I’ve been preparing for the Morven Park dressage schooling show this week. I’ll be riding training level tests 3 and 4 with Oh So, just to break up the pattern we’ve been doing all year. He needs to be tactfully corrected in the ring as well. That might mean halting or another circle. I just can’t be taken advantage of anymore after the free walk.

I’m excited because Sam and I are going to try second level test 1. We’ve been doing the movements for years, but we’ve never tried them in the ring. I just hope I can keep him together for the counter-canter serpentines. He’ll be looking for the opportunity to show off his flying changes, but we don’t want that!

The show is on Sunday, so I have a couple of days to practice my tests. I’m taking Oh So to Morningside tomorrow for a jump school and a gallop on the track. We might go out on the cross country course too. It just depends on what they have set up in the arena. If it’s not conducive to what we need, then we might skip that.

I’m also excited to try out a new trail that my mom found and cleared. Her horse hasn’t been eating his grain the last week or so, and the vet came to check him last weekend, so we didn’t get to go on the trail. He seems totally normal, except that he doesn’t want his low starch grain. We tried a treatment of Gastro Guard and it didn’t seem to change his attitude, so we’re going to try switching him to another type of grain that’s safe for founder-prone horses.

I also have to clip Sam and Oh So again! I can’t believe they grew out so fast.