First ODE, six weeks to practice on new pony, Tips?

Durhamchance

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I've been able to secure a ride on a lovely competition pony and his owner has persuaded me to join her at a local low level (60cm) ODE in July. I've never done any dressage before and whilst I'm excited to have a go, I'll be mortified if I muck it up completely:D
The test is intro C, I've learnt it and ridden through it once. Pony is a jumper and hadn't done much in the way of dressage. We need to work on our circles, but in practice it didn't feel too bad. I'm booking a lesson with a dressage instructor in a couple of weeks.

I'm going on an adult camp (without pony) in a few weeks and one of the trainers is a BE coach, so I should be able to get some good lessons in during that. We're also going to try and get me and pony out to a clinic or local competition beforehand so it won't be our first outing together.

Other than schooling at home and practicing in the meantime, is there anything else I can or should be doing to improve our chances? I'm quite happy about the jumping phases, it's ponys' strong suit and I've done showjumping before (the x country is being ridden over working hunter and arena eventing fences)
 

Orangehorse

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Has the pony done any cross country? If not it would be a good idea to find a cross country course and have a little practice over things like ditches and water, nothing very big so it is easy. You always need to bear in mind that it should be easy and fun for horse and rider! Sometimes a good show jumper finds cross country fences a bit of a puzzle until they learn that they are just another fence to jump. Also if you can practice doing a X country course, so he gets the idea of jumping, cantering to the next across a field, jumping and cantering on.

AS for the competition, before and after walking the course check that you have walked the correct course and have seen all the fences and haven't missed one out (oh so easy to do!). Go between the start and finish flags and always present your pony at the fence so he can see what the fence is and what he has to do.
 

paddi22

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is the pony a schoolmaster xc? it would be good to get some practice in xc before it. just so you get a feel for the pony and how it reacts to various xc elements. some ponies can be brave with their normal owners but can get a bit nervy with new riders they arent sure of.
 

Durhamchance

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He has been to a few arena cross country competitions (and was successful) so he won't be coming up against fences he hasn't seen before. There's no water or ditches in the course either. I would still like to go x country schooling if we get the opportunity, and have mentioned it to his owner too.

The competition details state it will be run as per BE rules, but as it's only 60cm, what is the cantering speed likely to be?
 

paddi22

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to be honest i wouldn't stress out about cantering times. You are on a strange pony coming up against a lot of things you haven't encountered together at all. And you will be up against people who probably have their horses years, have done tons of dressage tests, and probably a few odes together so they are prepared for the issues they encounter. You would have a nicer experience taking the pressure off yourself to do well, it will be fab if you do (and you could fly it). But it would be more productive to do it as a learning experience and just enjoy the day without pressure.
 

Durhamchance

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to be honest i wouldn't stress out about cantering times. You are on a strange pony coming up against a lot of things you haven't encountered together at all. And you will be up against people who probably have their horses years, have done tons of dressage tests, and probably a few odes together so they are prepared for the issues they encounter. You would have a nicer experience taking the pressure off yourself to do well, it will be fab if you do (and you could fly it). But it would be more productive to do it as a learning experience and just enjoy the day without pressure.

Thank you, I think you're absolutely right. It will be better for my sanity if I just smile, kick on and try not to get eliminated lol. I'm riding him purely for the fun of it until I'm in a position to get my own :)
 
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