Both Friday and Saturday mornings (the 15th and 16th) we drove over to Gladstone, about 30 minutes away from the barn, to watch the National Dressage Championships/Olympic Trials. This was my first time to see a Grand Prix dressage competition in person.... I don't think I could have picked a much better show to go to! (other than maybe the Olympics haha)
The horses and riders were of course impressive. It was really cool to see the best of the best up close and personal. However I was surprised that even though all the horses were very athletic and extremely well balanced, there were not many that were truly outstanding. On one hand you could view this as watching the cream rise to the top, but on the other hand I expected the top 10 riders in the country to all be pretty spectacular. But maybe I am being too harsh... It's not like I can do any of the stuff they do :P Regardless, it was still a ton of fun to watch! I spent most of the time picking the things I liked about each horse and rider. For instance, two of the riders had absolutely flawless seats, some of the horses were so beautifully fluid it looked like one movement just melted seemlessly into the next, and some horses had some really stand out gaits.
The highlight of the whole thing though was after Steffen Peters was announced the winner, he took his victory lap- he was piaffing and passaging around the ring with one hand on the reigns and the other waving his top hat in the air while the crowd was clapping to the beat of his horse's stride. That was really incredible! It was definitely a moment I will never forget :)
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