Senior moments (or, why we didn’t actually get first place on Training 3)

So in my last post, I mentioned that we had a couple of fabulous dressage tests at the show last weekend, and I also mentioned that for our second test we missed first place by one point. Normally I’d be like “Eh, we had a great ride, who cares!” but what I neglected to mention is that I went off course on Tr:3… which cost us two points.

Two points.

In other words, if I had remembered my damn test, we would have been first… by one point.

[Quick side note about how dressage is scored: Every dressage test has a certain number of movements, such as 20 meter circles or halts or trot-canter transitions. Each movement is scored from 1-10, 1 being “did not perform the movement” and 10 being “you just won the Olympics with this movement.” Certain movements have coefficients, so they are worth twice or even three times as many points. To get your percentage score, you add up the number of points you got, divide by the number of points possible for that test (every test is different), and multiply by 100. That’s how I got a 68%, but was only 1 actual POINT behind first place, which was a 68.4%. If I’d gotten the two extra points, I would have had a 68.8%.]

The EVEN SADDER thing is, I ALSO forgot Training 2. I’d practiced both tests to death the week before, and I even went over them several times in my head right before I went in the arena. Seriously though… forgetting two tests in one day?

Going over the test before going into the arena.

I’m blaming it on my advanced age.