DRESSAGE DERBY OF OHIO

Yet another new experience for Damon last weekend.  The Dressage Derby of Ohio is held at Lake Erie College where Damon's classes were held in the indoor arena.  In the past, that arena has proven to be intimidating for a lot of horses so I was very curious to see what his reaction would be.  We got to school there on Friday afternoon which was a big help. Unfortunately, we were only allowed to lunge up on the Hunt Field (which proved to be a little exciting) but I was pleasantly surprised at how settled he was in the indoor.
We had rain that night which the footing outside was a no go for lunging so I decided to school him lightly in the morning in the indoor warm up arena before his afternoon ride. To complicate matters, the warm up had about 6 horses in a 20 x 40 area but I quickly found out that Damon is very brave, even when horses crowd him.  But, I have to say it was a challenge to canter him in there with his big stride and all that traffic. He handled it like a pro, another feather in his cap!  Warming up for the afternoon ride was the opposite, he was the only one in there which made him mildly concerned but he persevered .  The greatest thing was that he marched right down to the judge's stand which sits about 6 feet from the dressage arena and never missed a beat. I have to say in the test itself, his nerves showed a bit on his entrance and he broke at one of the trot lengthenings, but otherwise obedient. We had the same judge that we had last week in Waterloo and she was still pretty hard on him about the amount of tension he showed but she had no way of knowing how inexperienced he really is so we took it with a grain of salt.
Sunday was the 4 yr old Qualifying test and he really did an excellent job.  He was much more relaxed and the test had a better flow to it and afterwards the judge gave him kudos for how much he had improved in only one week. Their overall impression was favorable but they want to see more self carriage, especially at the canter and more relaxation at the medium walk. He scored a 68.2 percent. All of those things will come with time and I must say that what he has accomplished since he came over from Germany  6 weeks ago is extremely admirable. He remains a happy, outgoing horse with a great head on his shoulders and I couldn't be more proud of him.

Now we have three weeks at home before the show at Waterloo, which will be the final chance to qualify for the Young Horse Finals.