Drea16
Active Member
We are just starting out on our dressage journey for a bit of fun and something to aim for.
I have a young family (4 children youngest being 13 months, then a 3 yr old and 2 older ones!, plus i am self employed working 4 days per week) so on a pretty tight schedule! i manage to ride around 4 or 5 days per week and we mainly hack and do no more than 2 schooling sessions per week (most weeks its 1). My welsh D is 6yrs old (he's only 14.3hh, but he's the modern sporty type and moves really well with a really good active hind leg) we have done 2 comps so far unaffiliated, we have another 2 in the next 10 days. He is very green (had him since he was a foal and backed him myself but has had a few breaks due to me having the 2 babies!) , we still have to nail some of the basics such as canter transitions and getting him to relax (he head shakes when stressed or hot!) so far so good. We had our first flatwork lesson 2 weeks back and felt much much better for it, not had a lesson for a while so was good to have someone on the ground and the effect on both of us after was really good, already feel we are improving. The trainer got on him too, and wow he looked amazing!! was nice to get on him after the trainer - he felt really forward and was listening to my aids and felt amazingly light and soft
aiming to have a lesson every other week and currently building his fitness levels up which help him become less hot and tired which will help reduce the head shaking
We did our first dressage around a month or so which was at a local show, we did an intro with 67% and a prelim with 63% . Some really positive remarks from the judge and Not too bad for our first attempt. I have found a (posh!) venue which is around an hour away who runs dressage (unaff) for young/inexperienced horses twice a month as well as being a venue for BD classes and area festivals. We did the intro again (64%) he was tense and head shaking on the free walk part, but we literally arrived with 15 mins to go before our test (traffic at rush hour) yikes so expected a lower score as didn't get a chance for a proper warm up or find our bearings. We then did the prelim and despite warming up amazingly well and canter transitions being spot on, we had to retire near the end of the test due to running into the canter, catching the wrong leg, que him panicking as i pulled him up then getting in a tiz and hopping over the white boards - whoops!!! up until this point he was going lovely - we mainly had 7s and a few 6s. No score or comments though other than the ones next to the individual breakdowns of the test! It was a good experience though
Have another lesson on Wednesday then a test at a local venue - doing the intro again and also 2 prelims - we then have our next evening dressage at the posh venue week Thursday
So am thinking once we have nailed the "basics" and cracked the prelim (aiming for scores of over 65%)
i would really like to register with BD and compete over the winter and aim for regionals and petplan.
Not too sure how long it will take to get there with the prelim scores but i do think after a couple of months we will be close to joining
I have a few questions regarding BD:
1) How many tests do you have to compete at before qualifying and am i right in thinking its over £63%?
2) Say if i join BD in October when are the next area festivals or petplan?
3) What level did you/would join BD at?
I want to make sure i am doing well and really ready as i know its expensive and want to get the most out of it, the last thing i want to do is be all the gear and no idea!!
Thanks!
I have a young family (4 children youngest being 13 months, then a 3 yr old and 2 older ones!, plus i am self employed working 4 days per week) so on a pretty tight schedule! i manage to ride around 4 or 5 days per week and we mainly hack and do no more than 2 schooling sessions per week (most weeks its 1). My welsh D is 6yrs old (he's only 14.3hh, but he's the modern sporty type and moves really well with a really good active hind leg) we have done 2 comps so far unaffiliated, we have another 2 in the next 10 days. He is very green (had him since he was a foal and backed him myself but has had a few breaks due to me having the 2 babies!) , we still have to nail some of the basics such as canter transitions and getting him to relax (he head shakes when stressed or hot!) so far so good. We had our first flatwork lesson 2 weeks back and felt much much better for it, not had a lesson for a while so was good to have someone on the ground and the effect on both of us after was really good, already feel we are improving. The trainer got on him too, and wow he looked amazing!! was nice to get on him after the trainer - he felt really forward and was listening to my aids and felt amazingly light and soft
aiming to have a lesson every other week and currently building his fitness levels up which help him become less hot and tired which will help reduce the head shakingWe did our first dressage around a month or so which was at a local show, we did an intro with 67% and a prelim with 63% . Some really positive remarks from the judge and Not too bad for our first attempt. I have found a (posh!) venue which is around an hour away who runs dressage (unaff) for young/inexperienced horses twice a month as well as being a venue for BD classes and area festivals. We did the intro again (64%) he was tense and head shaking on the free walk part, but we literally arrived with 15 mins to go before our test (traffic at rush hour) yikes so expected a lower score as didn't get a chance for a proper warm up or find our bearings. We then did the prelim and despite warming up amazingly well and canter transitions being spot on, we had to retire near the end of the test due to running into the canter, catching the wrong leg, que him panicking as i pulled him up then getting in a tiz and hopping over the white boards - whoops!!! up until this point he was going lovely - we mainly had 7s and a few 6s. No score or comments though other than the ones next to the individual breakdowns of the test! It was a good experience though
Have another lesson on Wednesday then a test at a local venue - doing the intro again and also 2 prelims - we then have our next evening dressage at the posh venue week Thursday
So am thinking once we have nailed the "basics" and cracked the prelim (aiming for scores of over 65%)
i would really like to register with BD and compete over the winter and aim for regionals and petplan.
Not too sure how long it will take to get there with the prelim scores but i do think after a couple of months we will be close to joining
I have a few questions regarding BD:
1) How many tests do you have to compete at before qualifying and am i right in thinking its over £63%?
2) Say if i join BD in October when are the next area festivals or petplan?
3) What level did you/would join BD at?
I want to make sure i am doing well and really ready as i know its expensive and want to get the most out of it, the last thing i want to do is be all the gear and no idea!!
Thanks!
I was terrified but there was no need. That was 11 years ago and we haven't looked back. I started straight into novice with millie because that's what we were doing unaff.
