LeannePip
Well-Known Member
As its been quiet in here lately i thought i'd post a (hugely long!) round up of Ruby!
Get yourselves comfortable, and maybe grab a drink as I don't remember what or when i last posted so i'll start from her holiday;
1st December she came in from her holidays looking like an over grown, 30year old new forest pony!
Beginning of Jan we went out to our second dressage. The weather was absolutely horrific, the rain came from every direction, and the wind made it impossible to go in a straight line! every item of dry clothing that is stored in the lorry was used up and it was miserable. The warm up was deserted, lots of people opting to go straight in as the test was indoors. Ruby was electric when i got on and would only canter round the warm up, not exactly useful for an intro test! In the test she was a bit tense, but everything happened in about the right place and she didn't come up against me so i was mega chuffed and nearly burst into tears at the final halt! Quick costume change into dry clothes got back on for the prelim, cantered around the warm up and managed some trot this time too then stood in the corner of the indoor trying to keep out of the storm! Test again was quiet and obedient but still a bit tense in her neck, but considering the storm outside and her first time indoors I wasn't too surprised! But i was surprised to see scores of 70.4% and 73.8% leaving us in 5th and 2nd in the Intro and Prelim respectively. I nearly cried . . Again!
The next outing was a few weeks later for a bit of XC schooling, this was Rubys first time out on grass since before her holiday at a venue she went to a riding camp at so she was very excited to see where we were, and knew exactly what it was all about! She was quite unruly at the beginning, but eventually I was able to ride her and have some say in where we went at what pace - it was lovely to see her enjoying her self, she is normally so meek and looks to you for instruction for everything it was actually really nice to see her with some self confidence and calling some shots! We had a lovely play in the water and up and down some step combinations before calling it a day!
We played around at home a couple of times over some grids which was great fun and so beneficial, no decent pictures though for this one!
Then last weekend, my friend who does some teaching hired a course at a local yard so we went over there for a play, this was the first time we tried a proper course of fences. she was super! She has a bit of a problem with high sided X poles, but i think its just a confidence thing which will come as she gets a bit bolder with some more experience under her belt. We had a play over poles, doubles, dog legs and related distances and also a 1/2 width filler acting as a skinny, which she popped first time with guide poles on the floor, over the moon barely covers it! Her scope and attitude is just overwhelming, i could have cried . . yet again!!
Which brings us (not so!) promptly onto Today! . . . I decided at the last minute on Tuesday to enter a local un-aff so as i like to be as thoroughly un prepared for dressage outings, i only managed to ride once and lunge once during the week, then had a last minute lesson Saturday to run through the tests, as i also don't like to learn them until the day before. Saturday was a little interesting, she was really humpy and took an age to settle which is unusual, was then really 'blergh' off my leg whilst being a bit quick at the same time, we then had to have a bit of a conversation about being submissive and not a lama in canter, she was just generally being a bit big for her boots and a bit brutish. So the run throughs we interspersed with tantrums and hysterics, but something i thought we could work with, all in the name of being un prepared!
Early start this AM, she was like a rocket when i first got on so i was pretty glad i'd actually left myself suitable time to warm up, but i was thankful that Humpy/Piggy Ruby had stayed at home today! Warm up was in a small indoor school and there was already a few other horses in there so we announced our arrival by dramatically leaping over the little gutter in the threshold of the barn door causing a bit of a stir, somebody commented that she 'was definitely a dressage horse' so i had to reply 'actually i'm hoping to take her eventing!' but after we spooked around the school in both directions, her little brain switched on and she was magic! unfortunately this meant i had about 25minutes to keep this without her getting tired! The first test (IntroB) just felt wonderful. Her natural default is to hold tension infront of her withers and then curl back behind the vertical so i've really been encouraging the stretch from here before worrying about the nose position, she's getting so much stronger and is 90% of the time taking the contact forward but there as still moment she falls behind the vertical. I'm also trying to keep her a lot quieter as when she bowls along in her big trot she tends to suck back against me and go tense because she's not that balanced yet, so i'm keeping her in much quieter trot which i was worried the judge would comment on lack of impulsion/ forwardness but she seemed to understand where i was coming from and rewarded her with a win on a whopping 72.8% and 4.5% above 2nd place! The second test (Prelim7) was much the same, really listening and on the aids but with a few green moments including a flying change in the first canter onto the wrong leg on a corner! this time she felt a lot straighter and not so wobbly, which the judge obviously recognised because despite the 4 for the change and the 5.5 for the next movement we still scored 72%, to win the restricted section and 2nd overall. I just love this horse so much, i get really emotional talking about her! She really is wonderful and makes me smile every time i get off her, she just tries so hard every time i could ask her for any more!
Well done if anyone got this far, its quite an epic novel!
Get yourselves comfortable, and maybe grab a drink as I don't remember what or when i last posted so i'll start from her holiday;
1st December she came in from her holidays looking like an over grown, 30year old new forest pony!
Beginning of Jan we went out to our second dressage. The weather was absolutely horrific, the rain came from every direction, and the wind made it impossible to go in a straight line! every item of dry clothing that is stored in the lorry was used up and it was miserable. The warm up was deserted, lots of people opting to go straight in as the test was indoors. Ruby was electric when i got on and would only canter round the warm up, not exactly useful for an intro test! In the test she was a bit tense, but everything happened in about the right place and she didn't come up against me so i was mega chuffed and nearly burst into tears at the final halt! Quick costume change into dry clothes got back on for the prelim, cantered around the warm up and managed some trot this time too then stood in the corner of the indoor trying to keep out of the storm! Test again was quiet and obedient but still a bit tense in her neck, but considering the storm outside and her first time indoors I wasn't too surprised! But i was surprised to see scores of 70.4% and 73.8% leaving us in 5th and 2nd in the Intro and Prelim respectively. I nearly cried . . Again!
The next outing was a few weeks later for a bit of XC schooling, this was Rubys first time out on grass since before her holiday at a venue she went to a riding camp at so she was very excited to see where we were, and knew exactly what it was all about! She was quite unruly at the beginning, but eventually I was able to ride her and have some say in where we went at what pace - it was lovely to see her enjoying her self, she is normally so meek and looks to you for instruction for everything it was actually really nice to see her with some self confidence and calling some shots! We had a lovely play in the water and up and down some step combinations before calling it a day!
We played around at home a couple of times over some grids which was great fun and so beneficial, no decent pictures though for this one!
Then last weekend, my friend who does some teaching hired a course at a local yard so we went over there for a play, this was the first time we tried a proper course of fences. she was super! She has a bit of a problem with high sided X poles, but i think its just a confidence thing which will come as she gets a bit bolder with some more experience under her belt. We had a play over poles, doubles, dog legs and related distances and also a 1/2 width filler acting as a skinny, which she popped first time with guide poles on the floor, over the moon barely covers it! Her scope and attitude is just overwhelming, i could have cried . . yet again!!
Which brings us (not so!) promptly onto Today! . . . I decided at the last minute on Tuesday to enter a local un-aff so as i like to be as thoroughly un prepared for dressage outings, i only managed to ride once and lunge once during the week, then had a last minute lesson Saturday to run through the tests, as i also don't like to learn them until the day before. Saturday was a little interesting, she was really humpy and took an age to settle which is unusual, was then really 'blergh' off my leg whilst being a bit quick at the same time, we then had to have a bit of a conversation about being submissive and not a lama in canter, she was just generally being a bit big for her boots and a bit brutish. So the run throughs we interspersed with tantrums and hysterics, but something i thought we could work with, all in the name of being un prepared!
Early start this AM, she was like a rocket when i first got on so i was pretty glad i'd actually left myself suitable time to warm up, but i was thankful that Humpy/Piggy Ruby had stayed at home today! Warm up was in a small indoor school and there was already a few other horses in there so we announced our arrival by dramatically leaping over the little gutter in the threshold of the barn door causing a bit of a stir, somebody commented that she 'was definitely a dressage horse' so i had to reply 'actually i'm hoping to take her eventing!' but after we spooked around the school in both directions, her little brain switched on and she was magic! unfortunately this meant i had about 25minutes to keep this without her getting tired! The first test (IntroB) just felt wonderful. Her natural default is to hold tension infront of her withers and then curl back behind the vertical so i've really been encouraging the stretch from here before worrying about the nose position, she's getting so much stronger and is 90% of the time taking the contact forward but there as still moment she falls behind the vertical. I'm also trying to keep her a lot quieter as when she bowls along in her big trot she tends to suck back against me and go tense because she's not that balanced yet, so i'm keeping her in much quieter trot which i was worried the judge would comment on lack of impulsion/ forwardness but she seemed to understand where i was coming from and rewarded her with a win on a whopping 72.8% and 4.5% above 2nd place! The second test (Prelim7) was much the same, really listening and on the aids but with a few green moments including a flying change in the first canter onto the wrong leg on a corner! this time she felt a lot straighter and not so wobbly, which the judge obviously recognised because despite the 4 for the change and the 5.5 for the next movement we still scored 72%, to win the restricted section and 2nd overall. I just love this horse so much, i get really emotional talking about her! She really is wonderful and makes me smile every time i get off her, she just tries so hard every time i could ask her for any more!
Well done if anyone got this far, its quite an epic novel!
