Norton Heath Dressage today

[Quarrybank]

A bit of a mixed day for me & Q.

He seemed quite full of himself when I was plaiting him up, & when I got there & got on him & started warming up, he's decided that when I put my right leg on he'd have a bit of a hump. Warmed up tactfully & went in. He did some lovely work & most of it I was very pleased with but in the right canter he decided to continue with his protest & each time my right leg went on he humped!

However I was overall pleased & he got mostly 7's for the first half of the test and finished on 62.4% and 6th

2nd was on 63.5% so very tight scores.
Decided I would warm up for the second test by concentrating on right canter & doing loads of transitions in & out. However this was put on hold as the hunt decided to come through. Q is not sensible to hunt & I made a decision to get off rather than be launched off

Once they'd gone I had a v v excited horse who'd rather be off with them them than doing a dressage test. I got back on & had a few minutes before I had to go in. He was wild & if I put my leg on he bronched madly. No time to calm him down so in we went. The first half was very wild, but he settled down & by the second half he was doing some very elevated but good work.
Overall I was pleased as he could have been a lot worse & did settle. If I'd had 5 more minutes after the hunt had gone I think it would have been a v good test. The horse before & after were also affected so not just me.
I then took him back to his new yard & now have my 2 boys next to each other

Sorry I didn't get to see any other HHO's but I needed to head off after my test to get him settled in his new stable. Q being Q just walked right in and started eating his hay

I hope everyone else had a good day.

 

[Jo C]

The hunt came through??!!!

Good results there though

. Glad you know have them both together it must be a huge reilef!

My 1st test E44 was really hard work he just wasn't giving much and we had more or less constant head shaking but some nice work in between. Got 58% and came 3rd. The 2nd test E50 was so much better and a really nice test but I was disappointed to get 60% as it was way nicer than the 1st test and it was the same judge. Bu heyho thats dressage for you. We came 3rd again so 2 good placings but I came away thinking I don't know what else to do to improve my marks as we seem to get the same scores no matter how he goes.

 

[Quarrybank]

The hunt were down in the bottom field. I was in the little outdoor arena & was struggling to get him to concentrate.... he knew something was up! & then I heard the horn & saw the red coats

You should have seen how quick I was off him & out of there!!

I think if I'd been in the little indoor or other outdoor (by the indoor school) I might have got away with it!
Well done on your 2 good placings & an improvement in your scores. Sorry I didn't get to see your tests & say hi.
Where are you next?

 

[Jo C]

Not sure am probably going to go to Bluegate at beginning of March but haven't worked it all out yet, what about you?

 

[Quarrybank]

Harolds Park on 24th Feb. I'm planning to do one Novice & one Elementary I think.

 

[Jo C]

Ah won't be going there Patrick hates the journey due to all the roundabouts, not to mention the scary holes in the arena walls that are obviously only there to eat him!

 

[Twiglet]

Well done both of you!

Bad luck with the hunt coming through, can imagine not many would have been settled after that......Twiglet only has to hear a horn and he's off on another planet - even when that horn happens to be the farrier's phone ringtone, daft beast.

Jo, 2 thirds is excellent, especially after P's problems over the last few months! He's coming back in style

Lovely day for competing though, was it busy there?

 

[Jo C]

Maybe I should change my ringtone and have someone call me as I start my test!

Quite busy over there they were going on until 7pm with the mediums - rather them than me!