Dressage this weekend...eek!!

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Dizzydancer

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booked for an intro and a prelim test this weekend- our first intro.
Had a lesson this morning and my horse has decided she doesn't want to trot anymore and just wants to walk/canter so I have a feeling that our intro test is going to be rather entertaining!! We did get some nice trot work but to get it wasn't pretty to get it!
Any tips on trying to keep a calm trot with only a day to go would be appreciated!?
 
Thanks- yes defined going to be hacking out tomorrow- will go on our trot/canter routes to burn some steam off her!
I think I have done it to myself she starting drifting through outside shoulder in right canter strike off so we have been working on that for last few weeks and she know just wants to give right canter!! Oops
Live and learn- only had her since may and still learning what she needs and clearly that is variety lol
 
I don't know if this would work for you, but I always try and have a good canter early on in the warm up on both reins, even for an intro test. Then I come back to trot and work on that. For my pony blowing off some steam and loosening up in canter seems to make him more inclined to be calmer in the trot and work better. Then if I feel like he's rushing or trying to break into canter, I focus on slowing my rising and gently using half halts to steady him. Hope that helps x
 
Thanks tattyv that sounds like a good idea- she needs canter early in her warm up always has- loosens her off.
I will definitly try and remember your tips- she is too big to hold in any other way!!
 
I had a couple of hairy outings with my little chap at the beginning - he would get dreadful separation anxiety from his travel buddy and then just rush around the warm up arena like a loon! It was such a horrible feeling and I used to get quite upset about it, especially when everyone else was calmly trotting round beautifully! In the end just about the only thing that worked was to stay calm myself, keep bringing him back to trot and keeping his brain engaged so asking for leg yield, small figures of eight etc to give him something to think about. He has come on leaps and bounds through patience and practice so there's definitely hope :) Can you get someone to come with you as a spare pair of hands? I found it so helpful having someone there just talking to me and keeping me calm!
 
it wasn't as bad as I wxpected- went for a hack the night before which went swimmingly until a friend fell off and her horse got loose- que mine having a melt
Down! So not the desired quiet hack we wanted!
Walk trot test was tense tense tense- just managed to keep a lid on the creature so as not to get canter but didn't look pretty!
Prelim was better altho she was still tense and not great got wrong Canter lead for first canter (anticipation I think). We managed to get 61.8 but came away a bit disheartened as it was all very tense and not pretty couldn't get her to listen and accept the contact tho so think we need to go out more and do more outings to get her to chill and just not worry about the score!
 
Oh no! The night before definitely doesn't sound ideal! I've had test scores ranging from 60 to 67%, and the variance is nearly always due to whether he and me are tense or not. I'm sure as you get out more you'll relax more and she'll relax more too. It's really disheartening when you can't replicate what they're like at home, but it does get better 😀 my pony's called spook and one of our early test comments was "does your pony's name account for the tense attitude today?!" X
 
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