gina2201
Well-Known Member
In the space of a week my mare Sox has been to her first ridden Showing show and competed in her first ever Dressage test! Considering she hasn't ever been out to either type of show they were more to be a trial run to see how she was. Having previously raced I was interested to see how she was on arrival at the show and also throughout the day but she was brilliant. She had her objections about loading into the trailer, having always traveled in lorries so we left with plenty of time to spare. She travels absolutely fine but she's just a little unsure about a rear loading trailer.
We did two classes at the showing show, where she came away with a 3rd in her first class and a 1st in her second which meant she went through to the championship. She didn't get placed here but I didn't expect her to be honest, as there was some very pro showing ponies there too. It was very interesting though to be cantering round the ring as a whole class with her in a new indoor school!
Outside; none of us in the ring unfortunately...
The following week we went to Duchy college and did an Intro dressage, again more to see how she would behave in the new surroundings, in the warm up and in another strange indoor school. She warmed up well, didn't want to go through the massive puddle right in front of the school entrance though! She settled a bit more once inside and did a nice test with some tension but overall the judge was pleased with her and her comments were that she was a nice horse but just needed to settle, we came away with a 3rd here with 65.65% in a class of 7 or 8, so again, very pleased with her first dressage outing.
I do have a partial video but my camera woman wasn't able to send me over the whole test, it only goes up to the free walk for some reason....
Just as she decides so stick her head up!
We have also just done an online dressage test and scored similar so will be interesting to see the judges comments when we receive those back to compare! I definitely feel showing and dressage are where we are aiming, I don't think we're going to be showjumpers by any means although I wouldn't mind doing the odd class for training and to add some variety into the mix!
I have just booked a training session with a new dressage instructor, who competes up to to Advance/Prix St George so hopefully we'll be on the right track for improving our schooling and doing some more dressage including affiliated. I have my trailer test booked in for January so fingers crossed that goes well so we can get out even more!
We did two classes at the showing show, where she came away with a 3rd in her first class and a 1st in her second which meant she went through to the championship. She didn't get placed here but I didn't expect her to be honest, as there was some very pro showing ponies there too. It was very interesting though to be cantering round the ring as a whole class with her in a new indoor school!
Outside; none of us in the ring unfortunately...
The following week we went to Duchy college and did an Intro dressage, again more to see how she would behave in the new surroundings, in the warm up and in another strange indoor school. She warmed up well, didn't want to go through the massive puddle right in front of the school entrance though! She settled a bit more once inside and did a nice test with some tension but overall the judge was pleased with her and her comments were that she was a nice horse but just needed to settle, we came away with a 3rd here with 65.65% in a class of 7 or 8, so again, very pleased with her first dressage outing.
I do have a partial video but my camera woman wasn't able to send me over the whole test, it only goes up to the free walk for some reason....
Just as she decides so stick her head up!
We have also just done an online dressage test and scored similar so will be interesting to see the judges comments when we receive those back to compare! I definitely feel showing and dressage are where we are aiming, I don't think we're going to be showjumpers by any means although I wouldn't mind doing the odd class for training and to add some variety into the mix!
I have just booked a training session with a new dressage instructor, who competes up to to Advance/Prix St George so hopefully we'll be on the right track for improving our schooling and doing some more dressage including affiliated. I have my trailer test booked in for January so fingers crossed that goes well so we can get out even more!
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