Dressage report

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mudmonkey17

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Small report as mega chuffed with pony today. Went along to badminton qualifiers to do prelim test. Pony is very quirky and get can really wound up and tense at shows.
Had a lesson a few days before ironing out some issues and working on warmup routine. Well pony warmed up amazing. So lovely relaxed and soft to ride. Think warmup was too long as around 40 min so was getting tired and then as he went into rug tensed up.
Test went ok to score 60.2% despite a rogue pigeon wandering around the arena. He was quite tense which meant test was hurried and lost our lines but overall pleased.
Think next time will try shorter warmup as really he was ready to go in about 15 min before.
Any tips that would help him be lesson tense going into the arena would be much appreciated :)
 
Perhaps you are tensing up yourself as soon as you go into the arena which in turn is picked up by the horse. Lots of riders do this without realising, myself included. I have been doing exercises to get rid of tension just before my test and certainly pays dividends.
 
Agree with silv - very common!
Breathe the rhythm of the horse. Recite poetry or song lyrics out loud (under your breath if you don't like getting embarrassed).

Also, when you work at home do you ever work him somewhere then go a do a short workout somewhere else? e.g. work in arena for 20 minutes then go and do a 'practice test' in the field, and vice versa?
 
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