You may remember the Dales pony, Jack, owned by Thorthepony. She has been the most amazing and supportive owner and I feel ever so lucky. I have been schooling him 1-2 times/week for the last 2 months and despite not having any previous formal dressage training he has come on in leaps and bounds. He is such a fun pony to ride and is incredibly clever and kind. Due to the way he is built, I have been trying to get him to lengthen the neck and frame and to increase his stride length. He previously did a lot of showjumping which means he likes sneaking in flying changes and sometimes becomes excited and comes above the bit in transitions. I am being careful to avoid holding him with the hand but instead doing lots of on and back work so he accepts the leg and lets the aids more through. We thought we’d take him to OEC for an unaffiliated to see where we were (I’ve had one lesson on him with my trainer) before we start BD later this year.
It was the worst possible weather yesterday for it! Freezing cold, windy, all the horses were spooky and tense. Jack arrived very smart, newly clipped and mane beautifully plaited by his Mum. His “brother” Thor came as a travelling companion and enjoyed munching hay while Jack was working hard. The warm up was packed and Jack was quite unsettled initially, calling out to Thor, I couldn’t get him to relax and stretch out into the contact.
We pulled the short straw as both our classes were outside in the “spooky arena”! Prelim 19 first, I could feel he was a bit on edge as we started our test. Although the test was mistake free, our circles and centre lines had been mega wobbly as he wasn’t completely on my aids, and I must add I was a bit blinded by that icy wind! The trot-canter transitions were rather exhuberant as he literally leapt skywards into them hehe.
I think the score was a bit harsh at 61% (6th out of 11) as it wasn’t that bad, but its just one of those short tests where every single thing counts and its over in the blink of an eye. General comments were on inaccuracies as the whole thing was a bit wibbly wobbly and unsettled.
So back to warm up for Novice 38. He felt a lot calmer and more relaxed by now. As I only taught him counter canter two weeks ago (!) I did some frantic practise, figures of 8 etc, to get it in his head there were no changes involved
So windy his plait started to get destroyed
"Uphill canter? Anything those pesky WBs can do so can I
"
As soon as we entered the ring he felt fab, pretty much like how he does at home. I always think you can tell from your first centre line how the rest of the test will pan out, so I attacked that centre line and carried on riding as positively as I could. I was so pleased he didn’t break in the counter canter, the medium trots were good, the walk was more relaxed. Overall I don’t think at this stage in his training he could have gone any better at all. I was so pleased with that I wasn’t even bothered about the score.
Well we were all chuffed to find he’d got 66% and come 2nd (out of 7?), beating some really smart “big boys” hehe. The most annoying thing was I did one medium trot to the wrong marker (despite having a caller, how dumb am I!!) so that was -2, so we would have actually got higher than that. He got a 7 for his paces which is great as I feel we have overcome the choppy, short pony strides, and I got an 8 for my riding which I was chuffed about. More test riding practice is what we need as everything is coming together nicely.
So overall a great day out and a positive first show for Team Jack. This has confirmed what we thought to skip out Prelim as there’s not enough to keep him occupied, and carry on competing Novice and possibly Elementary. At home I want to get all his lateral work established over the Winter and try and tidy up all transitions and work out how to overcome him anticipating everything, he’s just too smart!
Sorry the photos are huge, stupid new Photobucket. Home made chips and a glass of wine if you've managed it this far
