No Show - Oh Nooooo

But Jolie organized a quick clinic on Scribbing when weather forced her to cancel our Saturday show.  Lee Ann Alf and Judith Brown presented great information based on their experiences as scribes up in the big leagues.  Believe it or not, some judges are fun to work with and others - not so much.  After some basics were covered, we "practiced" scribbing a 3rd level test ridden by Judith (on video) and judged by Lee Ann.  Those movements come fast but I kept up without any problem... alas, my writing was not legible.  Hmmm, further training needed.

Here are some of the things I learned from Judith and Lee Ann.

Scribbing Rules:

1) Match the horse in ring/number to the test and confirm correct test in schedule – things can get OOO (out of order) - its your job to fix problems before things get bad.

2) Judge will generally give comments first followed by score

3) Score of 6 or below must have comment; comments/score may be late to allow the judge to see the entire segment – don’t worry

4) Keep an eye on the arena to keep score/comment with correct movement

5) Write judge's words EXACTLY – abbreviations are OK

6) Write legibly so that the rider can learn from the judges input

Judges vs Learner – dressage judge candidates have to qualify to enter the Learner Program; once graduated from the L-program, the candidate is an L-graduate (not a judge) and then can pursue the sequence of judge progression: little “r” -> big “R” -> “S” -> I …..

Scribing Abreviations -

CL - centre line

O   - circle

CT  - collected trot

diag - diagonal
d trans - downward transition
ext - extended, extension
ET - extended trot
Ht  - halt

hur - hurried

imp -  impulsion

L - left

reg - regular, regularity

R - right

sal - salute

serp - serpentinest

trans - transition

u ­trans - upward transition

WT - working trot

I did manage to ride on both Friday and Saturday before the rain moved in early Sunday to wash out the day.  Splash and Sister got a field trip to Verdigris Springs to work with Christian and Mallory joined us with Flame Friday afternoon.  The wind was blowing hard enough to cause unintended dismounts.  Sister and I worked through warmup, trotting, and canter with minimal resistance until, after a little break, she was certain she didn't want to work some more.  Then, while cooling down, we had to get past resistance to backing.  But, not bad since the new dog Teddy, chased us a couple of times barking and Sister handled dog and wind in stride.

Splash was pretty good as well, without the german neck stretcher and showed a bit of energy (likely due to the excessive wind).  Taking left lead canter is a bit of a problem but Splash is going sound so I hope to work through the lead problem with more work.

The cancelled show ment we were on for the Party lesson.  Splash got to go and I used spurs rather than the GNS.  Again, trouble getting and keeping that left lead canter but otherwise, pretty good work. 

In other news, the white yak living in the barn was Diez under dreadlocks made by pounding rain - she still cleans-up good.