Well, after getting past the scary car, we headed back down towards A, and right as we reached that area, they rang the bell. We had to hustle after the previous horse halted, because they weren't giving people much time before wringing the bell, and I wanted to get all the way around without a rush.
Anyhow, we entered at A, halted at X, and (reluctantly) began to move forward. I didn't soften her at the halt because I figured that'd be better than her wigging out and backing out of the arena. We got a 6 on that because her halt was square and straight, but her nose was out. We got another 6, because we didn't make it all the way to C. Cadence was not keen on heading straight at the car. She was a bit tense, and not as soft and relaxed as I would have liked. We lost some more points because she jogged, and she didn't stretch too much on her free walk. We also lost some on submission, and I lost some because I talked to her during the test! Oops. Honestly, I was just trying to relax her a bit, and I don't really regret it. We got 59.55% on that test, which considering everything seems quite fair. We ended in 3rd place.
We hung around outside the ring for a minute, then headed back to the indoor. After walking around and making her halt facing the scary door then trot off towards it, we went back out for our second test. This test went much better. I didn't soften her in the halt, but we moved forward towards the scary truck, made it to the end of the arena, and continued on. I felt that a couple of my figures weren't perfectly accurate, because she was a little resistant to bend. Her free walk lacked a bit of stretch, and she jogged through her walk transition at G. I knew she would, so I started asking at X but to no avail. The transition was irreparably late. Not a big deal though. The rest of the test was quite nice, with the exception of our final halt, which was nose-pokey-outey again. Not a big deal. We got a 69.55% for this test, which landed us in 1st place :) Good mare!
I was incredibly proud of her, because after watching all of the other horses, I knew that the horse I got back in February probably wouldn't have placed, let alone gotten a 1st place red ribbon special. (In Canada, 1st is red) She's really come a long way, and I couldn't be happier. As a reward, she gets her booster shots today! Yay! :P
That sounds great. All mistakes go in the 'show ring miles' category. Congratulations. My first dressage show on Shorty he did reining spins at the judge's stand and at Scotty's first show he got great marks for gaits and double deductions for submission (this was our entire relationship). I think you guys did wonderful.
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