dressage__diva
Well-Known Member
I took my orange whirlwind out BDing for the first time in 7 months yesterday as a 'see how we get on' before the Regionals
She actually warmed up fantastically, she was so loose and through that this was a big achievement in itself as she has been known to almost throw herself on the floor in a busy warm up. However, as we walked into the arena she turned into a whirling orange vision. She would not go past the judges box, then she would not go past some people in the cafe and finally would not go past the stands.
The judge kindly gave me time to get her around the arena once, but as we went up the centre line, she just froze at the judge's box and tensed right up. However, compared to past competitions, I actually softened her very very quickly and although we had a few spooks here and there in the test, the 'softness' was easy to get back after these.
She came 4th on 65.4% (very low marking judge leaving most people in 50%s
) so I was pleased with her. But because she had been so spooky, I decided to do the Novice just to get her back in the arena.
She was 10 times worse
She plunged and spooked the whole way around, was so tense and stressy that I considered retiring before she had even entered the area. As she went up the centre line, she relaxed completely, did a nice halt and then trot off but again as she came closer to the judge's box she tensed and froze
She had some good moments in the Novice and some really bad ones (collected canter on a 10m circle which was supposed to be trot because we have been working on collecting the canter at home and I used my leg in the wrong way on the circle) but again, despite everything (and a shocking mark of 58.5%) I was actually pleased with her because she was really through and loose in the good bits.
However, this spooking is really bad and needs to be sorted...
She is not on a calmer, and is fed Healthy Hoof, TopSpec Balancer, Cool and Condition Cubes, Super Conditioning Flakes and Speedi Beet (I struggle keeping weight on her and she is a very fussy eater... this is the only combination so far that actually makes her eat the whole feed). She cannot go onto a mix of any sort as she comes out in huge lumps all over her body and she also cannot have pure Alfa A for this reason too.
So... HELP!!!!
She actually warmed up fantastically, she was so loose and through that this was a big achievement in itself as she has been known to almost throw herself on the floor in a busy warm up. However, as we walked into the arena she turned into a whirling orange vision. She would not go past the judges box, then she would not go past some people in the cafe and finally would not go past the stands.
The judge kindly gave me time to get her around the arena once, but as we went up the centre line, she just froze at the judge's box and tensed right up. However, compared to past competitions, I actually softened her very very quickly and although we had a few spooks here and there in the test, the 'softness' was easy to get back after these.
She came 4th on 65.4% (very low marking judge leaving most people in 50%s
She was 10 times worse
She plunged and spooked the whole way around, was so tense and stressy that I considered retiring before she had even entered the area. As she went up the centre line, she relaxed completely, did a nice halt and then trot off but again as she came closer to the judge's box she tensed and froze
She had some good moments in the Novice and some really bad ones (collected canter on a 10m circle which was supposed to be trot because we have been working on collecting the canter at home and I used my leg in the wrong way on the circle) but again, despite everything (and a shocking mark of 58.5%) I was actually pleased with her because she was really through and loose in the good bits.
However, this spooking is really bad and needs to be sorted...
She is not on a calmer, and is fed Healthy Hoof, TopSpec Balancer, Cool and Condition Cubes, Super Conditioning Flakes and Speedi Beet (I struggle keeping weight on her and she is a very fussy eater... this is the only combination so far that actually makes her eat the whole feed). She cannot go onto a mix of any sort as she comes out in huge lumps all over her body and she also cannot have pure Alfa A for this reason too.
So... HELP!!!!
