Braunschweig CDI

The weekend of March 10-13 saw Orion and I along with Heike and her Grand Prix horse, Feleciano, at the Braunschweiger Löwen Classics.  We arrived in Braunschweig on friday afternoon and got the horses settled in and tack stall set up in just enough time for the CDI vet check. After both horses passed the jog, we tucked the boys into bed and called it a night pretty early as the Grand Prix class started at 7:30 am on saturday morning.
I must admit I was a little nervous leading up to this show, because this was my first international start here in Germany. But what really helped calm the butterflies in my stomach and get my thoughts straighten out is about an hour before my test Heike, Mayke (Heike's Bereiter) and I grabbed some breakfast, and as we were munching away on the traditional German breakfast of fresh baked rolls, I verbally explained my whole test to Heike, but what was really important for me is that as I was explaining the test sequence I didn't focus on the movements but rather I explained in detail exactly how I was going to ride every short side and every corner in order to prepare for every movement. I have found that breaking the huge intimidating Grand Prix test into a sequence of preparations really helps my nerves because by focusing on the details, the whole test becomes manageable.
Overall I was very pleased with the Grand Prix test, we scored 65.106%, which is a decent score, but still room for improvement. I made a mistake in my two tempi changes, and I can still ride for more expression, but what was important for me was to ride a solid test because only the top 12 riders were able to move on ahead into the freestyle on Sunday.
I was so excited that Orion and I qualified for the Freestyle because we were able to rock out to our new music! The music had just been completed exactly a week and a half before the show, so I had only had a chance to run through the whole thing once before we performed on Sunday. But it all went well and I must admit I truly had a blast riding to such fun music! I was also a little nervous of how the music would be accepted by the judges, because we decided to use modern artists (Usher, Rhianna and Katy Perry), and we kept the majority of the vocals in the music, which is also not very typical in a dressage freestyle. But it all worked out and the music and freestyle was well received and we achieved a score of 69.625% and came in 8th place. I know I still got some fine tuning to do, and I still need to be able to synchronize my ride to all the transitions in the music, but I was very happy with a solid safe first go at it. In closing, I would also like to mention that Orion was a super star the whole show, he was 100% reliable and focused. Everyday I thank my lucky stars for Orion, I truly could ask for a better team mate.
Heike also had a good go in the freestyle and rode Feleciano to a score of 72.55% and came in 6th place. I have posted the video of Orion's and I freestyle below. 

Thank you for tuning in :-)

Freestyle- Braunschweig CDI