Rachel and Jax were the only pair to venture over to Woodside this year due to untimely injuries for horses and riders…but they made the best of it. It was a little bit of a wild show with music problems for Rachel and scheduling issues which led us to be there for many hours longer than we’d planned. However we made the most of it and a had a great time.
Rachel and Jax did finally get to do their 2nd Level Freestyle quite late in the evening and scored a solid 72.579% for the blue ribbon! Whoohoo! That also nabbed them them a 2nd All Breeds qualification for the year and will put them 5th for the USDF AA Freestyle Year End Award (as scores currently stand). They completed this in the big ring with a large crowd for the evening dinner/drinks provided by the SF CDS Chapter and Jax handled this with no problems at all. In fact…he seemed to prefer the large atmosphere…
They ended up doing their 2nd Level Test 1 as a nice warmup (though it was originally scheduled after her freestyle). Unfortunately, Jax thought the ring without spectators and excitement was spooky…so they had some uncharacteristic mistakes and ended on a 63.857% which was still enough to win the AA division of the class. They were 3rd out of 12 rides at the level however, so it was a good showing despite the spookiness.
Back up in the big ring, they joined the Champaign Class which Heidi was judging (and had to carry around a filled champagne glass and tried to spill the least). They ended up 2nd in that class but had super one handed half passes both directions to the delight of Heidi and the crowd. :D
It was all and all a fun show and we had a great time!
