This weekend Symphoniker attended the WBS grading.  I found it very stressful as an owner and had difficulty sleeping.  At home he has such wonderful paces and presence he takes my breath away but when at the grading he seemed to lack confidence and shrink in to himself.  It may have been that the other stallions presented  were so good that he just seemed average.  The judges asked him to be loosed over the biggest fence that any of the two year olds had to jump which left me wondering whether that was because he was doing something wrong but as I had chosen to sit in the gallery it was difficut to judge.  He didn't let me down and even though he had never jumped a fence of that size he tried very hard and jumped it cleanly.   I spent the night imagining the worst and woke at about 4 am.  When I got to the stables he looked relaxed and ready to go.  Woodlander Stud (Carsten in particuar) had done a fabulous job.  There was nothing more that could be done.   He passed the grading but during the final walk parade of all the stallions that had passed he got more and more worried by the applause from the crowd.  The judges asked for the last lap to be in trot but as I went passed the gallery he decided that enough was enough and I could not hold him.  He managed to get away from me but fortunately a very nice gentleman caught him for me before any harm was done (well, only to my pride).  

The main thing is that he is now a fully licensed stallion and will be at stud during 2009.