ISH_lover
Well-Known Member
Sunday seen Torin and I off to the last show in the local unaff winter dressage league. We were under the impression that we had a few points but imagine my surprise to find out not only were we in the lead by a few points for one prelim section, we were also leading the second prelim class too. 
once again dino horse warmed up beautifully esp after making the decision to warm up outside on the grass which I think helped him relax since he tends to get tense going from warming up indoors to competing outside in the big arena. P7 was up first and I dont think I could have been happier with how he went. None of the usual tenseness and coming against the hand, he just settled and got on with the job! Cue a rather emotional rider at the end of the test :') He had a couple of moments where he thought he knew better and got ahead of me wanting to canter a few steps before the mark but its nice to know hes keen for the job rather than me normally having to hold his hand the whole test.
Bit of a breather in between tests, results were quick off the mark and a solid 68% secured a 3rd and some wonderful comments from the judge - 'horse is a bagful of talent, if a bit strong at times'......and he only went and WON league champion for that class! Again cue some sobbing from mother and rider.
Quick warm up for P19 and in again, I think by this point he had become rather tired and switched off a bit, still an accurate test but not quite as relaxed and engaged as the first. We've found that he is quick to become mentally tired which is something that will come and it was his first long arena test. Fair score of 66% and a 6th place in the class, again with positive comments just 'lacking harmony'. This meant we tied for points to win the league for this class and was just tipped off the top spot as the girl we drew with had higher collectives, which in some ways is a blessing as it means we can still compete in a prelim class without entering HC. Although we'll now need to move up to P and a Novice test afterwards.
Feeling very positive after the weekend, lots of showing and dressage planned for now until we have a full set of jumps on the yard and who knows there might be some eventing on the cards
once again dino horse warmed up beautifully esp after making the decision to warm up outside on the grass which I think helped him relax since he tends to get tense going from warming up indoors to competing outside in the big arena. P7 was up first and I dont think I could have been happier with how he went. None of the usual tenseness and coming against the hand, he just settled and got on with the job! Cue a rather emotional rider at the end of the test :') He had a couple of moments where he thought he knew better and got ahead of me wanting to canter a few steps before the mark but its nice to know hes keen for the job rather than me normally having to hold his hand the whole test.
Bit of a breather in between tests, results were quick off the mark and a solid 68% secured a 3rd and some wonderful comments from the judge - 'horse is a bagful of talent, if a bit strong at times'......and he only went and WON league champion for that class! Again cue some sobbing from mother and rider.
Quick warm up for P19 and in again, I think by this point he had become rather tired and switched off a bit, still an accurate test but not quite as relaxed and engaged as the first. We've found that he is quick to become mentally tired which is something that will come and it was his first long arena test. Fair score of 66% and a 6th place in the class, again with positive comments just 'lacking harmony'. This meant we tied for points to win the league for this class and was just tipped off the top spot as the girl we drew with had higher collectives, which in some ways is a blessing as it means we can still compete in a prelim class without entering HC. Although we'll now need to move up to P and a Novice test afterwards.
Feeling very positive after the weekend, lots of showing and dressage planned for now until we have a full set of jumps on the yard and who knows there might be some eventing on the cards