I took Oh So to the CDCTA schooling show held at the Warrenton Horse Show grounds on Thursday to go through a couple of second level tests.

This time around I decided to try Second 3, but I started with Second 2. I thought Second 2 was a little rough in spots. He was just missing a little bit more collection and some thoroughness that kept our score lower then I’d hoped. We had a more seasoned judge this time, so to have scored a 62.36% was respectable, but I still want to get higher marks.

We got a 5.5 on our entry because we were a little crooked trotting off. I think I need to sharpen him up a bit from halt to trot because he tends to sneak in a walk step.

I’m still struggling to sit the medium trots, so I don’t always ask as much as I think he can give. If I was posting, it might be different, but I need to try to keep finding time to ride without stirrups so I can be “pulled” a little deeper in the saddle. We scored 6s on those, which is what I expected.

I feel like we have a pretty good handle on the travers, and we got a 7 on the left one, but  a 5.5 on the right one, which I’m not totally sure about. I need to talk with Nicky this week, but he easily moves his haunches in. The judge said that it lacked angle and suppleness.

The turn on the haunches had good steps, but the judge commented that he lost energy. When I really get to concentrating on that movement, I think I forget to kick him forward a bit, so that’s something to work on.

I thought the free walk was better, but it only scored a 6 because she wanted to see more swing and stretch.

He broke to trot too early on the first canter to trot and scored a 4.5 for the simple 10m canter circle left, which was surprising. The judge thought he was hollow, behind the vertical and haunches in. Yikes!

She also commented that his haunches were a little in on both medium canters, so we got a 5.5 on both. That was easily avoidable. He can have a 7 or an 8 medium, and I can’t say I felt it so obviously.

We got our only eight on the final centerline and halt. It was a little disappointing to get a 6.5 on his gaits. He’s consistently at least a 7, if not an 8.

The medium trots brought his impulsion score down to a 6.5 and a few moments where he fell behind the vertical dropped the submission score to a 6.5.

It was the first time I did Second 3, so I was more worried with going through it. His simple changes again weren’t as good, especially since he started to lose patience with them as we went along. We ended up with a 61.90 and a little bit better collective marks.