FestiveSpirit
Well-Known Member
Our 5th attempt at dressage today, and we have finally got our first placing and a pretty rosette for 4th place in the restricted section of Prelim 19
(not telling you how many there were in the class
but it wasnt 4
)
Went back to Abbey, the venue of our first dressaging attempt. Bob desperately needs the physio
(coming out on Wednesday) so he is finding canter transitions very very hard atm, so I took loads and loads of time warming him up very slowly and gradually. Even so his canter transitions in the warm up were diabolical, cue loads of bucking/changing legs behind
I nearly withdrew at this stage cos I hated that he was so uncomfortable, but he seemed to settle and relax a bit after a while so decided to continue but not to push him at all.
Prelim 10 was indoors, he did some fantastic trot (felt like it had loads of 'lift' if you know what I mean?) but was unsteady in the contact cos I wasnt using a lot of leg on him (deliberately). Some nice walk too, esp in his free walk, so got mostly 6's and 7's for those. Canter was much better than I had expected, a lovely transition into left canter (judge said his canter needed more jump) then he spooked
so we fluffed the transition back down to trot
Right canter (his weak side) was not nearly as good so we got 5's
Overall we got 59.09% (our highest ever result, we are very slowly creeping up
) and 6's for all our collectives.
Then went outside (phew!) and did Prelim 19 - much better test overall but I didnt relax in the walk so we jogged a bit
(completely my fault!) and we messed up right canter HUGELY.... Finally he did a massive spook in the corner just as we were meant to do our 20m circle at V allowing him to stretch
(no stretching shown, so a 5!) just before we finished. Overall we got 57.27% and came 4th
Again 6's for all our collectives...
I always feel that sooner or later we will crack it (and break that bloody 60% barrier
) but I knew it wasnt going to be today because of the tension in his back. Maybe next time after the physio has sorted him
But another really enjoyable day, lovely to get our first rosette even if it was only 4th, I will keep trying
Thanks for reading, sorry it is so long
Went back to Abbey, the venue of our first dressaging attempt. Bob desperately needs the physio
Prelim 10 was indoors, he did some fantastic trot (felt like it had loads of 'lift' if you know what I mean?) but was unsteady in the contact cos I wasnt using a lot of leg on him (deliberately). Some nice walk too, esp in his free walk, so got mostly 6's and 7's for those. Canter was much better than I had expected, a lovely transition into left canter (judge said his canter needed more jump) then he spooked
Then went outside (phew!) and did Prelim 19 - much better test overall but I didnt relax in the walk so we jogged a bit
I always feel that sooner or later we will crack it (and break that bloody 60% barrier
