Dom...

This past weekend Theo and I went to a stadium jumping clinic in MN (nice 5 hour drive). For those that didn't read the last post the clinic was with Dom Schramm who is a 3* eventer.  Him and his wife have a youtube channel called EventionTV.  He was so relaxed and easy going it made all my nerves just go away.  Theo and I had our best weekend away ever! Everybody loved him and he lived up to the name Theodorable.  At one point he let out a huge yawn and stretched out his front legs like a dog with me on him.  It was pretty funny.

Dom was really impressed with him as well and kept saying how much he loved this "little" horse... ;-)  15.3 is little in the eventing world.  

Dom helped me figure out why I seem to mess up verticals.  Turns out I need to adjust my upper body back more before the jump to get out of his way.  I practiced doing that and like magic Theo jumped the vertical great!  

We are officially signed up for our first event this year which is May 15th.  I was going to take Jane as well but it's pretty pricey and I don't feel her dressage is competitive enough yet.  There is a mini event the weekend before at the stable we train out of so I'll most likely enter her in that.  Mini events you do all three phases on the same day.  They are not recognized so it's less pressure, about half the cost, and you don't "have" to wear show clothes but everybody does.   

I got 0 pictures of the weekend because I went alone but I did find someone to take a few videos of us.

This is pretty funny...but notice the head shaking and tail swishing?  I knew right away something wasn't feeling right with him even before the stop.  After this I got off and readjusted the half pad.  It was back a bit to far and the seam was right under the saddle causing some pinching.  Fixed it and Theo thanked me with some great rides.  

This round was right after I adjusted the saddle and our best of the day

And then...our vertical problem arose...which is a good thing because that's why I go to clinics, to get help with the issues we have.  (Notice we don't have issues with the other verticals? That's because they are in combinations so there is another jump right after, it's always the stand alone verticals)

Count down to the Midwest Horse Fair is 11 days...is Jane ready?