Brego Looks Nice In Blue

Brego had a big day today. We placed first in both of our divisions, scoring a 64.6 on Training Test 2 and 62 on Training Test 3. A storm was rolling in, so a stiff breeze coupled with the show atmosphere meant Brego was nice and forward.

He was so forward that he bucked and bolted in warmup, but once my initial "I'm going to die" thoughts retreated, I actually thought it was funny. It was not major and we recovered in a couple of strides. Yesterday, when it was 90 degrees, I was lamenting to my trainer that Brego is so behind the leg, I longed for a horse that would spontaneously burst into a trot from a walk. Well, what a difference a day makes!

His head and neck look nice, just need to work on the junk in the trunk.

I did get videos of both rides, but the perfectionist in me is pretty unhappy with my riding. Brego did great, aside from some minor distracted fussing, but my hands were noisy and I looked slouchy. And although I think he's lost some weight, he is still much bigger than I would like for competition, so that's something I need to address soon. I will probably post the videos tomorrow, when I have more time to put them together.

You know, I should be happier about the show. And I *am* happy, just not thrilled. The judge was very enamored with Brego, even calling him "superb". She said once the stretch trot came on board, we were ready to move up, that he had all the fundamentals of training level. She did appropriately discourage some horses so over bent, their necks looked broken at the third vertebrate. She scored Brego the highest of all the training level riders, and I am not sure yet if we won High Point over the entire show.

And yet, I wish I was a better rider. Watching Rolex this weekend gave me a twisted view of riding. Um, only the top 0.001% of all riders look like Bettina Hoy. Well, actually only one. And I love Brego, but he is no Upper Level anything. So I am happy and I realize this is a great performance for two weeks of lessons and the winter off. I'm just ready to be *really good*. And Brego is ready for me to be really good as well.

Despite his sad eye, Brego was in a pretty good mood most of the day. We just got home and he is tired.

Meanwhile, my next lesson will be over fences. I have a Hunter Pace lined up for May 16th and then my first three phase of the season will be May 31.

Here's a fun anecdote. My trainer came to watch, not in an official capacity, but just to see how we did. She was very, very happy with the tests, but again, she's only seen Brego for the last two weeks and some videos of him from last year. Anyway, I showed her the old picture of Brego where he was on his forehand and she gasped and said, "Oh my God!" I asked her if she could believe it was the same horse. She said, "No... and you have an incredible imagination to see what he could be."

I take that as high praise indeed. :)