Pigeon
Well-Known Member
So Pippy and I did some unaff dressage at the weekend - we'd fallen into a bit of a habit of only going to the same venue, because it holds BD on the only day I never have work or uni, and I know he can be awkward in new places so I thought I better bite the bullet and get him going to a few different shows.
Err. Not our best day
To be fair it was freezing cold and he'd had a couple of days off work, but as soon as I got on I knew things weren't going to go my way
Darling Pip was off on one, lots of squeaking and jumping around in the warmup, the first test was just gritting my teeth and steering. He kept trying to canter, and every time he made an attempt at scooting off and I stopped him, he would pull the most godawful faces! Oh and I managed to get lost So that was embarrassing.
I thought I better lose the spurs and stick, because he was obviously feeling dramatic. I gave him a much longer warmup and he was starting to return to his normal pleasant self. Entered the second test feeling a bit more optimistic, but then about a third of the way in he completely dropped me, deciding that leg was there to be completely ignored. I've never had him do that before, little sod, and I realised (too late) that I had no stick - so I was just frantically attempting to stop him grinding to a halt for the remainder of the test. He also decided that every time we halted he would run backwards at speed. Again, a new trick that he hasn't done before, or tried since at home Comment at the end - 'Oh dear, he didn't help you out today.'.
Good parts, because you know, looking on the bright side. His canter/walk/canter transition was really good - in fact both walk to canters were nice. And he was relaxed for some of it. Er...
Little beggar, he's lucky he's beautiful!!
And at least I didn't ruin his BD record for this year, which atm looks awesome.
So I think homework is to get out more. The plan for next time is a looong warmup, and he's just going to have to deal with the spurs!!
Err. Not our best day
To be fair it was freezing cold and he'd had a couple of days off work, but as soon as I got on I knew things weren't going to go my way
Darling Pip was off on one, lots of squeaking and jumping around in the warmup, the first test was just gritting my teeth and steering. He kept trying to canter, and every time he made an attempt at scooting off and I stopped him, he would pull the most godawful faces! Oh and I managed to get lost So that was embarrassing. I thought I better lose the spurs and stick, because he was obviously feeling dramatic. I gave him a much longer warmup and he was starting to return to his normal pleasant self. Entered the second test feeling a bit more optimistic, but then about a third of the way in he completely dropped me, deciding that leg was there to be completely ignored. I've never had him do that before, little sod, and I realised (too late) that I had no stick - so I was just frantically attempting to stop him grinding to a halt for the remainder of the test. He also decided that every time we halted he would run backwards at speed. Again, a new trick that he hasn't done before, or tried since at home
Comment at the end - 'Oh dear, he didn't help you out today.'. Good parts, because you know, looking on the bright side. His canter/walk/canter transition was really good - in fact both walk to canters were nice. And he was relaxed for some of it. Er...
Little beggar, he's lucky he's beautiful!!
And at least I didn't ruin his BD record for this year, which atm looks awesome.
So I think homework is to get out more. The plan for next time is a looong warmup, and he's just going to have to deal with the spurs!!
.
