Thursday, December 16, 2010

PSG - Competition Day 1

Hey everyone! Sorry I haven't been able to write in a while. We moved in to the show tuesday night and Nina settled in right away. I don't think she stopped rolling and sleeping in her nice, new, clean stall all night. We moved in to our new hotel, Hotel Hessischer Hof, and it is REALLY nice. I even have towel heaters for my bathroom towels. When I got to my hotel room, there was a letter from Ann Kathrin Linsenhoff welcoming me to the hotel and competition. It was a really nice touch!

Tuesday night, we got to bed around 1am and had to be up at 5am to walk to the show and be on Nina to school in the morning for 6am - :s!!! My first ride was a little difficult because Nina was a little nervous. There were some interesting horse topiaries all around the arena that she wasn't too fond of. We had a better ride this morning for sure. She was actually really good and has settled a lot more in the ring. We will see what she gives me later today in the ring for the real competition though. This morning was the first time I could really work her in the ring because she was more settled. Fingers crossed I "keep riding" and she stays settled for this afternoon. The trick is to always stay one step a head of her and to never stop riding so she gets confidence from you. She tries to be the boss, but likes it better when you say, "no, actually I'm the boss, and here is how it is going to be." She trusts you and gets confidence from you when you take charge - as I'm sure it is with any other horse. Today I rode a lot better too. I was more settled as well.

We had over 23 horses in the dressage ring schooling this morning between 6 and 7am again. SOOOO many almost collisions. Of course there were also jumper horses in there trying to gallop around as dressage horses were pirouetting and half passing - SUPER difficult to get a line to do some work on. I was an aggressive 'driver' because otherwise you would get nothing accomplished. Because there were so many people, if you were to try and stay out of everyone else's way instead of just riding and demanding respect for your own work space, you would be stuck walking, and get nothing accomplished. So I had "road rage" this morning haha! Eventually the ring stewart called the jumpers out because it was pretty dangerous, which helped, but it was still NUTS! Anyways, I was super happy Nina was more settled this morning.

We had the draw for positions last night. Ann Kathrin made an excellent speech welcoming everyone to the show. This year is the first year they have 13 countries at the World Cup which everyone is really excited about. If the rider was present, they actually got to draw their own time slot for the classes - gulp! It was really nerve racking!!! BUTTTTT....I had hot hands and drew REALLY REALLY well!!!! Today I go last in the class!!!!! :D Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Denmark are all spaced out in the beginning of the class which is awesome. Tomorrow, I drew the 9th position out of 14 riders. I go in the last group of the class which is great again. The back of the class on Friday is stacked, so I am glad I go ahead of them haha! Right after me is Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, and the 2 German riders to end the class off. It couldn't have worked out better for me!

I am off to nap before going back to the barn later to feed lunch and dinner and prepare to ride the PSG. I will probably ride around 7pm tonight. I can't wait, and I really hope that Nina is settled tonight. Today was the first really good ride we were able to put in here, so it is anyone's guess what I will get tonight with her. I hope I can keep her confidence up and do my thing, and the chips will fall where they will. Fingers crossed!

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