Midge came, saw, and rocked out! 

Our exhibition was between the last Young Rider test and their award ceremony. When Brian O’Connor, the announcer, said they were running a little early, I figured I’d hop on 5 minutes ahead of my plan so that they wouldn’t be kept waiting. So imagine my surprise when, about 10 minutes later, after only stretchy walk-trot-canter and a little shoulder-in, they’re telling me to go, go, go. Yikes!

So up the hill we went, and other than a little initial tension, he was a genius. No spooking, no dramatics. Yes, the passage lacked brilliance. Yes, the piaffe was a little backwards (no warmup at all, remember?). I made one counting boo-boo in the half-pass zig-zag, and the second pirouette was a little big.

But dang, some stuff was AMAZING. The extended canter was obedient; he didn’t steal the flying change at the end. The twos were LOVELY. He made all the ones I asked for, quietly and pleasantly. The angle of the steep trot half-pass was easy-peasy. And he was confident and rideable.

Wow!!

It started raining as soon as I got on (naturally), and rather than packing up in the rain and driving home in the dark I decided to spend an extra night. It turned out to be a great plan—I got to watch the final leg of the Brentina Cup (which Midge is pretty sure he actually won, but it’d be ok with him if they just named him straight to the World Equestrian Games team instead), and had dinner with fellow rider Laura Noyes and her incredible family, and a good time was had by all. And now we’re home.

I’m thrilled, thrilled, thrilled. He was such a good boy. Folks who found me after his ride had no idea he’s only shown a few Prix St. Georges tests; they said he looked like a confirmed young Grand Prix horse. Dang.

But it’s back to reality. Poor Midge has to show fourth level this weekend (yawn, snooze, he says). I’m going to give him two days totally off, and then just stretch him on Thursday. He’s proven he’s pretty trained.

Tres is also showing fourth level this weekend. My girls rode him all weekend, focusing on conditioning, and he’s been going super.

I’ll hop on Ella today and see where we are; I’ll rerun her bloodwork tomorrow, and hopefully we’re back up and running. Her next outing isn’t until October, so we have tons of time, and I want to dedicate a good chunk of time to just making the piaffe-passage transitions better. I want to learn how to make them like Todd Fletrich and Otto; theirs are a thing of beauty.

And little Fender continues to truck along. I’m playing with the idea of a BIG trot half-halt. I can’t even call it a half-step, because it’s not. Maybe a 3/4 step? Just showing him, in blindingly obvious terms, how to load his hind legs. He’s figuring it out exactly like a 4-year-old should. Great!

It’s a full-fledged week ahead, back to the grindstone with lessons and new horses in training and the works. But I still feel this little glow in my heart when I look at that marvelous little Dutch horse in my barn. I’m beginning to see the future for him, and I like it! 

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