CDI Intermediare I at San Juan Capistrano

I had another early day today, Victor drew the first ride in the Intermediare I at 8am. It was very overcast and misty at the show grounds all morning, and kept threatening to rain. Not exactly Southern California weather.

Yesterday the judges had been critical of Victor's lack of suppleness and bracing throughout the test, so I decided to warm him up a bit deeper to make sure he gave a little more in his back. He warmed up very well although I had to be a little tougher on him to get him better through. His test went very well and he scored 65.395. For his first I-1 I was thrilled! He ended up 7th in the I-1, just outside of the ribbons.

Monkey was next. In the warm-up he felt a little flat in the trot but the canter was really super. I tried to get him a little more up and active in the trot, but I wasn't very successful. The test itself was accurate and solid, but he didn't feel quite as inspired and uphill as he was in the PSG. He scored 65.132.

Majek rounded out the class. He felt much, much better in the warm-up. More active and uphill and much more accepting of the connection with the double bridle. The pirouettes weren't very good in the warm-up, I did what I could to get them a bit better on the aids. The changes were super though. The test itself went fairly well, I bungled the left pirouette but the changes were all quite good. Some of the trot work generally lacks lateral suppleness, so we lost marks there as well. All in all I was happy with how it rode, and again, it was his first Intermediare I in competition. He scored 62.412.

David Blake won the class again on Royal Prinz, scoring above 70%, Steffen and Sundance were 2nd with 68, and Mette Rosencranz was third with 67. The next 6 or so horses were all in the 65 to 67 range, so Victor and Monk were right up there in the pack. A very good result for the day! Victor and Majek are done for this show. Monkey has the I-1 freestyle tomorrow. The sun finally came out over here!