3Beasties
Well-Known Member
Took Missi off for some dressage on Sunday. I had been very excited at the prospect but woke up feeling terrible and full of nerves which were made worse by the fact that the weather was fowl and Moo was being a pain to get ready! Finally got loaded and headed off to our favourite little venue.
Tacked up and headed in to the warmup wrapped in waterproof layers and exercise sheets. It was pretty quiet but Moo was very tense. She's not much of a fan of wind and rain and there was a huge pipe pumping water out right next to the school! We worked on just getting her to relax and listen. Stripped off the layers and headed to the indoor. Had expected Miss to relax once in there but she was still on edge. Had a lonnngggg trot around which I probably should have made better use off and then started the test (Intro B). The nice bits felt nice but there was definite tension throughout. She didn't like the look of E which made for an interesting turn E to B and our free walk was pretty awful. Had a bit of a spook in one of the trots too. All in all, not our best test but not our worse either!
Thankfully, for once we didn't have long to wait till our next test (Prelim 4) so I stayed on and did a bit of canter. Had a bit of a broncing fit but I had the school to myself so just let her got on with it and rode her through it. Second test felt more relaxed but I lacked a bit of accuracy. The left canter was terrible but the right one felt nice enough, we are slowly improving in that area! Trot and walk where nice enough but free walked lacked energy again.
All in all I was really pleased with her. Although she was tense from having not competed for a nearly 7 weeks (I hadn't even considered that it would affect her - Silly me!) she did keep a lid on it and managed not to do anything too drastic!
Had no idea how we would be scored and had two different judges so knew it could vary hugely between classes. Was pleased with 67% in the intro and 4th place and 60% in the prelim. Not our best scores but ones that were deserved on the day
Here's a few piccys -
And a vid of the intro (you may want to skip the first 2 1/2 mins of us just trotting around the arena )
[video=youtube;OTb4Z2lviHc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTb4Z2lviHc[/video]
Have decided that that is it on the Intro front as we have been placed in the top 4 every time out and have always scored between 65% and 72% so I feel that although it is great for our confidence we probably need to get a grip and do a couple of prelims instead. Her canter is awful so hopefully I won't become too disheartened by our low scores but at the moment I feel motivated to put more work in and to get it sorted! (Only exception will be at two comps at a different venue that have been doing a championship through the winter so I want to stay at the same level for those to try and add points to what I may already have got - if that makes sense!?). So have got lots to work on and am looking forward to improving further
CC welcome as always
Tacked up and headed in to the warmup wrapped in waterproof layers and exercise sheets. It was pretty quiet but Moo was very tense. She's not much of a fan of wind and rain and there was a huge pipe pumping water out right next to the school! We worked on just getting her to relax and listen. Stripped off the layers and headed to the indoor. Had expected Miss to relax once in there but she was still on edge. Had a lonnngggg trot around which I probably should have made better use off and then started the test (Intro B). The nice bits felt nice but there was definite tension throughout. She didn't like the look of E which made for an interesting turn E to B and our free walk was pretty awful. Had a bit of a spook in one of the trots too. All in all, not our best test but not our worse either!
Thankfully, for once we didn't have long to wait till our next test (Prelim 4) so I stayed on and did a bit of canter. Had a bit of a broncing fit but I had the school to myself so just let her got on with it and rode her through it. Second test felt more relaxed but I lacked a bit of accuracy. The left canter was terrible but the right one felt nice enough, we are slowly improving in that area! Trot and walk where nice enough but free walked lacked energy again.
All in all I was really pleased with her. Although she was tense from having not competed for a nearly 7 weeks (I hadn't even considered that it would affect her - Silly me!) she did keep a lid on it and managed not to do anything too drastic!
Had no idea how we would be scored and had two different judges so knew it could vary hugely between classes. Was pleased with 67% in the intro and 4th place and 60% in the prelim. Not our best scores but ones that were deserved on the day
Here's a few piccys -
And a vid of the intro (you may want to skip the first 2 1/2 mins of us just trotting around the arena
)[video=youtube;OTb4Z2lviHc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTb4Z2lviHc[/video]
Have decided that that is it on the Intro front as we have been placed in the top 4 every time out and have always scored between 65% and 72% so I feel that although it is great for our confidence we probably need to get a grip and do a couple of prelims instead. Her canter is awful so hopefully I won't become too disheartened by our low scores but at the moment I feel motivated to put more work in and to get it sorted! (Only exception will be at two comps at a different venue that have been doing a championship through the winter so I want to stay at the same level for those to try and add points to what I may already have got - if that makes sense!?). So have got lots to work on and am looking forward to improving further
CC welcome as always
