Well I was griping about the cold wet weather we have been having and I got my gripes answered last weekend with a few days of HOT 90 degree weather!  And it was just in time for our the Fort Vancouver Chapter of the Oregon Dressage Society's big all weekend Dressage Schooling and League shows.

I entered both the Saturday Schooling Show and the Sunday League Show for Training Tests 3 and 4.

Marcia and I loaded up Friday to haul 12 miles down the road to the Clark County fair grounds. Her 1/2 Lipizzaner 1/2 Arab is no little guy but Warren always dwarfs any horse on the trailer next to him.

It was hot Friday, the local weather was saying by late afternoon Vancouver was hitting 97. That is outrageous for this time of year in the Northwest! Anyway, we were mostly concerned for the horses; the plan was to haul them over Friday night and overnight them at the fairgrounds Friday night and Saturday night.  But there is not much air flow in the barns and the huge indoor arena we were going to school in that night is like a giant oven in the heat.

We took our time getting over there. After work, I gave Warren a bath, the first one in many, many months, MAN he was dirty!!!  With a refreshingly cool coat and clean leg wraps on, we headed over to the fair grounds with hopes that if we dragged our feet long enough it may cool off enough to be somewhat decent in the arena to school Friday night.

I wasn't too worried about Warren getting in the arena and being spooky, he was just in that arena last month for Jump 4 Joy. He had seen it and been just fine with it's big, open, echoy, pigeon cooing atmosphere. The common talk in the Clark County horse world is if your horse can perform well in the fairgrounds arena, he can do just fine anywhere- apparently it is a horse devouring cavern of a place in the minds of many Clark County horse residents.

So we arrive Friday late afternoon to the grounds get signed in at the office, meet some of Marcia's friends and get our ponies all settled and decide we are going to go ahead and ride even though it hasn't gotten as cooled off as we had hopped. I promised Warren it would be a short ride if he cooperated and that he would get a good hose down afterward. I was actually surprised how forward and energetic he felt for being so warm. I guess it was the bath. We were able to ride on the dressage court after it was set up. I think Warren remembered the last time he was in that arena! He came marching in looking around for fences and then when he saw nothing challenging except a low white fence, he kinda lost the flare in his get up. It was pretty humorous. So we just cruised around the arena looking around being forward and bending in the corners for a little while and called it a night. I get the sense that Warren was a little disappointed and board with the flat work. I did have to remind him twice when cutting across the middle in warm-up that there is NO part of the dressage test stating "exit arena at E by jumping over fence" Silly horse. It wasn't that naughty "I am trying to runaway" fooy that many of you who know him in his younger years used to do. It was more a "I am focused on what is in front of me, and I see something to jump and that must be what you want" sort of attitude, he actually realized that I was asking for a bend at the last minuet and did not really jump, but he sure did get forward like he wanted to jump!

Saturday morning came pretty quick and there were promises from the weather folks for another hot day on the burner. The boys slept pretty well Friday night bet were ready for some activity Saturday morning. I took Warren for a walk and a graze. My fist test was not until almost noon so we had some time to hang out. I was thankful it wasn't as cold as last time I was there! I really enjoyed soaking up some of the summery warmth!!

So my goal for the weekend was to conquer nerves. I tend to have lovely schools and then freeze up in front of judges. I always get anxious. If I could make a test over 60% I would be pretty happy too. But that is details. Mostly just to overcome the nerves. So the great thing about riding a dressage test is that you can have your test called at any level which means I don't have to worry so much about memorizing my test, just remembering to give Warren some direction. By almost noon we are ready to enter the arena for our Training Test 3 and it is 96 degrees. Warren is feeling pretty darn good despite the heat. In we go and it all goes pretty well. I have gotten into the bad habit of micro managing Warren a bit. I am still trying to find that line between riding him and leaving him alone. If I don't ask much of him, he falls on his face and gest heavy, if I ask too much he wiggles all over the arena. So I worked on those aspects in the arena and tried to have a calm relaxed ride. I felt pretty good about it, the canter circles were a little sloppy and he got heavier than I would have liked in the trot circles but over all a consistent steady test that landed us a with a 59.8. Oh so close to that 60. The Training 4 test was a little bit worse, it was later and the day and I think he was not too thrilled to be under saddle in the hot oven of an arena again. His forwardness was still good though but again he got heavy in the corners when riding our test. We rounded out the day with a 2^nd and 4^th place ribbon, not quite reaching the 60% goal we were striving for but I was defiantly feeling more confident about the riding in front of judges thing.

Sunday rolled around and it was a few degrees cooler and Warren greeted me with a happy rumble after breakfast so I took that as a good sign. After casual morning, we started our warm up and I was surprised that Warren wasn't feeling the slightest bit tired. I thought for sure that after a hot busy day and sleeping 2 nights in a strange place he would be starting to feel the stress, but he wasn't showing it in his performance.   

I felt way more relaxed about the two tests I rode on Sunday and it showed. I got the 60% I was looking for in Training 3 and still some work to do in regard to bending and moving the hind end more in Training 4, but really, not to bad for a big huge draft horse up again a bunch of Warmbloods.  Overall a great weekend we had!   Next weekend we are changing gears and going to a Clinic in Hood River to work on some x-country and stadium jumping, I know Warren will be thrilled to get his jump on.

On a side note - after the hot weather last weeked, I got all inspired and put my tomatoes in the ground thinking it was going to be nice and warm. Yeah, we haven't gotten above 57 degrees all week and its been rainy wet! Ugh! Lets get the summer here!! It is time for all those x-country courses to start drying out!!  Warren and I are ready!