Young Rider Freestyle and Junior Individual - Saturday, July 25th 2009

This morning the Juniors ride their individual test. Sylvie had some very good moments to her test and she rode amazingly, but unfortunately Magic had some issues with his changes today and they ended with just over 60%. That didn`t put them in the top 15 though, so she will not be riding her freestyle :( Awesome riding though Sylvie!!!
Everything got backed up by an hour this morning due to a huge thunderstorm first thing in the morning. It was pouring rain along with thundering and lightning. Consequently, my ride time changed to 3:09. I was the second rider to go, after Annie-Pier and right before Jaimie Holland. Three Canadians right in a row!!!
Oslo was super hot today. The ring was spooky and the wind was blowing like crazy - all the trees had blowen over around the ring and the judges tents were in jeopardy! I was very impressed with Olso though, he maintained his composure in the ring and was mostly rideable. We had great trot work and an amazing left pirouette!!! We also got all of our changes, even though we had to put our three tempis in the corner since Oslo and I were having commmunication issues across the diagonal. We got them all in and clean at the end of the day though! That means all of our lines of changes were clean this week!!! =)
Once again we felt the judges scores were a bit weird, but overall I finished ninth. TOP 10!!!!!!!! I am SUPER happy with Olso, especially considering how crazy he was when we first got here. We actually suspect that he was dealing with an ulcer which can cause drastic temperment changes in a horse. So, I cannot be more grateful for Oslo letting me ride him in all three of our tests even with the change in frame, heat, and spooky atmosphere!
We are headed home tomorrow after the Junior Freestyles and closing cermonies. I know that both Oslo and I are very excited to return home after such an amazing experience! See you all soon =)