Leap Day!

Happy Leap Day, everyone! 

It's a Leap Year, which means it is also the year of the presidential election in the USA...and also the year of the summer Olympics!!! 

Everyone probably knows that the Olympics this summer are being held in London, England.  I'll be watching the equestrian events with great interest (of course) and I already have my picks for who should be on each team (particularly the dressage and eventing teams).  I'm also excited to see the cross-country course, which is set in a small park in London (it's usually held in some faraway spot because there's not enough room in the host city for a cross country course).  However, I'm also excited to watch swimming, diving, track and field, and gymnastics.  There's always high drama in those events, not to mention just out-and-out physicality and strength.  They are beautiful to watch!

In other news, I'm getting ready to order a new dressage show coat and a new pair of white breeches....eeek!  This means this whole showing thing is getting real...and close...and real!  Yay! 

I have a lesson with Debra tomorrow evening, which will be a great prelude to our trip off the farm this coming Saturday.  We're heading down to a schooling show just to hack around and school in the environment (and possibly stalk Eric Dierks - mentioned in my last post - because he'll be there with a couple of horses).  Then, towards the end of March, I'll ride a test at a schooling show to prep for the upcoming April show.  Whew!  One step at a time, though....I'm focusing on my lesson with Debra and the discussion I want to have about which First Level test to work on right now.  I like the way First 2 breaks up the canter coefficient (it's for the return to working canter after the lengthening).  That's different from First 3 which INCLUDES the lengthening on that movement (and therefore in the coefficient).  I ALWAYS get "show more" on my canter lengthenings, mostly because I'm a little nervous to ask for too much at a show.  Who knows?  We may just end up in another county if I ask for too much.  So, I'm not sure I want to try First 3 quite yet because that would bring the score down - and if it's a coefficient, that means TWO low scores.  So, that's my focus right now...lesson and discussion with Debra.  Then I'll think about Saturday....and then later all that other stuff I mentioned.....eeep!