We decided to battle through the horrific winds and sleet to attend out first competition of 2015. It was unaffiliated dressage at a new local venue called Rockrose Equestrian. It was a 45 min drive and we arrived to find a wonderful new indoor school. Just what was called for on such a horrible day. As C hasn’t been out much in the last few months he was a bit spooky which is unusual but he warmed up well once he got use to his new surroundings.
I had decided to ride 2 prelims (1 and 4) as our canter work had been improving at home. Our transitions still need lots of work but once we are in canter, it’s now more even and I don’t have to deal with C’s blaze in my face!
The warm up was at one end of the indoor school with the arena marked out at the other. Things went well in our first test – a little spooky at the judges and photographer but I was generally happy. Our score was 62.11% which is generally standard for us just now.
I therefore had high hopes for the second test, thinking he would be more relaxed and less spooky second time round. How wrong could I be!
He warmed up super, nice and relaxed and moving forward well (we struggle at times with lack of activity in our trot). Unfortunately another competitor started to lunge their horse next to the arena which set him off. I’m not sure why but it really upset him. The trot was very backwards, loss of contact and things only got worse when we got into the canter section. I decided to just bring him back to trot, lots of pats to try to settle him. Needless to say we received our worse mark to date. I’m going to draw a line under it though as he was not really misbehaving, he was upset. I know he should not get spooked so easily but as it was so out of character I’m not going to worry about it.
Positive of the day where we have a lovely new local venue with a lovely indoor school and super friendly and helpful owners/staff. I was pleased with our first test and although our second was a disaster – the judge did say C was an attractive horse :-)
We also met a lovely photographer called Jim Hunter who took some nice shots of us which I have added below.
I had decided to ride 2 prelims (1 and 4) as our canter work had been improving at home. Our transitions still need lots of work but once we are in canter, it’s now more even and I don’t have to deal with C’s blaze in my face!
The warm up was at one end of the indoor school with the arena marked out at the other. Things went well in our first test – a little spooky at the judges and photographer but I was generally happy. Our score was 62.11% which is generally standard for us just now.
I therefore had high hopes for the second test, thinking he would be more relaxed and less spooky second time round. How wrong could I be!
He warmed up super, nice and relaxed and moving forward well (we struggle at times with lack of activity in our trot). Unfortunately another competitor started to lunge their horse next to the arena which set him off. I’m not sure why but it really upset him. The trot was very backwards, loss of contact and things only got worse when we got into the canter section. I decided to just bring him back to trot, lots of pats to try to settle him. Needless to say we received our worse mark to date. I’m going to draw a line under it though as he was not really misbehaving, he was upset. I know he should not get spooked so easily but as it was so out of character I’m not going to worry about it.
Positive of the day where we have a lovely new local venue with a lovely indoor school and super friendly and helpful owners/staff. I was pleased with our first test and although our second was a disaster – the judge did say C was an attractive horse :-)
We also met a lovely photographer called Jim Hunter who took some nice shots of us which I have added below.
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