In what was probably the last show of 2024 (but the first show of the 2025 season), Brenda and Willa and Rachel and Jax made some moves to step up a level.
It was a nice show (as it always is at CNDC), however the wind levels for the day made for some spooky horses! We navigated that without any major incidents, but it didn’t help with tension and minor spooks during the rides. Oh well!
Brenda and Willa did a couple of 1st level tests as a warm up for their first 2nd level test and Willa pulled through in fine fashion with a pair of 65%’s despite a lot more tension than normal for her (no shock there with the weather). She also went into her 2nd level test and was able to do quite well with a 63.714%. Willa is officially a 2nd level horse! As everywhere she goes, Willa gets ALL the attention. She’s got quite the fan club with everyone wanting to go talk to the Appaloosa at the dressage show.
Rachel and Jax made the big jump up to PSG and it didn’t go badly at all! Jumping up to this level is a big step and was a “you never know what tomorrow will bring” situation so she went for it. As one of Rachel’s friends said to her, “That was dangerously close to a 60% for your first time out.” And it was. Their first attempt at PSG was a 58.824%. Not too shabby for his first try at the level! There was a lot of tension and spooking on the day, which caused his canter work to lack quite a bit from the normal. However we now know that he can get a score at the level with a few tweaks. By the time the next show comes around, we expect they’ll be hitting 60%+ with ease.
Big thanks to CNDC as always for an amazing show and also to Schleese Saddlery for being a sponsor of the awesome prizes. Both Brenda and Rachel were able to cash in their CNDC bucks from the show year for nice Schleese bridles!
