Dressage reports

Start with Llewi on Wed.

Off to Great Bookham again - Llewi seem to quite like it there.  Weather wasn't too great - sideways rain always nice esp when your pony doesn't like the indoor school warmup so you have to use the field.  Good thing pony is used to loud bangs as they must have been doing some shooting in the field behind which was making everyone jump!

1st test P13 - apart from some random noise (not a loud bang!) in the field behind us just as we went down the centre line which shot us down there at 90mph.  Surprisingly that didn't send him into ultra tense mode for the whole test and he did a lovely sweet test - really showed off his potential.  So pleased with him.  Was still amazed to see scores and find out we won out of 15 on a score of 71.7%!!!!!  He got an 8 for his paces, 8 for FWLR.  Clever pony.

Had an hour before next test so little break back at the trailer then back on for N20.  2nd Novice since coming back into work.  Nice test apart from 12m circles which are rather hard to judge.  His medium trot still doesn't exist but everything else went sweetly and again no tension, no spooking - yay!!!  Really pleased to get 68.8% (same judge - list 4) - had to wait till next day to see results but 3rd out of 12 and qualified for the Sunshine Tour Champs.  More 8's for his FWLR.  Just need to work on not having too much left bend as judge commented on getting him into equal contact on both tests.

Had a lesson on Monty with Simon yesterday and we worked on getting superduper forwards instant reactions to my leg.  We did some work on shortening the walk with Simon on the ground with the long tickling stick and we got 2 steps of piaffe!  2 whole fabby steps!  Offset the naughty nappy little shite spooking at something up the top end of the school and using it as an excuse to turn it into a nap attack - grrrr.  Took Llewi along as well just to work him somewhere different and he was fine in the little school, spooky monster in the big school though - he's so frustrating.

Today took Monty to Merrist Wood for our 2nd ever Novice.  Also entered him in the music class as fancied doing 2 classes and not getting up too early!  Never got time to ride him to the music but watched a video of him and played it and it didn't seem too far off.  No time to do him his own music yet - it takes soooooo long I dont know I'll ever have time.  I like long arena tests, lots of room but they do appear to be rather complicated esp N35!  I just could not get it into my head, I dont normally have a problem with learning tests and haven't had one called in yrs but couldn't learn this one until Thur evening as had to remember Llewi's for Wed.  Fortunately the lovely Sarah agreed to call it for me which was a bloody good thing as had no idea what was coming next as I rode it!  He didn't warm up great - I tried to work on same techniques as Thur evening when he went so well and we finally got right canter transition without hollowing but it just wasn't working.  He was really resistant about changing to right bend and it didn't get much better when we went in.

He was spooking at the white boards on the way round, centre line started off great, forwards and straight but the further down we went (and it's a long long way 60m!) he got more and more above the bit so when we went to turn right at C he was well above the bit and hollow - yuck (got a 5 for that)!  Fortunately he did then settle a bit and the middle of the test wasn't too bad (mix of 6's and 7's) - canter/trot/canter on a 20m circle not quite my idea of fun on this horse though!  Then he broke to trot early in the canter across the diagonal so we got a 4 for that.  He then did a lovely stretchy trot circle for a 7 except when I went to retake the reins he spied something outside the arena, did a massive spook and then refused to submit again so we went round the final 1/2 10m circle onto the centre line like a frigging giraffe which got him another 5.  Bonuses were getting a 7 for his medium canter on 20m circle - he did it really well and came back to working canter nicely so got a comment of "clear trans back".  7's for his walk work which all went nicely too.  Strange weird extended collectives got us 766 for paces, 66 for impulsion, 65 for submission and 76 for rider.  Finished on 61.54% which was probably slightly generous but we'll call it very fair and encouraging.  Ended up 10th out of 15 so could have been worse.

Did feel a bit like going home, but stuck around to see if we could make a better job of the music.  Concentrated on soft and forwards in the warmup.  Went in and went round on the left rein as easier to get him soft.  I find it really hard to get him soft and listening when only allowed round the outside of the arena.  Much easier when allowed in the arena and can do some changes of rein and get him round my inside leg.  Anyway, much nicer test - still trans to right canter lets us down and he comes above the bit in the medium trot but otherwise quite good.  Big improvement on earlier.  Got us 67.78% and we won but there were only 2 in the class and the other one was doing Advanced Medium so would have been much harder to score highly.  Technical marks got 65.6% and artistic got 70%.  Comments: "I loved the canter choreography, music score catchy but not always the best fit for this horse (canter)"  7.5 for choreography, 7 for music and harmony, 6.5 for rhythm.

So, onwards and upwards.  He is quite capable of Novice so we will stick at it - it's certainly more of a challenge than Prelim!  Jumping lesson on Tue.  Rackham BE on Sat - it better not piss it down again or I wont be impressed!  Sun is RC dressage qualifier for Llewi.