Pau– dressage…

Not a good day.
It started out very encouraging… the best my horse has felt this entire trip. Burger was unusually sore in areas he has never been sore in after his long travels. Yesterday was a better day; today felt really good! In my warm up for dressage I felt like I had the a real opportunity to go into the ring and nail it. I do think I warmed up for about 10 minutes too long and he got a bit stagnant in the beginning of each half halt which always makes him feel like 5 different horses/gaits at once. He was actually very good in his test however with the combination of the different footing and the less than brilliant half halts, the ground jury almost eliminated me in the middle of the test. It honestly wasn’t horrible and it was only every now and again in the trot work, but it wasn’t right. He has been jogging and flexing very well. After the test he jogged perfectly for the competition vet, but later on when the ground jury wanted to look at him again he was completely done with his day and jogged up like a donkey which made me look really stupid. I would have never presented him if I thought he wasn’t going to look as good as he looked for both the US team vets and the British team vet. I guess everything happens for a reason, and I know it’s better that I have an awesome horse for next year. I am incredibly disappointed. This cross country course was made for my horse. The course isn’t easy by any means, but I was REALLY looking forward to it — knowing my horse he would have finished really well again because of his amazing jumping. In the end it is always always better to err on the side of caution in these situations. I want what is best for my horse and my sport. I completely respect the ground jury and feel like they were incredibly sympathetic and fair. I am just very disappointed.