Barbury is also running a 4* combined test with the dressage test being the Olympic 4* test. Many other countries have their Olympic horses entered in this class and many are double entered in the CIC 3* class. I enquired about entering the class, but they had a wait list, so I didn’t find out that I had a spot in the class until only a couple of hours prior to my ride time. I thought it was a great opportunity to ride the Olympic test against the other Olympic horses, despite the fact that I wouldn’t have the best preparation for the test due to the timing, so I entered! It was great practice to have to ride next to the white flags snapping loudly in the wind all along the shortened at A as it was the undoing of quite a few good horses in the ring there. Arthur was very good. Our quality was better yesterday, but he was very on the job and tried very hard. Our walk was not super — he is a bit of a “mall walker” in the whipping cold wind. I also felt like I was trying to remember the newly memorized test as I was riding so I didn’t exactly feel like I was owning every next movement, but it was really nice to ride a new test. Trot directly into extended walk is not anything that I have ever thought about or practiced prior to riding it in the test today and that will definitely be something I put more thought into. It was a very big division with very good horses and we ended tied 3rd (I think that was the final — I’ll check tomorrow and let you know) ahead of the Brits 😉
The rest of the Americans finished their dressage tests in fine form. Boyd was really super today!!!
Early jog and then show jumping tomorrow!!
