Let the show recaps begin!
For week 1 of Coconino, Trainer showed Henry in his first recognized Training. Everything we had seen and heard about Coco from years past made it look like a pretty good move-up course… that was not the case this year. When we walked XC the first time I’m not sure whose eyes were bugging out more – mine or Trainer’s. But before we could fully panic about Sunday’s XC, we had to get through the dressage and stadium on Saturday.
It feels like there’s never really a whole lot to say about dressage. Henry slowly gets better but he’s still tense and a bit tricky to ride in the little white rectangle. His test was very obedient but obviously tense, and he scored a 35. For him, at Training, that’s a totally fair score. He just needs more miles.
The Open division was full of fancy horses, so his 35 put him 7th of 10. My little nervous TB cannot compete with the big fancy Holsteiner stallion that (deservedly) gets a 24. That’s ok though… the XC was gnarly enough that we knew this would NOT be a dressage show.
And yes, I messed up this video too by accidentally clicking on an Instagram notification mid-recording. I think one circle is missing. Horsemom fail.
In the afternoon, Trainer got back on for stadium and almost immediately tossed me her whip. Henny was plenty fit and excited and ready to jump, thank you!
They went in and laid down an awesome trip, definitely the best stadium trip I saw all day. Some of the turns were tight and tricky but Henry was just looky enough to jump really well, while also staying very rideable. It really couldn’t have been better. He loves Trainer.
Even better, the double clear moved them up one spot into 6th.
Day 1 was a success, but we were all still sweating bullets about that XC…
breedrideevent.com 
Henry is SO stinking cute. I just love to watch him jump! Great job with Henry and trainer but dressage is snore worthy to me so let’s get to the good stuff 🙂
Really you guys should all be so proud! Great job all….
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Yay!!!! Henry looks so great! He really loves his job ❤
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Go Henny go! He looks great 🙂
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Great job Henny and trainer!! Can’t wait to see cross country media 😁
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That Stadium course seemed trickier than usual. Especially that turn that was like 3.5 strides to the blue vertical off of the short rail. They did it so nicely though!
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It did not ride well for a lot of people!
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Such a good boy!! 🙂
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I feel about this post the way Henry feels about dressage.
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It’ll get better tomorrow
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Go Henny Go! He is just soooo cute!
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Henny is the best. I still want to steal him…
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Way to go Henry, great stadium round!
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That was a trickier stadium course — but naturally Henny and Trainer made it look easy.
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Henny loves stadium!!! That course looked tricky – well done to both of them!
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First of all, your nervous TB *can* compete with the Warmbloods. Look at the Rolex…soooo many TBs and TB crosses. Sure, I see some tension in this test but that will get better with time. My two cents, for what it’s worth…you have a lot of nice things going for you guys: he’s pretty darn steady in the bridle for a horse at this level, his overall balance and straightness looks good, he has a great canter, his stretchy trot was lovely (looked like she could have let him chew out even more rein and he would have done it. When he learns to work over his back like that in the working trot too, you’ll be golden). So, no defeatist talk…he looks perfectly suited to that level and it seems to me you really just have relaxation and tempo to work on to get into the 20s.
Second of all, his jumping is just wow. So, so fun to watch!
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