CastleMouse
Well-Known Member
We headed off at about 9am from my house, and we left the yard with Ali in tow at about 9.30. We arrived to Creagh and there weren't many people at all (I presume that was because Marlton Stud was on yesterday), I declared myself and Ali and then went to prepare Ali to go and warm him up for my first test - Prelim 7 at 11.24. We began warming up at about 11, Ali was very relaxed (I was actually quite surprised, he had travelled very well as well, wasn't as sweated up as usual) and was very well behaved... I think the fact that there was only one other person in the warm-up arena with me contributed to that though
Everything was running on time, they only had one arena for all the tests (the indoor), and when we were riding along the "shoot" area to go into the arena after the previous competitor, Ali wouldn't go through the gates...
Fortunately with a few pony club kicks (
) he finally entered the arena
I was focusing more on the movements in the test (I was very nervous about forgetting it) than Ali's way of going, but Ali was very well behaved and did every movement as asked, although he spooked slightly whilst coming down the centre line at the end. When I finished my test I thought I had got about 48% or so, and when I checked the final scores about 45 minutes later, I had actually got 50%, and had come 5th in the registered junior section of the class!
50% is fairly cr*p I know, but I was as nervous as hell so was quite pleased! I began warming up Ali for my second test - Prelim 18 at 1.36 - at about one o'clock... Again the warm-up arena was very quite, and Ali had a slight tantrum in canter, which involved a few mini rears! So as you can imagine, I was dreading the canter work in my test... I cantered him again briefly and he was much better, no fits at all! I went up along the "shoot" and Ali was much calmer entering the arena. When I came down the centre line at the end and saluted, I knew I had done slightly better. I went to look at the final results about an hour later, and I had got 51.25%, a slight improvement on my previous test!
I also came 4th in the registered junior section of the class, so I was quite pleased to have won two rosettes altogether, even though there weren't that many juniors there today. And the judges final comment on my second test was "An extremely willing and generous horse", which I thinks means that Ali is a star (which is very true!
) and my riding is appalling...
I'm quite pleased considering it's my first DI event with Ali. I was also looking at the results overall, and A LOT of people had scores in the 50's... I'm currently uploading a few photos
