Dressage

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On Sunday we returned to the scene of Galahad’s showing debut.  This time the weather was much kinder to us, although it could hardly have been worse!  We did have the odd spot of rain but it was mostly dry all day and even sunny a lot of the time.

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Galahad and I again did the into dressage test which went reasonably well.  Our right bend was a bit iffy to start with and Galahad tripped over something invisible but I was overall very pleased with him.  I didn’t have my tame photographer with me this year so I have no pictures but I did have an audience – I met a couple of people in the warm up who are hoping to start some dressage with their own Exmoor and they walked over to watch me.

We didn’t do any actual showing this year but two jumping classes instead.  The first was the 2’3″ novice pony which we flew round (we had a few wobbles in the lines between fences but jumped all the jumps well) and got into the jump off.  Unfortunately our steering went a bit for that so we came at rather too acute an angle into a fence and knocked it down.  There were seven of us in the jump off and two with four faults but sadly I was just a bit slower and missed out on a place.

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The next class was the 2’3″ open.  Although it was listed as the same height the first class had been quite a bit below height and so the fences went up and fillers were added.  I knew I had to ride positively and I was very focused on getting Galahad over the wall at fence two.  He sailed over and I was so pleased with him that I relaxed a bit too much and we had a runout at the next fence.  It was such a shame as he popped over with no trouble at our second attempt.  The rest of the course went very well apart from one rail down so I was thrilled with him.

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That was the end of the day for Galahad and he spent the rest of the afternoon snoozing and munching on his haynet.  I on the other hand was kept very busy – my instructor had brought several children for their first show and I was needed first as support in the mini jumping and second as a leader for the gymkhana races.  It was exhausting!  I did get some very good cake out of it though so I was well rewarded.

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As I lovely finish to the day I went to collect my dressage score sheet and found I had come fourth with a score of 59.34%.  We had some nice comments, expecially about our walk.  Now we just need to work on the trot!

Coughs and Colds

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Both of the ponies have developed a cough and runny nose.  It is not really surprising given the weather and they are actually fine but it can’t be very nice for them.  I want to tuck them up in bed with a lemsip!  They however are behaving entirely as normal and getting absolutely covered in mud.

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Our rides have now been reduced to a gentle poddle along the lanes.  I think a bit of exercise is a good thing but we can’t do too much.  I am rather enjoying myself!  I have withdrawn from the dressage at the weekend though.  For one thing, nobody would appreciate me taking a coughing pony to spread his germs!  He is also obviously even less fit than he was and it just wouldn’t be fair to him.  It is a shame but there will be plenty of other things we can do in the future.  Hopefully by then there will be more light, I’ll be able to ride a bit more and Galahad will be rather fitter!

Dressage in a Puddle

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I don’t think I have ever seen the fields so wet.  Every so often we get a rain free day or two and things start to dry out a bit.  I get very optimistic about it and then it starts raining again.  At the moment my schooling field  looks like this.

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It makes schooling a bit difficult.  We have another dressage competition soon and this time I am doing two tests I have never ridden before.   Given that I forgot part of the test I was riding for the first time at the last show I am not too confident about this one!  Obviously trot and canter are out of the question but I have managed to ride through the test at walk which hopefully will be enough.  Galahad doesn’t really like being ridden on slippery ground but once we get started he has been settling fairly well.

I am still only managing to ride a couple of times week but it is definitely getting lighter in the mornings and it shouldn’t be long before I have time to ride before work.  In fact, I am hoping to get a couple of sessions in before our competition just to get Galahad’s fitness up a bit.  Fingers crossed!

Dressage in the Rain

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Our dressage competition day dawned very wet and stayed that way all morning.  The idea of a well turned out pony seems a bit ludicrous when faced with a hairy monster covered in wet mud but I did my best and I don’t think we disgraced ourselves.  In fact the weather helped us a bit – the lake had reappeared at the end of our lane so Galahad’s feet got a good clean before he was loaded.  We had to walk over the field through the mud to get to the trailer so I was very pleased with that!

The drive to the event was interesting to say the least.  It was still pouring with rain and there were puddles over most of the road.  The windscreen was covered with water every time we went through one and our main topic of conversation was how mad we all were for going.  That and wondering if anyone else would show up.

When we arrived it took us a few minutes to summon the enthusiasm to actually get out of the car but once we got moving the weather didn’t seem so awful.  The warm up ring was partially underwater so we went for a short hack instead and just spent the ten minutes before my test in the ring.

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Galahad felt much more relaxed than he has done before and he walked straight into the indoor school with no trouble.  He had a bit of a look at the people by the gate but the ones actually in the seats were no bother.  Our first test (Intro A) went quite well.  Galahad felt more forward than last time and my instructor said it was very accurate which was cheering – it is good to make the most of what we have!

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Galahad had a short break (back in the trailer – although the rain was starting to ease off) before we had to be ready for Prelim 12.  This is the one I was worried about as I hadn’t been able to ride it through properly.  I started off by almost forgetting the first trot across the diagonal and then I did actually forget the half circle in free walk.  I was riding two half circles and I knew I would be going the wrong way for the canter but had no idea where I was going wrong.  In the end I decided I must be wrong about the canter, picked up trot and got shouted at by my instructor.  After that I was fine!  Luckily it was quite a low key event and other people had been having tests read for them.

By this point Galahad was rather tired.  I haven’t clipped him yet because I can only ride twice a week at the moment so he was getting a bit warm.  As soon as the mornings get light enough to ride before work he will be having a haircut.  Also, he is not as fit as usual – again because I can only ride twice a week!  He was starting to slow down and our canter work was not all it could be but I was still very pleased with the way he went.

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I was even better pleased when the results were up.  We managed a second in the Intro and fourth in the Prelim with 68.3% and 62% respectively so I was thrilled.  One of the comments was, ‘A cracking pony,’ which I thought was lovely.  We had a brilliant day.

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Galahad’s Riding Club Debut

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Sunday was the day of our riding club’s dressage show.  I have only recently rejoined after an extended university break so it was both mine and Galahad’s first outing to the club.  The entrants were almost all novice combinations and it was quite a low key event which seemed ideal for us.

Galahad was upgraded from the trailer to the big lorry for the first time which I thought he might worry about – especially as he was also wearing his new boots in earnest for the first time.  Surprisingly he walked straight in but he did put in an enormous leap getting out again!

He seems to be getting used to shows now and was nice and relaxed as we walked around.  Unfortunately the judge had a very scary (very small!) dog so the C end of the arena was pretty much off limits as far as Galahad was concerned.  It didn’t help that there was also an apparently dodgy looking trough and a few spectators.  This all meant that our centre lines were ‘not at all straight’ and riding in that half of the arena was a bit interesting!

See the scary dog lurking in the background?

See the scary dog lurking in the background?

It was only Galahad’s second dressage test though and his first canter test.  Apart from the spooking he behaved very well and was sometimes working in an outline.  Overall I was very pleased with him – he might have been spooky but he didn’t take off which he would have done last year.

Our first test was walk and trot and we managed to come fifth so even bagged a rosette!  Strangely he got more spooky in the second test and we came ninth.  Some of our canter work was rather unbalanced but for a first go it wasn’t bad and it is something we are working on.DSCF5630

I came home and spent the rest of the afternoon being inspired by the professionals at the European Championships.  I can only dream of riding like that!

Show Time

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Sunday was Show Day for Galahad.  He travelled to my instructor’s yard on Saturday so she could take us to the show and we could run through our dressage test.  The test went fairly well and we had a go round the jumps as well which he loved, even with all the scary fillers which we don’t have at home.

Sunday dawned grey and drizzly and stayed that way all day, with the odd heavy shower thrown in by way of a change.  A little water won’t put us off though and we arrived at the show – which was basically in the middle of a cloud – with an hour to spare before my test.

This was the view we had pretty much all day.

This was the view we had pretty much all day.

However, as Galahad had jumped so well the day before I managed to get persuaded to jump a higher class than I had intended.  Which not only meant that I had to hurry to be ready to jump early in the class but also that instead of starting his showing career in a nice quiet dressage field he was thrown right into the middle of all the hustle and bustle.

He was very vocal as his best friend had not come but was surprisingly calm about all the things I thought would scare him.  The tents were not an issue at all and although he was aware of all the people and horses he didn’t really mind them.  We hopped over a couple of practise fences and hurried into the ring for the 2’3” class.

I thought I was in trouble when the tannoy crackled and he skittered sideways but it wasn’t a major spook and he had no trouble with the actual voices.  He jumped really well.  He was backing off some of the jumps with fillers but was happy enough to jump with a little encouragement.  The only real issue we had was with a very scary filler hiding in the hedge which made us knock a pole but he didn’t stop or run out at anything.  Strangely enough the flappy sponsor’s sign at the side of the ring was not scary at all.  He jumped a lovely round and I was so proud of him.DSCF5431

We then dashed along to the next field for our dressage test.  Galahad had a good look at the flowers at A but thankfully decided that neither they nor the boards were actually scary.  He felt really nice during the test and although he got a little distracted and nearly drifted out of the ring he stayed nice and relaxed which was the main thing – I wanted his first showing experience to be a good one!DSCF5442

We had a pause after that, during which I had a complete costume change for the mountain and moorland class.  I sent my sister off in the rain to enter for me and report on the class currently in progress in the ring.  In the end I was still mounted far too early as they split the class into in hand and ridden so we spent a long time walking up and down between the rings.  He was a bit on edge to start with as it was very busy but he did settle down nicely and it was a very good experience for him.

He behaved very well in the ring itself and did his individual show much better than at home.  He wasn’t particularly keen on standing next to the clear round jumping ring as the man in charge was wonderfully encouraging of the riders but he actually let the judge hand me a rosette (a special – we weren’t placed) which was unexpected.  He did win the prize for the best Exmoor (he wasn’t quite the only one!) which qualified us for the Moorland Exmoor Pony Breeders Group show at Brendon.  We may not be able to go but it wasn’t bad for his first effort!DSCF5448

I decided that was plenty for him to do so tied him back up with his haynet and went in search of our dressage score.  That was a very pleasant surprise as we got some nice comments and placed third! We obviously have a lot to work on but I was thrilled.DSCF5450

The rest of the day was a lot of waiting around for him but although he was starting at a lot of things he was generally very well behaved.  I had the most fantastic day and I could not be more proud of him.