July 25, 2006: Filling it to the Brim

Quila and I have worked every day now since last Wednesday, and things are better. Not perfect, but better. We have halts again, and even half halts—most of the time, anyway. There are those times when Quila wants to help me, perhaps even do the work for me, and forgets that I might have changed the pattern of what we were doing, so I’ll ask for a zig and she’ll zag... perhaps giving me a canter-walk when I asked for a canter-trot, or even going entirely the wrong direction by giving me a trot-walk when I ask for a trot-canter (though on the later, she usually catches herself mid-stride, gives a bit of a start, shakes her head, and then overdoes it in the opposite direction). I really try not to drill her or do too many repetitions of anything, but do anything more than once, and she’ll sometimes try to find a pattern, even when none exists; she wants to be the good girl so badly. I think at one point in her life, she must have had to figure out what was wanted in advance in order to come through, because sometimes she has trouble remembering that now all that is expected of her is to pay attention—I’ll tell her what I need as we go along.

I don’t feel ready to show, yet, but we have 3 more days to prepare. I’ll make my decision about whether or not we go on Friday after our ride: if it feels like we can ride for a 62% or better (the score we need to qualify), then we’ll go. Otherwise, we’ll stay home, and continue working, since our motivation for showing this weekend is to get the qualifying score. Without one, our season is over (except for the practice, and there isn’t much sense in going out when neither of us is feeling fully prepared). But we are down to crunch time: have to get one qualifying score this weekend, or there will be no Regional Championships for 2006 in our future.

I’m encouraged by the progress we’ve made in the last 2 or 3 days, however. Showing felt like a total impossibility a week ago, and now, well, I see light at the end of the tunnel. I still don’t feel like we have half halts back enough that I could ride a test in anything besides lengthened trot and medium canter once we did those extensions (or else, I could ride the whole thing in collection, and the extensions be damned)... and there’s the rub. But otherwise, things are coming together. She’s great now when she’s not excited, but she just L.O.V.E.S those extended gaits, and while she knows HOW to come back, and that she’s SUPPOSED to come back, I don’t quite have the faith yet that she’ll REMEMBER to come back or WANT to come back, and that she’ll remember what those half halts are for in the heat of the moment... Hard to want to show if you’re not sure the brakes will work when you get to the end of the straight away. Know what I mean??? She wouldn’t run away with me, per se, but we wouldn’t exactly be going my pace (or the judge’s ideal pace) either. She’d be what you might call... er... exuberant, for lack of a better word.