Night before a show

The night before the show is always important.  I'm not sure if a good school or a bad school sets the standard for the day of the show.  I've had really good schools the night before and then when my horse is alone, or I'm in a new arena it all goes down the drain.  If I have a bad school at least I know what I'm headed for and I'm not going to be disappointed with my scores. 

Tonight was phenomenal.  We had to wait out a big storm that moved through so we had time to braid the girls before we got on so we looked extra fancy.  There were plenty of Dressage people around and they seem to love wearing white polos, side reins, lunge whips, and taking up half the arena so we decided to go hack around outside.  It turned out to be a great idea, we got to warm the horses up by taking some laps around a big grassy field and both horses were wonderful.  It has been raining a ton and the grass was squishy so all we did was walk but it was peaceful. 

After the Dressage people were done lunging we were able to go into the very busy indoor arena.  Annie started out slow but tense, lots of horses, some of them pronging like antelopes.  After we got to work she was all business.  She was consistently on the bit even during the changes of direction and her transitions.  She took both canter leads quietly and at a reasonable rate of speed and had a fantastic downward transition.  She moved on into Dressage territory with a walk canter transition, some leg yielding, and some shoulder/haunches in.  I felt fancy.

After we finished up with a short school in the outdoor arena. 

I'm hoping she performs just as well tomorrow when we have to be in the outdoor alone but I'm really over the moon tonight.