttering under my breath to pony what fate was going to befall upon him, kind organizers put arena back together and away we went.
It was lovely, it was forward and in control and nice to ride. So you can imagine how I felt as I left arena to everyone shaking their heads. Somehow I got confused in freestyle and did all the canter right movements twice. No left canter shown. Sigh! Test had 8’s and 0’s. Overall mark 44 percent.
To this day don’t know how I confused myself
I’ve only done a couple of dressage shows and luckily those have gone pretty smoothly. However at the last fun show I did my smart alek thoroughbred decided to wait until I went to the bathroom to untie himself and go visit other trailers. I was so embarrassed!
I had another one just recently - horse is tied to the trailer while I am trying to get dressed. I keep an eye on her because although she ties, when she gets it in her mind that she’s leaving town, she can really make a scene. I go to open the door of my friend’s truck to get my purse and it starts to beep. “Crap!” - I close the door and pray it will stop. Ten seconds go by with my heart in my throat and now the truck starts honking like a goose in heat as I look on in horror screaming “NO, NO, NO!”. I run down the hill to the ring just as my friend is hitting the remote to turn it off. Horse never stopped munching, but I was mortified.
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