j1ffy
Well-Known Member
After a busy May with our Ridgeway ride, Area Festival and first ODE, we focused back on dressage in June. Our first trip to AM Dressage in Gloucestershire was fantastic, with Adam really 'getting' Pocholo in a remarkably short time and I came away keen to crack on and try an Elementary.
As a 'Baroque' PRE (in this case a handy euphemism for very handsome but short-legged, a bit chubby and short-coupled
), Pocholo will always struggle to have the elastic, ground-covering paces required at Novice. Collection, however, is his forte when he can be convinced to put a decent amount of effort in rather than mooching along looking pretty.
YO kindly offered to lend me her car and trailer while she was at Glastonbury so I dived in and entered N37 and E45 at one of our local BD venues. The day before, P decided he can't possibly go from medium canter to working, let alone collected, without a tantrum so I was a tad apprehensive.
On the day we worked a lot on our canter in the warm-up and it was better. He was still quite resistant on the left and tried to dive onto the inside shoulder, so we had a few discussions then went into N37. I was pretty pleased with him - we didn't manage any mediums (of course!) but he was relaxed, obedient and as supple as his length will allow him to be. Plenty of 7s for the canter work, our rein-back, and an 8 for our final halt leaving us in 4th overall (of 11) on 65.5%:
Then straight back in for the Elementary. Again he felt great. Silly jockey managed to add a 10m trot circle (!) and P got tense and jogged in the walk. I was conservative in the medium canter but we got 7s for the collected and another 8 for our final halt, ending up 2nd (of 2
) on 62.74% - woohoo! Super-pleased as I'd hoped to get over 60%. There are plenty of easy marks to pick up so hopefully we can keep onwards and upward!
I've just switched from Photobucket to Imgur so hopefully the pics work. They were bought with social media rights.
Meanwhile my main man Indio is back in work after his fetlock arthroscopy at the end of March. He's lost all his topline so it'll be a steady road back to competition, but hopefully he'll be feeling a lot more comfortable without the bone chips!
As a 'Baroque' PRE (in this case a handy euphemism for very handsome but short-legged, a bit chubby and short-coupled
), Pocholo will always struggle to have the elastic, ground-covering paces required at Novice. Collection, however, is his forte when he can be convinced to put a decent amount of effort in rather than mooching along looking pretty. YO kindly offered to lend me her car and trailer while she was at Glastonbury so I dived in and entered N37 and E45 at one of our local BD venues. The day before, P decided he can't possibly go from medium canter to working, let alone collected, without a tantrum so I was a tad apprehensive.
On the day we worked a lot on our canter in the warm-up and it was better. He was still quite resistant on the left and tried to dive onto the inside shoulder, so we had a few discussions then went into N37. I was pretty pleased with him - we didn't manage any mediums (of course!) but he was relaxed, obedient and as supple as his length will allow him to be. Plenty of 7s for the canter work, our rein-back, and an 8 for our final halt leaving us in 4th overall (of 11) on 65.5%:
Then straight back in for the Elementary. Again he felt great. Silly jockey managed to add a 10m trot circle (!) and P got tense and jogged in the walk. I was conservative in the medium canter but we got 7s for the collected and another 8 for our final halt, ending up 2nd (of 2
) on 62.74% - woohoo! Super-pleased as I'd hoped to get over 60%. There are plenty of easy marks to pick up so hopefully we can keep onwards and upward!
I've just switched from Photobucket to Imgur so hopefully the pics work. They were bought with social media rights.
Meanwhile my main man Indio is back in work after his fetlock arthroscopy at the end of March. He's lost all his topline so it'll be a steady road back to competition, but hopefully he'll be feeling a lot more comfortable without the bone chips!
