Lance's Training Level debut

I am so happy with my boy! A totally new environment, only his second show, and Lance handled it like an old pro. Oh, he "looked" at a few things here and there, but then accepted each of them and moved on. What a good mind he has.

Lance was a looker himself, all done up in braids for the first time, but I didn't get any photos. When you are a one-woman crew, you can only do so much, you know? I did pay to have our rides recorded, and the videos are uploading to YouTube as I type; I'll post them in my next entry. I didn't do a great job of riding him (I was being so careful not to let him curl behind the vertical that I didn't take enough contact!), but we had no errors and scored solidly – 65.6% and 64.6%. If I had done a better job of riding him I'm sure those scores would have been several points higher. Still, the judge's opening comment on our first test was "Fluid, forward-thinking test!" – one of the best comments I've ever received. :-)

August is hot on our heels, and we have a lot planned. Next weekend we plan to go horse-camping – a new adventure for Lance. In fact, yesterday after I got home from the show, I unloaded, unhitched, and we loaded our camper on the truck! The following week I hope to get another lesson from Julie in order to work on the various weaknesses pointed out by the judge. August 12 is set aside for a beach ride if it works out for the three of us who want to go – another new adventure for Lance. And at the end of August I plan to show Lance at the State Fair, which means we need to work on some things so we don't embarrass ourselves in Halter and Trail. YeeHaw!