We started on Saturday afternoon with the Novice Restricted Freestyle to Music. I spent the afternoon grooming and washing white socks and making my plaits as special as possible. The nerves were kicking in which was weird as I never normally get nervous for dressage. We arrived at Merrist Wood with plenty of time and went to have a look at the arena which had been fully decked out with flowers, mini trees and a couple of massive flags. I wasn't quite sure what Monty would make of it all. He is very used to Merrist Wood but not complete with all that and he can be quite spooky.
I got on him for the warmup and did lots of lateral work to try and get him sitting behind but I could feel he was a bit tense and I kept getting shouted at to relax so I assume that was down to me! It was a big occasion and I wanted him to do his best. We went into the arena and his eyes came out on stalks, the giraffe made a reappearance and I had a wrestling match on my hands to get him to listen to me. Because he was tense his trot stride shortened and I found myself behind the music for the whole test. I tried to adlib it as much as I could but it didn't feel as smooth as usual. He broke to canter in one of the trot circles so I thought I'd repeat it at the end but managed to repeat it on the wrong rein - oops! All in all, it was most definitely not the best test we have ever done. We were second to go so had a long wait. We scored 66.019% which is disappointing when he's capable of 70% plus but it was the Regionals and I assumed they would be marking harder. Ended up in 6th place out of 17 which I was really pleased with considering how tense he was. Turns out the judge at C had him in 2nd place by just half a mark but the other two judges weren't so keen. Still, a great first experience and we got to do a fab prize giving and lap of honour.
prize giving:
So, onto Sunday. I decided given his reaction to the arena on Saturday I would make the effort to get up early and take him down there for the arena walk at 7am. We arrived at 6.45am and spent half an hour wandering around the outside of the arena, weaving in and out of the flowers, having a close up look at the judges' boxes and the banners on the wall. It was definitely worth doing as he was more relaxed when we finished. I then took him into the warmup and let him have a wander round and did a bit of loose stretching work. Back to the lorry for a couple of hours to get us both ready and then a short 20min warmup keeping it much simpler than the previous day - lots of stretchy, loose work, lots of transitions and not so much lateral work. This regime worked beautifully. He went into the arena, nice and calm and did a really sweet, soft, obedient test. Just one little mistake where he struck off on the wrong leg in the canter-trot-canter on the right rein but otherwise fabulous - really pleased with him. The marks were really close so our mistake cost us about 3 places which was frustrating but we still managed to sneak into 9th place out of 24 on 66.724%. He tends to score mid to high 60's at a normal show so really pleased to get that score at Regionals. The winner was on 69% so we weren't really that far off the pace. Another mounted presentation and lap of honour and feeling so chuffed with my boy.
N39:
prize giving:
He had the day off on Monday followed by a short schooling session Tuesday evening which involved popping over a couple of little cross poles with his mate and generally having a bit of a laugh!
Wednesday morning dawned bright and early again. We were second to go again so another early start. I was more relaxed by this point. He had already exceeded my expectations and although he has had a couple of plus 70% scores at Prelim, he wasn't even placed at the Area Festivals and is not always the judges' cup of tea - it depends how flashy they like them. He is correct and rhythmical but not flashy.
Kept the warmup similar to Sunday - loose and stretchy, nothing too technical, plenty of transitions. He went into the arena and had clearly forgotten about the banners from Sunday so a little eyes out on stalks moment but I managed to regain his concentration. He was a little tight and tense in the trot work and had a couple of massive chuck head in air moments when he decided to spook which I was worried would really impact on our marks. His canter work was gorgeous though and he did a fabulous free walk and final centre line with a superb final halt.
So, back to the lorry and straight on the internet on my phone to check the live results feed. The first score of the class went up as 60% and then mine went up and I had to look and look again - 72.244% - his highest ever score at BD. Get in! There commenced an agonising three hour wait and constant refreshing on the phone to watch each score go up one by one. Only the winner was going to qualify for the Nationals so it really was nail biting. We got something to eat, chatted to the tradestand reps and looked at the photos but the time dragged on by. Finally got to the last score to go up and it nearly did it but not quite. We'd won by just under a percent. We'd actually won and qualified for the National Champs. It really hasn't sunk in yet. The judge at C gave us a 9 for our entry and a 9.5 for our final halt! That was Lady Inchcape. There were also many 8.5's on the sheet and an 8 for my riding. What a result. We had our own special presentation in the indoor arena and then a lap (or two!) of honour with a couple of photographers and lots of clapping. It was absolutely awesome! I am so proud of my little horse. Giraffe no more - Nationals here we come!
P17:
prize giving:
What a Regionals!
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