First Combined Test - Memorial Weekend

Memorial Day weekend Sierra and I went off to our very first combined test! For those that have never heard of a combined test, it is a horse show consisting of two phases: dressage and stadium jumping. Your score is based on penalty points for both your dressage test and stadium jumping round.

Sierra and I entered the First Timers division (which is appropriate, right?) that included the Intro A dressage test (just walk/trot) and 18" stadium jumping. We also entered a separate dressage test only - Intro C - just for additional experience.

We ended up being the first rider to go for the entire show, and things were a little unorganized. By the time they gave me the "go-ahead", the show was already running behind and I was a little stressed out. We did our Intro A test, and did marginally well. I didn't give Sierra the best warm up (my fault) and as a result, our walk really suffered. And Intro A has a lot of walking. I just couldn't get her to give me a decent overstep, so we ended up with a score of 40 in dressage. Ouch! Oh well...it was good experience, right? Here's my only picture from our Intro A dressage (I have an entire video but I think it's too long to post!):




Moving on to stadium jumping, Sierra jumped the warm up jumps like a pro, so I was feeling confident. She doesn't have much experience jumping strange jumps in a ring yet though, so I had a feeling she would be looky and sticky. I was right! As we stepped into the ring and passed the judges box toward the first jump, she side-stepped at the judge's box, didn't focus on the jump ahead until the last second and stopped. I ended up having to circle her, which is a refusal. *sigh* Not the way I wanted to start our stadium debut, but I definitely either contributed or caused the refusal so....lesson learned. We got over the jump on the second try and continued around the course with only minor issues. She looked at a few of the other jumps (they were scary!) and did some side stepping but we got over them fine.


Saluting for the judge


Right before the spook and refusal








Last jump on course

Due to our lackluster dressage score and our jump refusal (actually, it was the jump refusal that killed us - would've finished 4th), we finished 8 out of 9 in our division. I was disappointed, but considered the outing a learning experience. After all, we did finish! lol

After our combined test I did one more dressage test - Intro C. This time Sierra and I had a great warm up and we were able to show off our walk, trot and canter. What a difference! We scored a 32 on this test, which is funny, because it's more complex than the Intro A test. But I felt much better after this test and score, and was able to leave the show feeling good ;) I got a few more pictures out of this test:


Down centerline











So no ribbon, but a valuable experience for both of us! And that's what counts!