Last night I ventured out to Billie’s place, where she was going to have me ride one of her schooling mounts, Ashton. He’s a big, lazy, chestnut warmblood gelding, but he just didn’t appear to be himself while we were tacking up. When Billie got on him, he sort of exploded, which right away sent my fear and Billie’s confusion into overdrive. This was such odd behavior for him, that Billie right away assumed something wasn’t right. After some lunging and awkward movements by him, we concluded that it was best to retire him for the evening and later try to figure out what was wrong, because nothing appeared to be obvious.
So, that’s when my questions started…”Do I salute in a beginner test? Do I post? Do I canter? How long is it? What am I allowed to wear? What do I need to buy before August? Do you really think Bug and I will be ready? The questions just kept coming and coming, so Billie had a great idea. She started drawing out the dressage ring on the back of my speeding ticket warning from the morning (ouch), and started explaining the big picture. She pulled out her very meticulous record books and all of her old copies of past tests and showed me her ribbons, trophy’s, titles, plaques, etc, and I was amazed. We looked through actual test booklets to see what the judges’ comments were, and what my first tesst will actually be like. I’m a little intimidated with memorizing the path and questions of the test, but I can do it, and I have never been so excited. The whole time, I’m thinking, “I can do this….it may not be pretty all the time, but I can DO this.” Even if I place last, and my marks don’t get above a 4 – I have to start somewhere, and I can’t wait.
Billie and I could talk for hours, so my 50 minute drive home ended up being in the dark, and all I wanted to do when I got home was saddle up and practice with Bug. I’m sure my neighbors wouldn’t have appreciated that though, as the lights of the paddock/arena sort of blare right into their bedroom, and Bug’s noisy little trot would have rudely put a damper on their early bedtime. (oh, if those dang pine trees would just grow faster!!!) So, I decided to give Bug, Gunner, and Dundee some treats, some good pats, and tidy up in the barn for a few minutes. Little does Bug know that he’s going to get quite the workout in the next couple of weeks. So, I put the boys to bed and went in the house and crashed myself, and stared off into the beautiful full moon and thought about everything I learned, what I need to do, and what I can do to scrounge up some more lesson money!
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