Sport Horse Nationals !

Well, I finally decided to enter Jalaal in the Sport Horse Nationals in Nampa Idaho this coming September. This will be his 2nd show of the year (1st one was in January) and 2nd show since March 2019 before he got Laminitis. So 2019 was a missed year for shows and 2020 has been a disaster for showing due to Covid-19. Oh well, this has given us time to really work on the foundational elements to confirm him at 2nd level while schooling 3rd level movements. The hot weather has made regular training a challenge but we're making the most of each session. This week I focused on in hand work - teaching Jalaal that he can bend in the direction of travel (half pass). He was convinced that I was asking him to do something completely impossible at first but he finally figured it out and like magic, he was able to bend in the direction of movement !! Win for me ! He's not a big moving warmblood so just getting him to understand how to move his body in such an odd way takes some doing.

I will be VLOGing the show since I will be there all week. I have entered 3 dressage Amature owner to ride classes. We will be doing 2 First level and 1 Second level class. 1 class per day so just warm up, show then cool off.

I plan to arrive a day early so we can do some arena familiarization and get him comfortable since he hasn't been out to any real shows per say in about 2 years.

I am assuming the classes will be massive since nobody has been able to do much showing this year and quaifications were waived.