MontyandZoom
Well-Known Member
After all the excitement of Saturday, I woke up feeling pretty tired so Zoom's plaits were a far cry from the neatness of Chertsey show. I got down to the field to find that my 13yo helper had already begun grooming
We set off for Lea Barns and it was already starting to get hot outside. After several u-turns we finally arrived just in time for the first test - Intro A.
Zoom was even more giraffe like than normal, she is much more like an un-exploded bomb on grass so our warm-up was hilarious.
Warming up:
We did the test and got a better score than last time 49.5% (yes, that is actually an improvement!
). However, I was a little disheartened since, although I know we are crap and don't mind coming last, we were 10% lower than the next person in the results
The judges comments were <font color="purple">'a lovely horse who is willing and active but she needs to accept your contact and give to it. At the moment you are trying to be kind and very light but this gives her nothing to work into that she can trust. Keep your contact steady, do not allow so much rein and as long as you don't pull back, she will be more comfortable.' </font>
Zoom has always been a little afraid of her mouth when on the flat and, although she is getting better, if you force the issue she tends to rear. I was giving her even more rein than usual since she was very tense. I see what the judge was saying but I don't know whether she is right since at the moment, picking up more of a contact means a pony who runs hollow with her head in the air. I thought the comments were really nice and helpful though.
Anyhoo......we need all the help we can get so any CC welcome.
On to prelim 7. It was boiling hot and I think by this point the pony was bored of prancing about and was more up for galloping round having fun. It was sooooo hot
She was slightly more relaxed and her head was less crazy giraffe than the walk trot...............but then we came to canter left........and she just wouldn't do it!
I came back to trot twice and she kept striking off wrongly so I just carried on in the end on the wrong leg. It is a shame though.....we got 52% and lucky for us there were some people who's horses really played up and we were within 1% of the next two competitors. If we had got canter left we wouldn't have come last.....that is my ultimate goal in dressage
The collectives were higher and the comment was 'perseverance needed to accept contact. Stay on circles'
The beginning is quite alot of waiting for the bell.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_Fe1vW4n7w
As I was leaving the arena, the judge stopped me and said she was sorry but basically we were a bit crap so she had to give us bad marks
I think she was worried that I thought we were good!
At first I felt like she was discouraging us from coming again until Zoom is better at dressage
............and maybe she's right, but I just like going for the fun of it and Zoom likes to get out and about. I caught up with her later and had a chat about Zoom's history though and she was then much more encouraging and said we should come along to the next one. It's hard when people haven't seen where you've come from. A couple of the other competitors overheard and were really lovely and complimentary.
All in all I am really pleased with my girl. She tries sooo hard and I know we'll get there..............even if it takes 10 years
Me and my girl:
Any suggestions of how to get her to accept the contact GREATLY received.
PHEW! What a busy weekend we had. Thanks for reading, white russians for anyone who actually bothers to watch the videos!
PS - one of gorgeous sexy Monty boy since he gets a bit left out these days. He is ancient now but looking pretty good this year.
We set off for Lea Barns and it was already starting to get hot outside. After several u-turns we finally arrived just in time for the first test - Intro A.
Zoom was even more giraffe like than normal, she is much more like an un-exploded bomb on grass so our warm-up was hilarious.
Warming up:
We did the test and got a better score than last time 49.5% (yes, that is actually an improvement!
The judges comments were <font color="purple">'a lovely horse who is willing and active but she needs to accept your contact and give to it. At the moment you are trying to be kind and very light but this gives her nothing to work into that she can trust. Keep your contact steady, do not allow so much rein and as long as you don't pull back, she will be more comfortable.' </font>
Zoom has always been a little afraid of her mouth when on the flat and, although she is getting better, if you force the issue she tends to rear. I was giving her even more rein than usual since she was very tense. I see what the judge was saying but I don't know whether she is right since at the moment, picking up more of a contact means a pony who runs hollow with her head in the air. I thought the comments were really nice and helpful though.
Anyhoo......we need all the help we can get so any CC welcome.
On to prelim 7. It was boiling hot and I think by this point the pony was bored of prancing about and was more up for galloping round having fun. It was sooooo hot
The beginning is quite alot of waiting for the bell.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_Fe1vW4n7w
As I was leaving the arena, the judge stopped me and said she was sorry but basically we were a bit crap so she had to give us bad marks
At first I felt like she was discouraging us from coming again until Zoom is better at dressage
Me and my girl:
Any suggestions of how to get her to accept the contact GREATLY received.
PHEW! What a busy weekend we had. Thanks for reading, white russians for anyone who actually bothers to watch the videos!
PS - one of gorgeous sexy Monty boy since he gets a bit left out these days. He is ancient now but looking pretty good this year.
