the competitive spirit
Played in our first doubles volleyball tournament two weekends ago. Took 3rd place out of 4 teams. However, the scores against the two teams that beat us were 18/16, 17/15 and 15/13. We may have lost but we made them work for it. We did have one meltdown game, though, where the Boy and I were at each others' throats and doing everything perfectly wrong. The other team got to 13 before we even scored one point. However, once we pulled ourselves back together, we made a respectable showing. The final score for that game was 15/8, so it wasn't too bad. Took me most of the week to recover from that though. 5.5 hours of doubles volleyball in 90 degrees and 90 percent humidity just sapped every ounce of strength I had.
This Sunday, I took Tisa to our first dressage show ever. I decided that no, I had no pride and showed her Intro A & B. We got a 65.6 on Intro A and a 66.2 on Intro B. We got identical scores basically for everything except our entrance. In Test A (our first of the day), we entered the arena trotting, started to halt by going into the walk and right then, Tisa realized that she was all alone in there and everyone was looking at her. She jigged left and right and then tried to turn around to run back out of the arena but we made it to X and halted ... and stayed halted until I felt her sigh and relax a little. Our comment for the entrance was "straight & square, jiggs at medium walk". So yeah, we got a 5 on that one. But in both tests we got an 8 on the working trots.
It was pretty horrible conditions, though. The arena was a swamp, including a very large horse eating puddle (we lost points in the first test because we came off the rail to get around the puddle) right at B. There was a jumper show going in in the arena beside us and nothing is more frightening than 6 year old girls in pig tails on rambunctious ponies flying over jumps (and in some cases, falling off and screaming bloody murder). Tisa never really relaxed and our free walks were nightmarish (you're giving me rein? Cool, I'll take this opportunity to stick my head STRAIGHT up and watch the ponies). Judge thought we were a "cute pair" though, which isn't exactly a useful comment but I'll take it. We place first in both tests so now I have pretty blue ribbons to hang up in the barn.
All in all, I'm pretty happy. Mid 60s are good scores for our first time. And I didn't forget Test B, which I had never ridden fully until this past Saturday. We're going again next week. Need to get my jacket clean before then. Tisa decided to play ostrich and hid her face in my chest for a good long while. Now I have horse snot all over the front of my show clothes.
This Sunday, I took Tisa to our first dressage show ever. I decided that no, I had no pride and showed her Intro A & B. We got a 65.6 on Intro A and a 66.2 on Intro B. We got identical scores basically for everything except our entrance. In Test A (our first of the day), we entered the arena trotting, started to halt by going into the walk and right then, Tisa realized that she was all alone in there and everyone was looking at her. She jigged left and right and then tried to turn around to run back out of the arena but we made it to X and halted ... and stayed halted until I felt her sigh and relax a little. Our comment for the entrance was "straight & square, jiggs at medium walk". So yeah, we got a 5 on that one. But in both tests we got an 8 on the working trots.
It was pretty horrible conditions, though. The arena was a swamp, including a very large horse eating puddle (we lost points in the first test because we came off the rail to get around the puddle) right at B. There was a jumper show going in in the arena beside us and nothing is more frightening than 6 year old girls in pig tails on rambunctious ponies flying over jumps (and in some cases, falling off and screaming bloody murder). Tisa never really relaxed and our free walks were nightmarish (you're giving me rein? Cool, I'll take this opportunity to stick my head STRAIGHT up and watch the ponies). Judge thought we were a "cute pair" though, which isn't exactly a useful comment but I'll take it. We place first in both tests so now I have pretty blue ribbons to hang up in the barn.
All in all, I'm pretty happy. Mid 60s are good scores for our first time. And I didn't forget Test B, which I had never ridden fully until this past Saturday. We're going again next week. Need to get my jacket clean before then. Tisa decided to play ostrich and hid her face in my chest for a good long while. Now I have horse snot all over the front of my show clothes.