Arniebear
Well-Known Member
With avengence!!!!!
I have always been a gungho go faster type of rider much prefer my XC and polo to the refined art of stressage!! Its not that Im terrible at it.... well Im not brilliant either!! I just find it too confusing, far too many things for my little brain to concentrate on!!
But I decided when I left Uni and was looking for a new horse that I would change my ways... mainly due to the fact that I want to give Eventing a crack... the bigger the XC the more thrill!! and I dont perform too badly at unaffiliated eventing!!!
So off I went and purchased an ex racer... who never really left the race track so stressage wasnt exactly his thing.... now XC he was a machine, sadly I lost him in June due to injury, so when looking for my next I made the massive decision to change all my ways and go for a better type (and by that I mean one with its head screwed on!!!) all my past horses had been TB types scatty brains who hooned around XC So I brought myself a 4 yr old warmblood with jumping bloodlines, who couldnt walk in a straight line or take a contact!! and yes to begin with I still hated stressage, I was getting frustrated because he didnt understand what I was asking... most probably because I wasnt asking correctly! but eventually as much as I hate to admit it I was starting to enjoy schooling and competing him!! We managed to get from a 53% on our first outing to consistently scoring 67% at prelim we even managed a qualification for the unaffiliated championships.... imagine that for an ex polo player eh!!!!! Unfortunately hes currently out with injury so we never managed to compete in the championships 
I do however have a lovely loan pony to play with whilst big bear is out of action and I can safely say I hate stressage all over again!!!!! Im constantly frustrated, Im forgetting to do the simplest of things like heels down, dont drop the inside shoulder ahhhhhhhhhhhh too many things to think about... Ive only been out of the saddle for 12 weeks dammit!!!!!!! Im sure in a few months time when said lovely loan pony stops throwing his head in the air, completely ignoring my leg aids and my stressage instructor gets a hold of me Ill be fine!
But until then give me a beach, a stubble field, a forest, a XC course, a polo pitch.... anything but a stressage arena..... please!!!!
And I know what I have to do; practice practice practice..... but its more fun if there's jumps in the way!!!!!
On the plus side Im going to play SJ with him on Sat that might lift my spirits!!
Does anybody else share my pain of the confusion of stressage???!
I have always been a gungho go faster type of rider much prefer my XC and polo to the refined art of stressage!! Its not that Im terrible at it.... well Im not brilliant either!! I just find it too confusing, far too many things for my little brain to concentrate on!!
But I decided when I left Uni and was looking for a new horse that I would change my ways... mainly due to the fact that I want to give Eventing a crack... the bigger the XC the more thrill!!
and I dont perform too badly at unaffiliated eventing!!! So off I went and purchased an ex racer... who never really left the race track so stressage wasnt exactly his thing.... now XC he was a machine, sadly I lost him in June due to injury, so when looking for my next I made the massive decision to change all my ways and go for a better type (and by that I mean one with its head screwed on!!!) all my past horses had been TB types scatty brains who hooned around XC
So I brought myself a 4 yr old warmblood with jumping bloodlines, who couldnt walk in a straight line or take a contact!! and yes to begin with I still hated stressage, I was getting frustrated because he didnt understand what I was asking... most probably because I wasnt asking correctly! but eventually as much as I hate to admit it I was starting to enjoy schooling and competing him!! We managed to get from a 53% on our first outing to consistently scoring 67% at prelim we even managed a qualification for the unaffiliated championships.... imagine that for an ex polo player eh!!!!! Unfortunately hes currently out with injury so we never managed to compete in the championships I do however have a lovely loan pony to play with whilst big bear is out of action and I can safely say I hate stressage all over again!!!!! Im constantly frustrated, Im forgetting to do the simplest of things like heels down, dont drop the inside shoulder ahhhhhhhhhhhh too many things to think about... Ive only been out of the saddle for 12 weeks dammit!!!!!!! Im sure in a few months time when said lovely loan pony stops throwing his head in the air, completely ignoring my leg aids and my stressage instructor gets a hold of me Ill be fine!
But until then give me a beach, a stubble field, a forest, a XC course, a polo pitch.... anything but a stressage arena..... please!!!!
And I know what I have to do; practice practice practice..... but its more fun if there's jumps in the way!!!!!
On the plus side Im going to play SJ with him on Sat that might lift my spirits!!
Does anybody else share my pain of the confusion of stressage???!