Daft One does Difficult Dressage :D

BronsonNutter

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First off, look at that alliteration - clearly I haven't forgotten everything from A-level english (just most of it :p)

Yesterday me and the Daft One (who is now insisting everyone calls him Wonderful Wibbles, or Totilas, he's a little bit chuffed with himself :rolleyes:) ventured off to Sykehouses to do the combined training - N20 and 75cm SJ - and then tackle our first elementary, E42. I've never done elementary before and he's only done a handful of novices and was adamant on saturday that I could not possibly be meaning to ask him to canter on the wrong leg so kept doing his clever-clogs impression and doing flying changes for me, so yeah, we weren't expecting great things!

Arrived with plenty of time, went to the loo to try and be sick, tacked up and got on. Ambled about the warm up for a bit, spooked at the bottom of the arena several times (not sure if he was spooking at the mini-bonfire that had relit itself in the wind, or the banner advertising bling...) then ambled in to do N20. It felt like the best novice test he'd ever done - he still needs to get more in the mediums, and didn't really stretch in the stretchy-trot circle, but is was sweet and we had no explosions or annoying-head-flicks. So was a bit miffed with on 56.8%, when he has been getting into the 60s on other occasions :confused: But never mind, because he was a good pony :D

Whacked boots on and went in to do the SJ - as they only have 2 arenas, the usual warm up ring was being used as the dressage arena and so the main arena was sectioned in two (dressage warm up ring in one half and SJ course in the other). So we warmed up over fence number one, and then he popped round the course quite nicely and calmly for him :p, Had the second part of the double down as I messed up the line into it and ended up wiggling into it, scrambled over the first part and then were neither here nor there for the second :eek: It all felt a bit small for him, but I've lost a lot of faith in myself jumping recently (not due to Wibbles!) and so didn't want to push it today :eek: Ended up getting a red rosette because we were the only ones doing that combo of test/jumpies, and qualified for trailblazers CT 2nd rounds :p

Video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFPggvtbkdI

He then stood next to the trailer, fell asleep for a bit, before having to wake back up for E42. Ambled back to the warm up, tried to razz him up a bit more, failed to razz him up, and so went in... And he was a star :D We made a couple of 'mistakes' due to nerves and greeness (and I'm proud to say, acheived a 2 for one canter half-circle-pear-shape-counter-canter-thing, where he just dropped back into trot and was a bit unbalanced so I didn't ask for canter again :eek:) but he got mainly 6s and 7s, and ended up with 59.4% and 2nd :eek::D Also qualified for trailblazers second rounds for that now!

Video of the start of the test (camera ran out of memory :eek:): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVo3stFySVQ

He's just a star :D
 

Lolo

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Love him, he's so neat and cute! If you lived in Norfolk, you'd HAVE to do dressage pairs with Reg and Al (although you'd outclass them rather a lot- Reg has just mastered trotting in a straight line!). Good luck selling him and I hope you have an awesome time at uni :) Where are you going?
 

BronsonNutter

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Thanks all :) He's done some XC schooling at home today and has just been a complete dude :D

Lolo, I'm off to Liverpool :) Wilby would love pairs dressage, and we still have problems with straightness at times - he is a natural at travers in canter :p

MM, it was around an hour on the way back - took us a bit longer going because the trailer got stuck trying to go over a bridge! Didn't realise they'd stuck a barrier down the middle and and SuperMum had to reverse it back out onto the main road whilst I did my best traffic controller impression :eek:

FJ, he's been asking for sparkles and fluff for ages :p I refuse to taint Bronson's bridle with bling though! If he ends up staying he might get his very own bridle, then he might be allowed a sparkle or two... Or not :p

Annabel, we're not sure really - might take him to do the ODE at epworth or scunthorpe PC's hunter trial on the 11th... It all depends on when/if he goes though :(
 
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