Eland Lodge ODE Report........

[Heidi1]

Went to Eland on Sunday for Novice ODE, have lovely times, so no rushing and was feeling nice and relaxed. Well got ready for DR and Zara was rather alert, anyway walked over to the warm up and had a little pottle round, she was feeling rather tense by this time, anyway did alot of walk/trot transitions and she wasn't really listening to me, my time was 12.38, but they were running early which was ok if I had known this, anyway got called to go to my arena and that is were the fun really started, Zara had twigged that just over the hedge was something more exciting

, XC start, so she thought if I get through the DR test quickly I can have some fun, well we started off ok, but then it went down hill rather fast, our first canter she exploded into it and then insisted on going tense, her walk on a long rein, was not a walk it was a jog and skip and no stretching at all, her second canter she decided that she would go on the wrong leg first and then corrected herself, trot to halt was terrible, she was so tense. The poor judge must of had a nightmare trying to mark my test. It was so so embarrassing

Anyway onto the SJ, she was a star, popped round lovely and clear, so was really please with that. XC, she was awsome, never looked at a thing, but we ended up with time penalties, but I wasn't bothered, she had gone round lovely. All in all I had a good day, just need to get her out to do more DR....

Went to look at my DR score and it was 62.1

How embarrassing is that, this is from a horse that used to do nothing but DR. The comment at the bottom of my test was "horse has fantastic paces, just needs to be less tense, well ridden"

Any advice on how to settle a very tense horse before her test would be much appreciated....

 

[KatB]

Lol! SHe said it is EXCITING!!!

Well done on the other two though

 

[Heidi1]

Too right she did, she didn't want to do the boring bit.....

Thank you.......

 

[kirstyhen]

Eland Lodge is always exciting for the dresage! If you don't get the XC you get the SJ! Hen was busy watching the SJ and didn't really pay any attenntion to me.

Well done for the other two though

 

[Heidi1]

Thank you.....

To be honest I had a great day, it's all experience, and to be honest DR is not our thing...........

 

[meardsall_millie]

My horse does exactly the same at Eland. Have given up competing there now, it's just not worth the heartache and tears.....!

 

[Peanot]

Well done for the SJ and XC. Perhaps if you`d had more time to warm up for the dressage, you would`ve had a better chance. IMO if they are earlier than your given time, you should have the choice to go in then, or wait til you have warmed up and go in on your given time. There`s nothing worse than not having enough time to warm up, and being told to go in, for your horse to not go so well and then you end up wondering if you had only gone in when you should have!!!! and your horse would be warmed up and tuned into your aids, would it have gone differently?
Just my thoughts tho.