Badgworth kindly put on a Pre-Hartpury Dressage Competition on Sunday 14 May - with a week to go to Hartpury Champs, it gave everyone going a chance to run through the Championship tests and see what needed work.....
I wrote in the morning and I was feeling really chilled about it all. I knew this was a practice run through. I even ate in the morning! That's one in a row for me.
Fred warmed up, a little sluggish to start but then pepped up on the 3rd pick up. I rode up from the indoor to the black arena and the rider before me was just starting so I went in the sand arena whilst I waited. He got a bit spicier and I thought "good we've woken up....."
Not so much Fred Astaire as Freddie Kruger
It did not quite pan out.... We entered the black arena spotting the 'new' block markers, I thought ok, well at least we have some impulsion and cadence, but NO **SIGH** it all went out the window
My pony is so ginger - this beautiful photo (thanks Rob Bayes Photography ) is of a very naughty ginger pony who felt that Novice 37A needed some adaptions for example
A) Enter at A in canter, X halt (why not? Trotting in is so 1990!)
B) Why counter canter back to the track (as we do EVERY time) when you can half-pass/shimmy over? Hey you said you wanted expression, here it is!
C) why do medium trot from behind like normal - as we always practice and as I know - when I can just TOTES JUST THROUGH MY TOES OUT IN FRONT OF ME and swim like Michael Phelps - his front crawl movement nothing on me.
If ever there was a time to have this rosette.....
** HOLDS HEAD IN HANDS **
I have no words. To my beautiful Freddie - you were less Fred Astaire and more Freddie Krueger but I love you anyway.
Thank you to the ever patient Jayne Smith Equestrian thank for reminding me, horses are levellers and sometimes you just have to laugh at yourself, dust yourself off (when you want to cry with embarrassment) and focus on the next test ....
_ _ _ _
As it turns out, Freddie did do us both a favour that Sunday. We spent the week working on what to do when he concertinas up. Initially we just pushed him forwards, so forwards that he couldn't keep his balance almost and had to focus on his legs, then we could push it forwards but keep the frame. So actually this was the best thing that could have happened a week before the Champs...
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