Although Brego continues to be sound, his loss of conditioning from his time off showed up today during our jumping lesson. He was not lame, just sloooooow and not wanting to work. It doesn't help that my instructor likes to talk so in the one hour lesson, I got exactly 7 minutes of me working on film. I am not kidding. So during all the talk breaks, Brego is walking on a loose rein, going to sleep. Then I kick him into a canter, we pop a fence, and it's back to nap time.
It was getting so bad, that my trainer thought Brego was too exhausted after five jumps to show in, oh, 3 full day's time. So I asked for one more set of jumps, this time with enough prep to wake him up. And he did just fine, making the distances and getting his leads in the air. So Brego might be tired, but he's not exhausted. He just needs some extra motivation.
I've decided to push on to the show. Without Brego being lame, it's hard to justify not showing up and giving it a try. We ride early so it won't be too hot. And we run cross-country after dressage and stadium so if Brego runs out of gas in stadium, I can save us from impending disaster cross country and retire. I can also assess the footing and if it's really poor, just do dressage and stadium.
I am going to trot him out tomorrow and then he gets Saturday off, save for the three hour trailer ride to the show. Then Sunday, at 7:48 am, I will be turning up the center line in our first recognized show. We're not quite where I want to be, but it's time to just go out there and ride.
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