Weekend plans?

[Bernster]

Lovely to hear how everyone got on.

BRC winter dressage qualifier - if I’d have known only 1st place qualified I’d have been much less anxious as we’re not in danger of reaching those heady heights. I just wanted a ‘clear round’ which didn’t quite happen but we still had a good day. Big spook in the 1st test dropped our marks down but we still ended with a creditable 63% so we were doing ok until then. 2nd test felt much better but I broke canter too early ? despite having a caller! Still managed 70% and 5th which I was thrilled with. I rode for a more active test today and it def paid off with higher marks, despite some tension, and our canter/trot transitions weren’t horrific - yay! Not bad for our 5th time out.

 

[DressageCob]

Not *quite* at the weekend, but we went for a fancy lesson, the first trip off the yard other than vets visits since February. I didn’t think we’d get to this point tbh but he feels phenomenal (touch wood) and he was chuffed to be there, as you can see. No action shots because we were flying solo.

 

[j1ffy]

Lovely to see people getting out and about!

It was such a beautiful day yesterday that I ditched the walk schooling idea and went for a longer walk hack with another livery. Chilli was so good (he's always good hacking but excelled yesterday), really showing up the cheeky 7yo PRE we were hacking with, who has the measure of his owner in a way that only PREs can.

Had the oddest comment from a random guy who was out hacking on his hunter (my hacking buddy vaguely knew him from hunting). He was admiring Chilli and said "He would prance so beautifully with shoes on, with those frogs off the floor". How to tell someone you have no idea about hoof function without saying it... Funniest part is we spend much of our time trying to encourage his knees to stay a little lower at the moment!!

 

[Jeni the dragon]

Paddy had a lovely time out and his first double clear! Happily he seems to have matured and chilled out so he's heading off to Oasby on Sunday.

 

[Taliesan]

After lurking on this thread for a long time (and getting a lot of enjoyment out of seeing what people are up to with their horses) I figured I would stop being so quiet and make an effort to join in for once.

This weekend was a busy one for me and Jack as, on Saturday, we went for our first ever dressage outing in which we did two tests. Normally I only do the Novice as that is where my local venue stops and both of us find Prelim a bit dull. However, Weston Lawns was running Elementary classes as well so I figured I'd give it a go. This was my first ever attempt at anything above Novice so I wasn't expecting anything groundbreaking from either of us.

We didn't get off to the best start as my phone thought sending us through the middle of Coventry was the best way to reach the venue and we ended up stuck in traffic. I arrived a grand total of 10 minutes before my Novice test was due to start so I quickly threw Jack's tack on, hopped on him and trotted round the warmup twice before I went in. Needless to say his head wasn't fully in the game but he really tried and we got a score of 61%.

I then had an hour before the Elementary test and, after a quick grass break for Jack, hopped back on and tried to do a decent warmup this time. He did struggle to relax at Weston Lawns like he does at home and he wasn't as supple through his body as I would've liked. However, he tried ever so hard during the test and we got another 61% - personally I thought the second test was better than the first but I suppose the judges are perhaps more critical in their marking as you go up the levels.

Either way, both of us had a good time and I will try to go back there again. They are the only venue near me (that I am aware of) that allow people to take part competitively when riding bitless so I feel I should go and support as many classes of theirs as I can.



Then on Sunday my mum rode Jack out around one of the local circular rides around the yard and I rode Apollo (who is my younger horse). He's definitely getting stronger and more able to be ridden for greater lengths of time but now we are getting moments of teenage attitude when he disagrees with what I am suggesting! There is no malice in him at all and he does wind his neck in when told, but it is a bit disconcerting when he is so busy arguing with me that he forgets about the nearby environmental features we may be heading towards such as the rather large ditch...

We did avoid the ditch and he was quite apologetic afterwards - it is just working through these moments and teaching him that he can be polite about things rather than throwing his toys out the pram because he disagrees with me!

 

[j1ffy]

After lurking on this thread for a long time (and getting a lot of enjoyment out of seeing what people are up to with their horses) I figured I would stop being so quiet and make an effort to join in for once.

This weekend was a busy one for me and Jack as, on Saturday, we went for our first ever dressage outing in which we did two tests. Normally I only do the Novice as that is where my local venue stops and both of us find Prelim a bit dull. However, Weston Lawns was running Elementary classes as well so I figured I'd give it a go. This was my first ever attempt at anything above Novice so I wasn't expecting anything groundbreaking from either of us.

We didn't get off to the best start as my phone thought sending us through the middle of Coventry was the best way to reach the venue and we ended up stuck in traffic. I arrived a grand total of 10 minutes before my Novice test was due to start so I quickly threw Jack's tack on, hopped on him and trotted round the warmup twice before I went in. Needless to say his head wasn't fully in the game but he really tried and we got a score of 61%.

I then had an hour before the Elementary test and, after a quick grass break for Jack, hopped back on and tried to do a decent warmup this time. He did struggle to relax at Weston Lawns like he does at home and he wasn't as supple through his body as I would've liked. However, he tried ever so hard during the test and we got another 61% - personally I thought the second test was better than the first but I suppose the judges are perhaps more critical in their marking as you go up the levels.

Either way, both of us had a good time and I will try to go back there again. They are the only venue near me (that I am aware of) that allow people to take part competitively when riding bitless so I feel I should go and support as many classes of theirs as I can.

View attachment 100491

Then on Sunday my mum rode Jack out around one of the local circular rides around the yard and I rode Apollo (who is my younger horse). He's definitely getting stronger and more able to be ridden for greater lengths of time but now we are getting moments of teenage attitude when he disagrees with what I am suggesting! There is no malice in him at all and he does wind his neck in when told, but it is a bit disconcerting when he is so busy arguing with me that he forgets about the nearby environmental features we may be heading towards such as the rather large ditch...

We did avoid the ditch and he was quite apologetic afterwards - it is just working through these moments and teaching him that he can be polite about things rather than throwing his toys out the pram because he disagrees with me!

Well done and welcome to the weekend thread!

 

[Titchy Reindeer]

I nearly jinxed myself. Little madam wasn't right on Friday evening for my dressage lesson. The instructor thought she had twinged a back muscle. So we gave that up as a bad job.
She was a lot happier on Saturday, so cautiously went ahead with jump lesson, ready to pull out at any minute, but she was fine and was amazing. So took her show jumping on Sunday. We went clear with a nice beginning and end of round but a very sticky line in the middle. I really need to start using my legs and not my shoulders to stop putting her in a very difficult position and she is generous to a fault. Most horse would have gone "Nope, not jumping that" but she tries anyway.
A friend did take some lovely pictures though.