Braunschweig Show and Stadl Paura CDI

Show season is officially in full swing! On March 15-18, Orion and I danced to our freestyle at the Braunschweig Competition. In the Grand Prix we placed 5th with a 66.7% and then on Sunday we got to rock out to Usher and Rihanna and scored a 70.4% in our Freestyle! Overall the competition was a great learning experience because the warm up was very tricky as the high winds were constantly shaking the tent surrounding the warm up ring, and lets just say Orion was not at all impressed and by saying he was a little bit tense would a slight understatement ;-) ... But I was able to convince Orion that I would take care of him and once we got into the show ring we were all business! 

Our most recent competition was the Stadl Paura CDI, held in Austria over the Easter weekend, (April 6-10). For this competition Heike and I loaded up the truck with two horses each so that we wouldn't be bored ;-) Anited was the second horse that I brought along and below is a picture of Heike teaching me on him in one of our schooling sessions.  

 Here is a picture of me getting ready for Orion and I's Grand Prix... 

 Below is a picture of one of my most supportive friends, Cat Macdoald ;-) who flew into Austria from London to lead a hand. Thank you Cat! 

 My grandmother and aunt and uncle also made the trip down to Austria to cheer us on, below is a picture of my Grandmother, Ursula, and my aunt, Marion hanging out in the barn with us.

 The Grand Prix class was held on Saturday and Orion was a Star! We placed 7 out of the field of 30 with 69.0%  Giving us another qualifying score for London :-) 

 On Sunday for the Grand Pix Special it snowed in the morning and everyone started wishing each other a Merry Christmas instead of a Happy Easter! The warm up was outside which was really cold and fresh so when we went into the heated indoor arena for our test- The wall of heat that we rode into took away some of our forward momentum and Orion was a bit behind my leg causing us to make some mistakes. We ended up scoring a 64.78%, which is ok but I know we can do a lot better and I take full blame because I should have reacted faster and gotten Orion back up in front of my aids before we even rode down the centre line.  But like always it was a really important learning experience I need to remember to treat every test as a brand new challenge and just because the day before may have went well- I need to approach the next test as a clean slate. 

Thanks for tuning in and I'll be sure to keep ya'll posted on the next adventure the team and I embark on :-)