sfward
Well-Known Member
Well Missie and I went to our first ever affiliated dressage competition on Saturday to do the two Prelim classes. I was feeling quite optimistic on the Wednesday as she had been an angel in our schooling session, really trying hard and concentrating. Sadly by Friday my nice sweet relaxed mare had been swapped for some evil devil horse which spent the best part of an hour leaping around and bogging off with me around the school, no idea what provoked this particular tantrum but let's just say it didn't really boost my confidence much!!
As usual I managed to arrive late, so after warming up for all of 10 minutes
we went in for our first test. Missie was clearly still in a bit of a strop from the previous night but fortunately a little more tired than she'd been on Friday
and our test wasn't too atrocious, just went to pieces a bit in right canter which I was kind of expecting seeing as this is her weak area anyway and also the main focus of our argument the previous night. We scored 62.4%, which I thought was pretty good considering I came out thinking anything over 50% would be a miracle! 10 minutes later we went on to our second test. Overall I actually thought it was better, but unfortunately right canter was even worse; it felt like we spent most of it disunited
but again nice judge gave us a not-too-horrendous 61.25%.
I'm still waiting for my sheets to be posted as i didn't stay to the end of the class, but the secretary gave me a sneaky peak at the first one and I was really encouraged by the judge's comments, much nicer than you get in BE! Something along the lines of 'keep trying as lots of potential' which was nice.
However I've decided much more work is needed on canter before we go out in public again. Considering in the summer we were managing 10m circles, spiralling, transitions within the canter and starting canter leg yield I have no idea why even a civilised 20m circle is suddenly proving so difficult, but I suppose that is horses, young mares in particular! She seems to have got herself all worried and tense about the whole thing, so lots of lessons and patient work at home is required I think. I've also just invested in a magnetic headpiece after reading the wonder reviews recently, so hopefully that might also help reduce some of the tension (in her at least - do they make them for riders too...?!)
anyway thanks for reading, sorry I don't have any photos of 007 in action!
As usual I managed to arrive late, so after warming up for all of 10 minutes
I'm still waiting for my sheets to be posted as i didn't stay to the end of the class, but the secretary gave me a sneaky peak at the first one and I was really encouraged by the judge's comments, much nicer than you get in BE! Something along the lines of 'keep trying as lots of potential' which was nice.
However I've decided much more work is needed on canter before we go out in public again. Considering in the summer we were managing 10m circles, spiralling, transitions within the canter and starting canter leg yield I have no idea why even a civilised 20m circle is suddenly proving so difficult, but I suppose that is horses, young mares in particular! She seems to have got herself all worried and tense about the whole thing, so lots of lessons and patient work at home is required I think. I've also just invested in a magnetic headpiece after reading the wonder reviews recently, so hopefully that might also help reduce some of the tension (in her at least - do they make them for riders too...?!)
anyway thanks for reading, sorry I don't have any photos of 007 in action!
