Living in the Sunlight: SdC and Spitfire Dressage

Song in my head while drawing: Tiny Tim "Living in the Sunlight" [link]

Show: SdC Grand Opening Show [link]
HORSE'S NAME: Honey Steele Spitfire
HORSE REFERENCE: [link]
RIDER: Clara Berkshire [link]
CLASS(ES) ENTERING: Dressage
Dressage Training: [link]

No pose reference, but I did look over a lot of pictures of the countryside of Tuscany to get good colors going. First time ever trying to do rain textures and creating a covered outdoor arena o_O That probably took the longest to do. And yes, Spitfire is doing a pace. It was my error and we will probably get docked points for it, but dang it was fun to draw ^_^
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The Story:
Although Mandy had gotten the one-up on Spitfire by having her first dressage show before him, he trumped the mare by having his first dressage show in Italy, a by far nicer climate than her winter show had been. The beautiful Tuscany countryside had allowed for some much needed rest and relief for Clara and Spitfire from the constant training they had been through lately. And even with the threat of rain during their performance, Spitfire's good mood was very apparent as he danced about during their warmup. His knees were lifted high to the point where Clara had to keep reminding him to keep his gait low for collections. A few times, Clara could swear she felt his gait change during trot. A pace? No way...

Every time she started to feel it, she would have to give him a little kick to wake him out of his revery. It was a shame, if he had a decent pedigree to show for it, Clara would love to do pacing shows with him, but he didn't have any purebred pacing breeds in his lineage to attribute this to.

And despite her curt reminders during warmup to not pace, sure enough in mid performance, Spitfire became so relaxed with his routine and was enjoying the scenery so much, he started to pace when he was supposed to do an extended trot. Clara cursed to herself as she kicked him out of it again, but she swore later on when Lana asked her about it that the stallion was smiling to himself. Whether he was smiling for the good weather or smiling out of spite of his one-up over Mandy was another matter. Oh Spitfire, you troll ^_^