ChiffChaff
Well-Known Member
Hello!
This is going to be very long, as Im going to try and condense two events into one post, so apologies in advance! I dont have my own horse, but the riding school I am at holds events that allows hiring riders to compete in in-house events, with liveries entering too. The Easter weekend is a busy one, with two events running, and I entered both for the first time this year. Just baby competitions - I'm sure most of you would laugh at me bumbling around!
Not sure if anyone remembers but I posted a little while ago about a cross country lesson/practice I had in preparation for a little competition I was doing at my riding school. Well, it seems Biscuit was luring me into a false sense of security by being so good on the practice, as on the actual day she was a bit of a cow!!!
This is how it works, everyone goes around the course once as an individual, and then again with a pair one following the other. In our individual round we were technically eliminated at the second fence, as she refused no.1 once and no.2 three times! Well, it was more of a slow drifting to a halt than a proper refusal!! Honestly, I thought she was pretty lazy in the warm up, and was cow kicking when I put my leg on, but she was like that in the practice too (proper riding school type lazy in the school, much livelier doing something fun). She was a proper cow for those first two fences, but then after fence 2 she suddenly came to life and cantered the whole way round and FLEW over every jump with no hesitation whatsoever! She ran out of the last jump but that was my fault, it came up quicker than I thought. I was ready to give up at that point and call it a day (completely knackered!) but my instructor wouldnt let me and chased us over!! It was brilliant fun though, and if we hadnt had all the stops we might have actually done quite well she was that fast!!
The pairs went along the same lines, my pair was hideously unsuitable a 16.2hh thoroughbred type with a typical tb temperament, but the rider is my friend so we paired anyway. I did warn him if he wanted to do well hed be better off without me! He promptly cantered off without waiting for me, so we didnt even get a lead over the fences. Biscuit was worse than before, stopping twice at no.2 despite my instructor chasing her, then we got literally led over no.4 (very embarrassing, but tbh I was ready to give up!). My pair actually deigned to wait for me by fence 5, so we got a lead over that, then he disappeared again but Biscuit had woken up and decided it was fun, so we had a speedy canter through the rest of the course! The pair was going too fast to make one of the turns and had to circle, so we caught up - to the extent that I almost had to do an emergency stop to avoid him circling! Then she chased him home. We still came last, but I am proud of her, once she got going she was fab, and she is usually a trot to the rear of the ride type so she was far out of her comfort zone!
So, that was Friday, and Monday was the One Day Event. I was down to dressage on a fat little Haflinger mare called Honey, who has a proper attitude about her! When practising the test, she was a lazy cow, but once she was in front of an audience she upped her game. Really went for it almost too forward going! One of the comments was a little hurried my nerves contributed to that, and her naturally speedy/choppy paces. (She has a VERY short stride). We came 7th out of 12, in my first ever dressage test, I was very, very pleased! Of the rest of my team, we came 5th in the showjumping and 9th in the cross country. Making us joint 7th overall, for our first time doing it, we were dead chuffed! It was a brilliant day, despite the constant rain. There was a really nice atmosphere, with everyone supporting each other and helping out. It was the same on Friday, everyone was cheering everyone else on even when Biscuit was on a go slow!
Anyway, next up is a dressage competition in a couple of months, and I am thinking of entering that too. Im having so much fun Ive been riding for 12years at the same place but have only just started doing these events, mainly due to a lack of courage, but also uni etc, so now I am making up for lost time! Thanks to anyone who bothers to read a super long post!!
x
This is going to be very long, as Im going to try and condense two events into one post, so apologies in advance! I dont have my own horse, but the riding school I am at holds events that allows hiring riders to compete in in-house events, with liveries entering too. The Easter weekend is a busy one, with two events running, and I entered both for the first time this year. Just baby competitions - I'm sure most of you would laugh at me bumbling around!
Not sure if anyone remembers but I posted a little while ago about a cross country lesson/practice I had in preparation for a little competition I was doing at my riding school. Well, it seems Biscuit was luring me into a false sense of security by being so good on the practice, as on the actual day she was a bit of a cow!!!
This is how it works, everyone goes around the course once as an individual, and then again with a pair one following the other. In our individual round we were technically eliminated at the second fence, as she refused no.1 once and no.2 three times! Well, it was more of a slow drifting to a halt than a proper refusal!! Honestly, I thought she was pretty lazy in the warm up, and was cow kicking when I put my leg on, but she was like that in the practice too (proper riding school type lazy in the school, much livelier doing something fun). She was a proper cow for those first two fences, but then after fence 2 she suddenly came to life and cantered the whole way round and FLEW over every jump with no hesitation whatsoever! She ran out of the last jump but that was my fault, it came up quicker than I thought. I was ready to give up at that point and call it a day (completely knackered!) but my instructor wouldnt let me and chased us over!! It was brilliant fun though, and if we hadnt had all the stops we might have actually done quite well she was that fast!!
The pairs went along the same lines, my pair was hideously unsuitable a 16.2hh thoroughbred type with a typical tb temperament, but the rider is my friend so we paired anyway. I did warn him if he wanted to do well hed be better off without me! He promptly cantered off without waiting for me, so we didnt even get a lead over the fences. Biscuit was worse than before, stopping twice at no.2 despite my instructor chasing her, then we got literally led over no.4 (very embarrassing, but tbh I was ready to give up!). My pair actually deigned to wait for me by fence 5, so we got a lead over that, then he disappeared again but Biscuit had woken up and decided it was fun, so we had a speedy canter through the rest of the course! The pair was going too fast to make one of the turns and had to circle, so we caught up - to the extent that I almost had to do an emergency stop to avoid him circling! Then she chased him home. We still came last, but I am proud of her, once she got going she was fab, and she is usually a trot to the rear of the ride type so she was far out of her comfort zone!
So, that was Friday, and Monday was the One Day Event. I was down to dressage on a fat little Haflinger mare called Honey, who has a proper attitude about her! When practising the test, she was a lazy cow, but once she was in front of an audience she upped her game. Really went for it almost too forward going! One of the comments was a little hurried my nerves contributed to that, and her naturally speedy/choppy paces. (She has a VERY short stride). We came 7th out of 12, in my first ever dressage test, I was very, very pleased! Of the rest of my team, we came 5th in the showjumping and 9th in the cross country. Making us joint 7th overall, for our first time doing it, we were dead chuffed! It was a brilliant day, despite the constant rain. There was a really nice atmosphere, with everyone supporting each other and helping out. It was the same on Friday, everyone was cheering everyone else on even when Biscuit was on a go slow!
Anyway, next up is a dressage competition in a couple of months, and I am thinking of entering that too. Im having so much fun Ive been riding for 12years at the same place but have only just started doing these events, mainly due to a lack of courage, but also uni etc, so now I am making up for lost time! Thanks to anyone who bothers to read a super long post!!
x
keep at it! x
, I think I've got a while to go before becoming a dressage diva lol!!! xx
and i enjoyed reading it 
