Marquire
Well-Known Member
We had our first outing into elementary dressage on Saturday and it was truly a game of two halves!
I had been stewarding at the competition in the morning and the weather had started off grey and windy but by the time the novice classes started the weather had deteriorated massively with high winds and horizontal rain. I really was in two minds whether or not to compete because I was soaked through having been stewarding plus my horse HATES the cold. However, I forced myself to drag him in from the field which he was very pleased about as he had been standing at the gate with a take me in NOW! face on. But he was less than amused when I started plaiting him up and he had a real grump on even before the tack appeared.
Anyway I dragged him around to the warm up arena (outside) where he proceeded to show his immense displeasure but napping, spinning and generally being a complete pain in the butt. Within 5 minutes of getting on we were both soaked to the skin and I was really beginning to wonder why I was putting us both through this. After a pathetic 15 minute warm (?) up we went to do our first test (E41) outside and by this point I just wanted to get it over with. Unfortunately, the wind was howling directly from the C end, coupled with horizontal rain, so we entered at A with his head between his knees at a very slow laboured trot. The rest of the test was made up of head between the knees when going towards the C end and head in the air, tail clamped tight when going away from C. A complete nightmare! We ended up with 52.4% but werent last so at least I wasnt the only one whos horse was protesting at the conditions. I was close to withdrawing from the second test at this point but as my OH pointed out we were already soaked so we might as well press on.
I had 40 minutes before the next test so I put my poor wet horse back into his stable wrapped in a thermotex rug and tried to not think about the fact that I was freezing to death. I just couldnt face another soaking in the warm up arena so I didnt even get back on him before the next test (which was thankfully indoors). I just led him up to the indoor arena, whipped off his rug and hopped on. I was dreading the next test as it was E48 which has two counter canters on a 20m circle followed by a simple change which is really a little beyond my boy at the minute. However, he totally amazed me by being light, round and responsive as soon as I got on and he did a fantastic test with only two mistakes. In the second counter canter circle he was a little tight and nearly broke which earned me a 5 and this meant that the simple change afterwards was dreadful and we got a 4. Apart form that he scored mostly 7s. We ended up with 64.5% and were 2nd overall. I was totally shocked as my big aim for the day was to make 60%.
I had been stewarding at the competition in the morning and the weather had started off grey and windy but by the time the novice classes started the weather had deteriorated massively with high winds and horizontal rain. I really was in two minds whether or not to compete because I was soaked through having been stewarding plus my horse HATES the cold. However, I forced myself to drag him in from the field which he was very pleased about as he had been standing at the gate with a take me in NOW! face on. But he was less than amused when I started plaiting him up and he had a real grump on even before the tack appeared.
Anyway I dragged him around to the warm up arena (outside) where he proceeded to show his immense displeasure but napping, spinning and generally being a complete pain in the butt. Within 5 minutes of getting on we were both soaked to the skin and I was really beginning to wonder why I was putting us both through this. After a pathetic 15 minute warm (?) up we went to do our first test (E41) outside and by this point I just wanted to get it over with. Unfortunately, the wind was howling directly from the C end, coupled with horizontal rain, so we entered at A with his head between his knees at a very slow laboured trot. The rest of the test was made up of head between the knees when going towards the C end and head in the air, tail clamped tight when going away from C. A complete nightmare! We ended up with 52.4% but werent last so at least I wasnt the only one whos horse was protesting at the conditions. I was close to withdrawing from the second test at this point but as my OH pointed out we were already soaked so we might as well press on.
I had 40 minutes before the next test so I put my poor wet horse back into his stable wrapped in a thermotex rug and tried to not think about the fact that I was freezing to death. I just couldnt face another soaking in the warm up arena so I didnt even get back on him before the next test (which was thankfully indoors). I just led him up to the indoor arena, whipped off his rug and hopped on. I was dreading the next test as it was E48 which has two counter canters on a 20m circle followed by a simple change which is really a little beyond my boy at the minute. However, he totally amazed me by being light, round and responsive as soon as I got on and he did a fantastic test with only two mistakes. In the second counter canter circle he was a little tight and nearly broke which earned me a 5 and this meant that the simple change afterwards was dreadful and we got a 4. Apart form that he scored mostly 7s. We ended up with 64.5% and were 2nd overall. I was totally shocked as my big aim for the day was to make 60%.