alice.j
Well-Known Member
I never did a report on my first outing, but thought I should start, as it's a nice way for me to remember how we're doing. Not sure I want to remember this test though!
Our first outing was in the peeing rain, and spotty pony was exceptionally good, even though we cut off the first corner, spooked at B, and added in an unasked for trot-walk-trot in a circle at A (it was a very nice trot-walk-trot though!). He's been coming on quite nicely (I think) and so I was quite excited about today, and was hoping to break 60% (we scored 59.13% last time, so I was thinking if he behaved, we'd definitely beat that score).
Well I should have been more reserved!
He was super-chilled when we got there, looking around and getting involved with all the horse chat, but not being daft. I checked the times, and realised I was in a slot early - I even told myself to check last night and just forgot! - so we only had 10 minutes, if that, to warm up. We definitely needed more! Every single thing that was existing near the warm-up arena was terrifying, and I am so so sorry to all those people who had to suddenly change direction when we came spooking towards them!
They called us over and I prepared myself for a big spook at the flowerpots that line one side of the track into the test arena, because they definitely tried to eat us last time. Did he notice them? Of course not. Walked into the arena, walked and trotted around the edges and apart from at the corners, and when we had to walk through the boards at the top, he didn't seem to care about the white boards or flowerpots. So I relaxed a little bit, focused on the test, and entered at A.
We got three quarters of the way down the centre line, and he started to drop back a bit when we got near the judges box. That was almost the best part of the test! 90% of the rest of it, we were doing shoulders-in - lovely, but as far as I know not required in an Intro test; maybe he has been reading some of the more advanced levels!
His free walk was definitely better than last time, but as for the rest of it?!
I must say though (and I don't know how much sympathetic marking was involved because I'm not sure I would have given us more than 40%!) I was very pleased with 54.56%, considering we only did one straight line the whole test!
It's given us lots to work on - straightness, obviously, as well as bend and use of voice (I spent the whole test knowing my friend would berate me for how much I was talking to him, but I was hoping - wrongly - that it'd calm him down!!) - so I'm definitely not disappointed. He was very chilled the whole day, and when we went back into the warm-up and did some straightening exercises with him, he settled down quickly, so I think with more warming-up we would have done better.
Onwards and upwards!
Despite the shocking nature of the test itself, we did manage to get some nice pro pics, so I may buy one when they go online!
Our first outing was in the peeing rain, and spotty pony was exceptionally good, even though we cut off the first corner, spooked at B, and added in an unasked for trot-walk-trot in a circle at A (it was a very nice trot-walk-trot though!). He's been coming on quite nicely (I think) and so I was quite excited about today, and was hoping to break 60% (we scored 59.13% last time, so I was thinking if he behaved, we'd definitely beat that score).
Well I should have been more reserved!
He was super-chilled when we got there, looking around and getting involved with all the horse chat, but not being daft. I checked the times, and realised I was in a slot early - I even told myself to check last night and just forgot! - so we only had 10 minutes, if that, to warm up. We definitely needed more! Every single thing that was existing near the warm-up arena was terrifying, and I am so so sorry to all those people who had to suddenly change direction when we came spooking towards them!
They called us over and I prepared myself for a big spook at the flowerpots that line one side of the track into the test arena, because they definitely tried to eat us last time. Did he notice them? Of course not. Walked into the arena, walked and trotted around the edges and apart from at the corners, and when we had to walk through the boards at the top, he didn't seem to care about the white boards or flowerpots. So I relaxed a little bit, focused on the test, and entered at A.
We got three quarters of the way down the centre line, and he started to drop back a bit when we got near the judges box. That was almost the best part of the test! 90% of the rest of it, we were doing shoulders-in - lovely, but as far as I know not required in an Intro test; maybe he has been reading some of the more advanced levels!
His free walk was definitely better than last time, but as for the rest of it?!
I must say though (and I don't know how much sympathetic marking was involved because I'm not sure I would have given us more than 40%!) I was very pleased with 54.56%, considering we only did one straight line the whole test!
It's given us lots to work on - straightness, obviously, as well as bend and use of voice (I spent the whole test knowing my friend would berate me for how much I was talking to him, but I was hoping - wrongly - that it'd calm him down!!) - so I'm definitely not disappointed. He was very chilled the whole day, and when we went back into the warm-up and did some straightening exercises with him, he settled down quickly, so I think with more warming-up we would have done better.
Onwards and upwards!
Despite the shocking nature of the test itself, we did manage to get some nice pro pics, so I may buy one when they go online!
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