NHeventing Competition and Training Blog: British Dressage Winter Championships 13-04-14

Keep having to pinch myself that we really did just go to the Winter Championships. Never in a million years did I think I'd ever manage to get Monty's dressage to the level where he could even qualify let alone turn up and do a damn good job. He was utterly awesome for the entire day. I really couldn't have asked for more from him.

It took us about 3.5hours to get there on Friday afternoon due to rather a lot of traffic after we left the M4. Finally arrived around 5pm and priority was to get Monty worked and settled in as the gala evening started at 7pm! Dragged the poor boy off the lorry and straight into one of the warmup arenas. Considering the long journey he worked brilliantly. Really pleased with him. Tucked him up in his stable, grabbed some food and settled down to watch the gala evening which was great fun and took some good tips away from the Anna Ross Davies demo, especially about training the medium trot - half halts before and after the corner then not letting them run all the way across the diagonal, ask with convinction, get a response, rebalance then ask again. Checked in on Monty and he'd been a good boy, had a drink and eaten his dinner. He was in the nice airy, permanent barn stables and seemed settled.

Up bright and early at 5.30am - I was first in the barn at 6am! Gave Monts some brekkie then did the first stage of plaiting before hopping on for the arena walk. Spent a good half hour wandering round the indoor arena as this had the biggest atmosphere for him to adjust to. Buzzing with other horses but mostly everyone was well behaved. Monts did have a bit of a rearing and going backwards effort when a tablecloth dared to flap at him. Large queue quickly formed behind us - very embarassing! Other than that he coped ok. We were allowed inside the arena which was great as I could practice walking down the centre line and turning right to replicate the view he'd get in the test! Then headed off to the outdoor arena to have a wander round the Petplan arena but this wasn't very spooky so he was pretty chilled so we didn't spend long there.

Got off him and had just under an hour to tart him up for our first test - P17, the Prelim Winter Championships. Managed to forget to put his massage pad on which was a bit silly but was so nervous! Didn't do much in the warmup with him as really didn't want to overcook things knowing he potentially had to do 3 tests that day. Probably didn't get him as supple as I could have done. Doing three Championship tests in a day is not how I'd like to do it. Much better to do a full warmup and have him firing on all cylinders for each test but had to do our best. Went down to the holding area before the main arena and had another trot and canter round then in we went - through the tunnel and into the main arena - wow! Had a trot and a canter round and then the bell went and off we went. I thought he did a brilliant test. He was calm and relaxed, he did every transition where I asked, he was soft and obedient and I could not have asked him to do any more for me. Came out and couldn't help shedding a few tears on him. We've been on quite a journey the last few years. For him to come to the Winter Champs and trust me enough to perform at his best in such an atmosphere means an awful lot to me.

We ended up scoring 65.96% which left us in 15th place out of 20 but 1% more and we'd have been in 8th place so it was very tight in the middle of the class. Sadly we had followed the winner into the arena and Monty was always going to struggle in comparison. Trainer helped me warmup and watched the test and felt he was a bit harshly marked but this was the Nationals and they were just expecting that bit more and he's hardly a natural dressage horse. He gave it his best shot and that's all I could have hoped for and I'm over the moon with him. The sheets are interesting - judge at E gave him straight 7's except for his walk where tension finally got to us and I didn't feel I could ride him forwards to show the amazing walk he really has. Judge at C hammered him for lack of suppleness and judge at M had him on the same mark as the one at C.

Popped him back in his stable for a chill out before concentrating on the next stage of events! 9am by this point. Next test at 11.15am so a little bit of time to kill - wandered around, watched some of the other people in my class and before long it was time to get back on for the N38 - Area Festival Championships. Fabulous trainer was there again to help us warm up and he was really going for it. Discovered a medium trot that I didn't know he had - not a bad time to find it! Went into the outdoor arena and he was mr.chilled - such a good boy. He did a stonking test. Again, I couldn't have hoped for more - every transition bang on the marker, no mistakes and he even had a damn good go at a medium trot. Judges were marking hard. Didn't think my score of 66.37% sounded that good but it left us in 5th place in the first round, just half a mark behind 3rd place and comfortably through to the second rounds in the afternoon.

That left us with an awful lot more time to kill! Finally the nerves had subsided enough for me to eat something, wandered around the shops, chatted to various people, watched some gorgeous horses in the Advanced Medium Open and then off we went again. Poor Monty! At 3.30pm, for the fourth time that day I got back on him (having finally remembered to put his massage pad on!) and toddled off back to the Petplan arena. I expected him to feel tired but his eventing fitness played to our advantage and he still felt full of go. Here is a little video of him warming up:

He went back into the arena and pulled yet another fantastic test out of the bag for me. I think we were both a little tired but those watching said it looked like his best test of the day. Whatever the result at this point I was just absolutely chuffed with how hard he had tried all day in such a big atmosphere. The marks ended up dead close again. Those watching felt our mark of 65.97% was a bit harsh. Sadly I knew the judge at C wasn't our biggest fan after she judged us at the Regionals. She had us down in 21st place. Judge at E had us in 9th. We ended up in 13th place out of the final 30. I had really hoped he would make top 10 but 13th is still a massive achievement for my little man and for him to not make a single mistake all day is amazing. He was foot perfect and went as well as our level of work at the moment would allow for which is all I could ever have wished for. He also won an award for best Senior horse in the Area Festival. I forget that he is now 15 and counts as a Veteran!