Kokopelli
Well-Known Member
Very very pleased with my little monster of a pony. On Tuesday evening for some stupid unknown reason I decided to book Louie in for the dengie dressage open prelimnary round. I knew it was a bit out of our league atm but the test is quite nice and no big questions (PC intermediate.)
He warmed up sweetly did a lot of lateral work and transitions, his canter work felt very good. There were elementry tests going on the adjacent arena it was nice seeing what I should be aiming for with him and really made me realise I need to get cracking on with some hillwork/ fitness work to get his bum looking better. Hope I don't give him a complex
All to suddenly it was our turn (cue me freaking out because dressage is WAY more terrifying than jumping ) but luckily I had a while to walk and trot around before the bell went so Louie could see the boards were not going to eat him and I could remember how to ride again.
It wasn't a brilliant test by any means but in some places it was fabulous. We did almost jump out and join the horse in th adjacent arena at one point but managed to contain the little horror. His canter work felt brilliant again and some of his trot work felt even better. He stretched nicely in his free walk and when we had to do a 20m circle with no reins.
I was absolutly chuffed to find we came 3rd, the other two were much more experienced than Louie with one competing in the elem so was what I was expecting but was mega chuffed to find we qualified for area. So we got all 6s and 7s which is brilliant and 63.1% which is a wacking 11% better than our last outing. Judge was very helpful and gave comments which I was expetcing but said at te end he had lovely paces and good potential.
Now I have 4 months to get him looking stronger, out to more places to hopefully give us a chance in the next round.
He warmed up sweetly did a lot of lateral work and transitions, his canter work felt very good. There were elementry tests going on the adjacent arena it was nice seeing what I should be aiming for with him and really made me realise I need to get cracking on with some hillwork/ fitness work to get his bum looking better. Hope I don't give him a complex
All to suddenly it was our turn (cue me freaking out because dressage is WAY more terrifying than jumping
) but luckily I had a while to walk and trot around before the bell went so Louie could see the boards were not going to eat him and I could remember how to ride again.It wasn't a brilliant test by any means but in some places it was fabulous. We did almost jump out and join the horse in th adjacent arena at one point
but managed to contain the little horror. His canter work felt brilliant again and some of his trot work felt even better. He stretched nicely in his free walk and when we had to do a 20m circle with no reins. I was absolutly chuffed to find we came 3rd, the other two were much more experienced than Louie with one competing in the elem so was what I was expecting but was mega chuffed to find we qualified for area.
So we got all 6s and 7s which is brilliant and 63.1% which is a wacking 11% better than our last outing. Judge was very helpful and gave comments which I was expetcing but said at te end he had lovely paces and good potential.Now I have 4 months to get him looking stronger, out to more places to hopefully give us a chance in the next round.
Last edited:
