HufflyPuffly
Well-Known Member
Our first dressage after regionals was yesterday and I thought my aims were acheivable 
:
- stay on,
- soft and obedient
- no airs above the ground
I actually did manage all three.
Topaz had other ideas of what we should be aiming for:
- keep mud on some part of her,
- get a flying change in there somewhere,
- find something better to eat than the new balancer!
She also managed all three
.
First up was E57, and I still think it is the hardest elementary and a horrid test! We don't like med canter on a circle and everything just seems to happen very quickly! Did a slightly shorter warm up for it thinking of my second test, and she felt brill really listening and very good in the contact, think we 'may' have sussed it. Could have done with slightly longer to get her totally connected, but she was on it for a lovely soft test, had a little launch to the right away from the flowers but settled beautifully. Rein-back was spot on which was nice, as it was towards the new bench which she'd been eye-balling so feel with our new mega contact it's doing the job at keeping her attention, and by mega contact I mean I'm actually riding her up into one . She did face-plant the simple changes somewhat 
, so the on the fore-hand comment was very justified , but at least she was enthusiastic about it . Also we got the comment of head tilting in both leg-yeilds, her not me ... This is something that has been mentioned before but I've not payed much attention to it , I'm assuming it's a lack of suppleness through the poll? Any idea's of how to combat anyone?
We managed an amazing personal best at this level with 69.11%, first in my section and beaten on collectives for second overall! Even bought her some polos to celebrate.
Onto the second test, I had maybe a rush of blood to the head and made a rash descion, but decided enough novices and entered the medium, M61 so a very kind start to our Medium attempt. She came out to the second warm-up clearly very pleased with herself for her awesome elementary win, so very buzzy and excited, got her second aim for the day by putting a flying change in the extended canter we were practising , it was very expressive . She then was tired, bless her she had been very good so far and was really trying very hard! Into the test, now I am not a fan of sitting trot in general, but we had a moment trotting down to the start where we were in lovely harmony and it was just one of those times to hold onto, I wasn't bouncing and neither was she 
. She was a little tired so a very obedient but slightly disconnected test, always a bit odd to have to really ride her forwards. Maybe the gallops the day before was a little much for her, but listening and lethargic is much better than wild and spooky!
Came away from out first proper medium debut with a fabby 66.03%, first in my section again and fourth out of 13 overall!!!!!!
Now I may have ignored a bit of advice and gone ahead anyway, but really I'm chuffed to bits with her and just knew it was the moment to try it for real, live for the moment right.
:- stay on,
- soft and obedient
- no airs above the ground
I actually did manage all three
.Topaz had other ideas of what we should be aiming for:
- keep mud on some part of her,
- get a flying change in there somewhere,
- find something better to eat than the new balancer!
She also managed all three
.First up was E57, and I still think it is the hardest elementary and a horrid test! We don't like med canter on a circle and everything just seems to happen very quickly! Did a slightly shorter warm up for it thinking of my second test, and she felt brill really listening and very good in the contact, think we 'may' have sussed it
. Could have done with slightly longer to get her totally connected, but she was on it for a lovely soft test, had a little launch to the right away from the flowers but settled beautifully. Rein-back was spot on which was nice, as it was towards the new bench which she'd been eye-balling so feel with our new mega contact it's doing the job at keeping her attention, and by mega contact I mean I'm actually riding her up into one . She did face-plant the simple changes somewhat , so the on the fore-hand comment was very justified , but at least she was enthusiastic about it . Also we got the comment of head tilting in both leg-yeilds, her not me ... This is something that has been mentioned before but I've not payed much attention to it , I'm assuming it's a lack of suppleness through the poll? Any idea's of how to combat anyone?We managed an amazing personal best at this level with 69.11%, first in my section and beaten on collectives for second overall! Even bought her some polos to celebrate
.Onto the second test, I had maybe a rush of blood to the head and made a rash descion, but decided enough novices and entered the medium
, M61 so a very kind start to our Medium attempt. She came out to the second warm-up clearly very pleased with herself for her awesome elementary win, so very buzzy and excited, got her second aim for the day by putting a flying change in the extended canter we were practising , it was very expressive . She then was tired, bless her she had been very good so far and was really trying very hard! Into the test, now I am not a fan of sitting trot in general, but we had a moment trotting down to the start where we were in lovely harmony and it was just one of those times to hold onto, I wasn't bouncing and neither was she . She was a little tired so a very obedient but slightly disconnected test, always a bit odd to have to really ride her forwards. Maybe the gallops the day before was a little much for her, but listening and lethargic is much better than wild and spooky! Came away from out first proper medium debut with a fabby 66.03%, first in my section again
and fourth out of 13 overall!!!!!!
Now I may have ignored a bit of advice and gone ahead anyway, but really I'm chuffed to bits with her and just knew it was the moment to try it for real, live for the moment right
.
