On Friday I tossed all my stuff in the truck, loaded Henry up and made the 2 hour drive to MeadowCreek Park. I gotta say, it’s much easier to pack for a HT when you don’t have to bring show clothes or saddles. The “Owner” lifestyle… I could get used to it.
The great thing about the schooling shows at MCP is that they use all the same courses as the recognized HT – and they’re not soft courses. But to counterbalance that, they also allow schooling on Friday without requiring you to run HC the next day. This is super rare. Normally Henny doesn’t need to school anything, he’s a super XC horse, but there was a corner on the course and I realized – hmm… he’s never actually seen a corner. And definitely not a true, big, narrow, maxed out corner off of a really tricky approach. So in the interest of setting him up for success instead of failure, we took him out, Trainer pointed him at the corner, and of course over he went on the first try like no big deal. Corners – check. I dunno why I ever doubt him, he never disappoints.
It was blazing hot so she kept her ride really short. After a bath and some cookies I finished setting up his stall, then got to work on setting up my own accommodations for the evening.
This was my first time actually using my own tent and truck bed mattress, or trying to put it all up by myself. Gotta say, it was super easy to put up and the mattress inflated itself in about 2 minutes. By the time I crawled into it shortly after sunset, it was definitely still a bit too hot and humid outside to be comfortable, but after about half an hour it cooled down enough and I actually slept pretty well in that thing.
The next morning I was awake super early, as is usual for me. It was weird not having to braid, so I used that time to polish and clean everything I could get my hands on, from tack to boots to Henny. I was able to take my sweet time getting him ready, and Trainer came down around 8:30 to get on.
He warmed up pretty well, then went and put in an obedient albeit a bit tense test. On the plus side, his trot to canter transitions were both pretty good for him, he was straight on both centerlines, the weird little figure 8 of 15m trot circles at X was no big deal, and the trot lengthening was nice. On the less positive side, he was a bit reluctant to stretch in either the trot or the walk, and wasn’t really a fan of coming back down into the walk in general. Typical tension issues.
The judge was very lenient with everyone and Henry got a 28, which put him in 2nd. Trainer and I both agreed that it was really more like a 35 test, but hey, schooling show scores are fun! She was equally lenient across the board, so it all works out the same in the end anyway, the score just looks more impressive than his test actually was. I kind of failed at videoing… I would keep the phone pointed at the horse for a while, then start watching the horse and forget to keep the phone pointed at him, so the video is about half horse and half empty dressage ring. Whoops.
Still, for his first time doing Training Test B, and for his second dressage ride ever with Trainer aboard (the first one having been on Thursday), he was really good. Plus I think Trainer now has some newfound sympathy for me and the struggle that is Dressage Henry! He’s getting better though; he’s more obedient and more able to at least try to work despite his misgivings about the dragons that live in the dressage ring.
Now that the hard part was over – ON TO STADIUM AND XC!
breedrideevent.com 
already stalked the final scores and am super excited to read all about the jumping! in the meantime tho, congrats on that dressage test. i agree that the numbers don’t really matter at schooling shows (per se) as most judges will still put the horses in basically the right order. still tho, sounds like it was a nice effort!
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I’m stalling a little, hoping the photog will get the XC pictures to me today. 😉
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Congrats! looks like Henny was amazing (per normal) i agree dressage=boring COME ON JUMPING STUFF 🙂 hee… so when do you leave??? it has to be coming up soon am i right? 🙂
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16 days!!!
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They make these little fans that connect to the top of a tent and help when it’s gross and humid. Coleman makes them. Totally recommend for your home away from home. Can’t wait to hear about the rest of the outing!
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I saw those but was too cheap/lazy to invest in one at the time. It can go on my list!
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This blog makes me so happy. What fun adventures you have. Henny is such a star too. It really makes me smile to think about his origin story and how you came across him.
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He was such an incredibly lucky find on my part!
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You must be so proud of Henny’s response to his first corner! What a star. 🙂
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Every time I think “this could finally be the thing that gives him trouble” he just blasts right through like no big deal. Never ceases to amaze.
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Henny! He says dressaging is stupid but fine hell do it to get to the fun stuff!
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Go Henry!! Watching his ears is the best and he totally dominated that XC course!
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For camping in the heat, we bought a little battery powered fan that can hang from the top of your tent. It was like $20 on amazon, runs for hours and hours and can even be charged on your truck’s outlet.
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Being the owner instead of the owner/rider is kinda strange… but I kinda like it! Haha
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Henny loves ALL the jumps, even if it means having to suffer through dressage first 😛 Congrats on the fair dressage score, I’m anxiously awaiting tomorrow’s write-up!
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Yay! So happy he had such a successful outing!! I love your tent set up…. I think you may have posted about it before, but is that any special kind of tent? That looks genius.
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It’s a truck bed tent, designed to go in the bed of your truck. It’s awesome! Highly recommend. The air mattress is designed for truck beds too, to fit over the wheelwells on the side. Mine is a full queen size.
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how did it sleep? I mean you are a lot younger than me but i find if i sleep on an air mattress my joints ache the next day (WHAT ELSE IS NEW? LOL).
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I made it a little firm because that’s what I prefer, but I thought it was pretty comfy.
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It does sound strangely fun to be an owner at a show!
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It sounds really fancy until you realize you’re also the groom
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That little Henny Moster is flying! Gotta love him, and fun experience to play the owner role. But bring on the jumping pics, that’s all us are waiting for 🙂
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When are you going to blog about XC and Jumping??
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Tomorrow!
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These cliffhangers kill me! Sounds like things were off to a great start!
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What a good Henny!
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