Kestrel’s Excellent Adventure

by Lori Albrough

Getting Ready for Kestrel’s First Show

I thought it would be fun to share the story of some of our preparations in getting Kestrel ready for going to her first show! We entered her in Training Level at the National Spring into Dressage show at Palgrave.

Leading up to the show, we took some photos of our preparations for the big outing. Here is a bit of a behind-the-scenes chronicle of the story…

: The first thing Kestrel needed was a passport photo. Here she is posing for it in front of our barn.

: We took these photos on May 3, so she’s not totally in her summer coat yet, but still looking good.

: On May 14th we headed over to our neighbors at Maple Run Ranch, to practice riding away from home.

: We are doing some canter work in our warm-up.

: Kestrel doing a little lengthening across the diagonal. We won’t have to show this until First Level though.

: Here’s another movement we won’t need to show until later (Second Level). Practicing a little travers (haunches in).

: On May 27 we met our coach Tina Busse-Irwin at her mother’s barn, Sonnenhof Stables, to do a lesson away from home.

: Here we are warming up at Sonnenhof. Nice scenery – everything is turning green.

: Here’s another view of us with the pond in the background. You can’t see the family of geese that was there that day. Good training opportunity.

: Listening to Tina explain something.

: Starting a leg-yield off the right leg.

: Practicing going straight down the centre line.

: Walk break. We had a great ride!

: Now it’s the day before the show and we are at Palgrave. Tina coaches us through some exercises to relax Kestrel and get her loosened up.

: Here we do a little trot-on-the-spot exercise, before going more forward. Changing the tempo helps Kestrel to concentrate on her rider.

: Now she’s feeling relaxed and working well.

: Here we are doing a canter lengthening down the long side. Lori likes this picture because it shows how straight the horse is (you can only see two legs).

: The big day! Kestrel’s forelock is braided, and we’re all dressed up. We are getting ready to go in.

: Here we are in the ring!

: Now it’s day two of the show and we are getting ready to go again.

: This is us on the last day. You can see by the dressage fence how sloppy it got this weekend.

: “Do you think this hair-do suits me?” Yay, the show is over and Kestrel won Champion in her division! More importantly, she had a lot of positive experiences. What a fun adventure!