Durhamchance
Well-Known Member
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
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)
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)