I’ve had a busy, but productive couple of days this weekend. Yesterday, I went car shopping with my dad for something with better mileage. We ended up getting a cherry red 2008 Toyota Prius. I wasn’t crazy about getting a red car, but it’s growing on me. The interior was in great shape and it has a neat touchscreen in the center console with a backup camera and climate control. Yesterday as I drove to work, I was getting 45mpg, so I’d say that’s definitely an improvement over my Mustang. I was sad to see it go, since I’ve been driving Mustangs since I first got my license, but my wallet will be thanking me!

On Sunday, I woke up early to head to Fox Chase Farm in Middleburg, for our first dressage outing of the season. Oh So was actually quite calm in the warmup and when we went into the indoor for the actual tests, he stayed pretty steady.

The footing was quite wet and deep, but he was trying. We rode Second 1 and 2, and I knew going in that there were some parts that weren’t 100 percent confirmed. We’ve been having really lovely canter-walk transitions on a circle at home, but on a straight line, they’re not as good. I’m also still struggling with sitting the medium trot. We ended up with two 60% scores, which I was a little surprised at. I didn’t see any noticeable tension, except in our rein back, and we still scored mostly 5’s and 6’s, even on his canter work. Oh well. I wasn’t expecting miracles for our first time out. I was just happy he wasn’t tense.

This coming weekend will include a final jump lesson and a cross-country school before Southern Pines next weekend. It’s getting so close!

Please excuse the videos. There was a videocamera malfunction, so my dad used my iPhone, but then it ran out of space.