Street_Skill
Well-Known Member
Following on from my "I'm panicking about the Area Festival" thread I thought I would give you all a bit of an update about how it went.
I did my warm up competition at my local venue the week before and I was really glad that I did because it was a great confidence boost. We did both prelim tests which were both winter qualifiers and won both classes with 68% and 72% obtaining our final points for the winter regionals. I was really pleased with him and I went back to work on Sunday with a smile on my face looking forward to the week ahead.
I worked 4 days out of my 6 day week and had the last two days off. The Thursday I took off to prepare and travel over to Houghton, and the Friday was competition day. Those of you who read my last thread may remember that I was waiting for my new competition jacket to arrive. Well, as predicted, it didn't turn up so I was left with the option of trying to tart up my 30 year old black one. I attacked it with an old scourer (horse slobber stains) and sprayed it with some air freshener (terrible smell) and it seemed to do the trick. Kind of. I finally got the Land Rover and trailer packed and boxed the horse up to leave at about 4pm, only about an hour after I wanted to leave but I thought the whole place would be floodlit and there would be lights in my stable so I thought I would be OK. After all, once the horse was in bed all I had to do was clean some tack and learn a couple of dressage tests. How hard could it be?!
Before leaving I had programmed the postcode for Houghton into the sat nav in my phone. I'd not been there before so as I was going on my own I thought this was the best option. Well the postcode was wrong. I ended up in the middle of nowhere, in the dark with absolutely no idea about where I was going or where I was. Thankfully I am well practised at turning my "rig" around so I found an industrial estate and a three point turn and google search later I was back on my way. This time with the right postcode. As I reached the last roundabout my sat nav told me to take the first exit and I promptly ended up in RAF Wyton. Another three point turn and I finally arrived at my destination!
Before unloading I went to the office to find out where Ted would be stabled and caught sight of the enormous indoor school all dressed up ready for our competition. I think at this point the penny dropped and I was excited and terrified in equal measure! Anyway, I didn't have much time to think about it because I still had a stable to make up and a horse to unload which was made all the more difficult by the fact that the lights in the stable block had fused and I was bedding him down by torchlight on my phone. With this finally completed I retired to the living area of my trailer (surprisingly cramped for one person and a dog) to clean tack, learn tests and eat. At this point I realised that I had failed to bring a bowl or plate with me so was forced to eat my heat on the hob risotto rice from the pan. Oh well, it all added to the camping feel. As did the condensation dripping on my face in the night from the roof of the trailer....!
The next morning I fed Ted and then went exploring having almost decided not to do the area walk which started at 7am. I quickly changed my mind and rushed back to throw some tack on him. I'm glad I did as he power walked down to the warm up areas, spooking at every available opportunity. On entering the indoor school he had a good look at the horse eating red white and blue table cloths covering the 3 (yes 3!) judges tables so it was well worth getting some odds looks at our appearance (me: denim breeches with long orange socks with brown dog bones on over the top, scruffy fleece and bed hair poking out from under hat. Horse: copious amounts of shavings still in tail and shocking untamed mane). I went back to the stable, plaited him up and generally tried to make ourselves presentable.
Back in the warm up I worked him in and he was generally inattentive. There was a lot going on and everything else was much more interesting that me. Predictably our first test was pretty appalling and I came out with 20 minutes to go before our festival test thinking we needed to pull our socks up. As is usually the way with Ted there is normally a particular exercise that gets him thinking and listening and switches him on. Unfortunately for me it's rarely the same 2 days running and sometimes it can take me a whole session to find it if he's in a mood. Thankfully it all fell into place with some direct transitions and upwards transitions whilst leg yielding out from a small circle. I trotted into the arena and the judges probably wondered what was wrong with me. I was grinning from ear to ear-he just felt amazing. He did the test of his life and everything felt easy. He was hampered by rider error in the second canter transition as, having only printed it out the afternoon before and "learnt" it while eating rice from a pan, I asked for canter in the corner rather than waiting until I crossed the centre line on the circle. Even so, I was absolutely thrilled with him and almost cried as I left the arena. Back at the stable mum cut a chunk out of his mane trying to take his plaits out but I wasn't really bothered as when I saw the results he'd scored plus 65% and missed out on a rosette by less than 0.1%, no doubt that was due to my lack of navigation skills!
Couldn't have been more pleased with him and the poor old boy was shattered when we got home. I left him using the stable door to prop his head up..... Onwards and upwards for us now-no more prelim and embarking on our novice debut at the end of November!
No action shots as I think mum was holding her breath waiting for me to go wrong (I have a track record of forgetting the test, normally more than once) so just a lovely pic of him outside the stable. Thanks for reading!
I did my warm up competition at my local venue the week before and I was really glad that I did because it was a great confidence boost. We did both prelim tests which were both winter qualifiers and won both classes with 68% and 72% obtaining our final points for the winter regionals. I was really pleased with him and I went back to work on Sunday with a smile on my face looking forward to the week ahead.
I worked 4 days out of my 6 day week and had the last two days off. The Thursday I took off to prepare and travel over to Houghton, and the Friday was competition day. Those of you who read my last thread may remember that I was waiting for my new competition jacket to arrive. Well, as predicted, it didn't turn up so I was left with the option of trying to tart up my 30 year old black one. I attacked it with an old scourer (horse slobber stains) and sprayed it with some air freshener (terrible smell) and it seemed to do the trick. Kind of. I finally got the Land Rover and trailer packed and boxed the horse up to leave at about 4pm, only about an hour after I wanted to leave but I thought the whole place would be floodlit and there would be lights in my stable so I thought I would be OK. After all, once the horse was in bed all I had to do was clean some tack and learn a couple of dressage tests. How hard could it be?!
Before leaving I had programmed the postcode for Houghton into the sat nav in my phone. I'd not been there before so as I was going on my own I thought this was the best option. Well the postcode was wrong. I ended up in the middle of nowhere, in the dark with absolutely no idea about where I was going or where I was. Thankfully I am well practised at turning my "rig" around so I found an industrial estate and a three point turn and google search later I was back on my way. This time with the right postcode. As I reached the last roundabout my sat nav told me to take the first exit and I promptly ended up in RAF Wyton. Another three point turn and I finally arrived at my destination!
Before unloading I went to the office to find out where Ted would be stabled and caught sight of the enormous indoor school all dressed up ready for our competition. I think at this point the penny dropped and I was excited and terrified in equal measure! Anyway, I didn't have much time to think about it because I still had a stable to make up and a horse to unload which was made all the more difficult by the fact that the lights in the stable block had fused and I was bedding him down by torchlight on my phone. With this finally completed I retired to the living area of my trailer (surprisingly cramped for one person and a dog) to clean tack, learn tests and eat. At this point I realised that I had failed to bring a bowl or plate with me so was forced to eat my heat on the hob risotto rice from the pan. Oh well, it all added to the camping feel. As did the condensation dripping on my face in the night from the roof of the trailer....!
The next morning I fed Ted and then went exploring having almost decided not to do the area walk which started at 7am. I quickly changed my mind and rushed back to throw some tack on him. I'm glad I did as he power walked down to the warm up areas, spooking at every available opportunity. On entering the indoor school he had a good look at the horse eating red white and blue table cloths covering the 3 (yes 3!) judges tables so it was well worth getting some odds looks at our appearance (me: denim breeches with long orange socks with brown dog bones on over the top, scruffy fleece and bed hair poking out from under hat. Horse: copious amounts of shavings still in tail and shocking untamed mane). I went back to the stable, plaited him up and generally tried to make ourselves presentable.
Back in the warm up I worked him in and he was generally inattentive. There was a lot going on and everything else was much more interesting that me. Predictably our first test was pretty appalling and I came out with 20 minutes to go before our festival test thinking we needed to pull our socks up. As is usually the way with Ted there is normally a particular exercise that gets him thinking and listening and switches him on. Unfortunately for me it's rarely the same 2 days running and sometimes it can take me a whole session to find it if he's in a mood. Thankfully it all fell into place with some direct transitions and upwards transitions whilst leg yielding out from a small circle. I trotted into the arena and the judges probably wondered what was wrong with me. I was grinning from ear to ear-he just felt amazing. He did the test of his life and everything felt easy. He was hampered by rider error in the second canter transition as, having only printed it out the afternoon before and "learnt" it while eating rice from a pan, I asked for canter in the corner rather than waiting until I crossed the centre line on the circle. Even so, I was absolutely thrilled with him and almost cried as I left the arena. Back at the stable mum cut a chunk out of his mane trying to take his plaits out but I wasn't really bothered as when I saw the results he'd scored plus 65% and missed out on a rosette by less than 0.1%, no doubt that was due to my lack of navigation skills!
Couldn't have been more pleased with him and the poor old boy was shattered when we got home. I left him using the stable door to prop his head up..... Onwards and upwards for us now-no more prelim and embarking on our novice debut at the end of November!
No action shots as I think mum was holding her breath waiting for me to go wrong (I have a track record of forgetting the test, normally more than once) so just a lovely pic of him outside the stable. Thanks for reading!
I also forgot a plate or bowl so ate my tea out of the pan in the lorry on Friday night 
doh!
