When plan A doesn’t work, go for plan B….

 So, today we went to Woodington Training Centre dressage competition again, however our original plan didn’t quite go to plan, so I went with plan B…

We have been doing amazingly in our training sessions recently, and to keep competition a less “fun day out” and more “the norm”, we ventured out to do another Intro, this time it was Intro B, not one we have done for a while, but definitely “doable”.

Rocky was absolutely on fire in the warm up, even the stallion in the warm up didn’t cause a stir! We stuck rigidly to what we have been doing at home with Karen, (the best trainer I have come across by miles!) and Rocky was up, balanced, engaged and forward, in fact the feeling he was giving me was more of a horse about to do a novice rather than a simple Intro!!

Our time came, and that’ where it all went a bit wrong!!

The moment Rocky entered the arena he tried to take charge, (it wasn’t just me who saw this!) he thought he knew best (as always lol) and proceeded to mess about at any given opportunity, as if he was saying “I can do XYZ and you up there can do absolutely nothing about it for the next 4 minutes”, well, after an amazing warm up, I said to myself, actually NO, this is NOT how we do this, and rode him very forward and positively, throwing marks away on the way, but that was the least of my concerns, after all we are “competing” for training purposes and nothing more, to get good scores and experience under our belt! Part way through the test I actually felt Rocky say “oh alright then, I will behave” like a child would, and the 2^nd part of the test was super, however the first half was a car crash!!! We did however pull 60% out the bag (lord knows from where, and it was a very low scoring class in all!) and a 7^th place!

I should have been pleased with the score and placing yes? Well, yes, they were good, however as I mentioned, it is about getting experience under our belt and using it as a training aid, therefore the competition arena was the current problem. So this is where plan B came in to effect….

I asked the steward if there was any chance at all of being able to ride in the “arena” again, whether it be going HC in the Intro again or having to enter the prelim, anything at all just to get Rocky back into that “arena”!

So I found a space in the Prelim 1, having been a WD, and a baptism of fire was upon us!!!

I had absolutely no plans to do a Prelim for a good while yet, however it felt as if fate had dealt me a card that I had to play.

We had an hour and a half prior to the prelim so we went back to the box and rocky had a rest, while I studied the test!

The time approached, we warmed up again absolutely super, and off to the test arena we went….

Having had to ask for a caller (I am rubbish at remembering tests!!!) we had a bit longer in “that arena” to work in while Heather was dealing with something else before coming to our rescue.

The bell sounded, the CL was done and our very first Prelim was underway J

We had some superb moments in the test, although very sadly it wasn’t recorded (note to self, buy more memory cards!!!) but the work rocky gave was consistent with that of the work in the warm up, and that was all I was looking for.

Having now discussed the day with Karen and being told I did exactly the right thing, I feel that we have made huge progress, and am seriously excited about our future.

Rocky is a seriously intelligent horse with a good brain, but every now and again he thinks he knows best! But that’s what makes training him one of the best feelings ever.

Oh yes, our Prelim score, well I have no idea where we were as I had to go and teach, but the score was 65.47% I believe when we left, I have asked for the test sheet to be sent to me. Not bad for a plan B!!

All pictures can be viewed on my Facebook Page.

Rocky does Dressage…. Again…

It has been a few weeks since we last ventured out, and as I was riding a client’s horse at Woodington Training Centre, I thought it only fair that Rocky went too!

We entered Intro A (again!) as we are not quite ready for Prelim in competition just yet, and then my other horse was entered in the Prelim 18 class.

We arrived early to ensure no rushing was necessary, and in fact had an hour to our time, so Rocky stood as quiet as a church mouse tied to the trailer munching on his Equilibrium VitaMunch for quite a while before tacking up.

Perhaps I should have been a bit suspicious of this church mouse, as once tacked up and mounted appeared to turn into a raging bull! Flipping Norah, we could have been doing a GP with the Piaffe, Passage and lateral movements, and that was just getting to the warm up!!

Having my fabulous trainer Karen’s voice in my head I knuckled down (and sat back!) and put Rocky in his “Box” a term we use to focus him, nothing bad, just a “we are doing XYZ…” rather than allowing Rocky to do his own thing! We spent a fair while working on suppleness and submission, along with transitions to keep him listening. All the time Karen was sat on my shoulder with her words of wisdom running through my head which helped enormously when Rocky decided that actually today being that boring flat stuff was far too boring and wanted to go jumping (that was our last outing), so he decided to make life a little entertaining, having put him in his “box” he wanted to air his opinion on not wanting to be in said box, and after trying to use imaginary goblins to spook at, unsuccessfully, decided the only way he was going to be heard was to attempt to stand up and wave to everyone!

Immediately Karen appeared in my head and instead of thinking oh ****** here we go, I simply gave him a “positive” leg aid and much to Rocky’s disgust we were on our way again. Seriously, whoever had swopped Rocky for this one was having a real laugh!!

Our time came, we entered the arena, the bell rang, we went down the CL and…. Well, the real Rocky returned, a decent test was ridden with a few mistakes and tense parts, but overall we had another outing under our belt, albeit a slightly hair raising one for the first 30 minutes!

The test can be viewed here

Oh yes our score, well I am absolutely delighted to say we got a 5^th place with 69.57% and some absolutely fabulous comments.

Then Bella was next up, Jan her lovely owner had got her ready and it was just down to me to get her warmed up ready.

Bella hasn’t been anywhere for a long while, although she has been to Woodington previously. I have only ridden her once in the last week and never in competition so it was a case of ride by feel.

She warmed up beautifully, really on the aid and totally the opposite to a certain bay cob!!

Our time arrived and away we went. She was tense for the first few movements and didn’t really soften, however as we got going she settled beautifully and tried so hard for me, she was a diamond.

Our test can be viewed here:

The score was 65.24% and 10^th place which we were over the moon with, such a lovely welsh cob.

Oh, did I not mention that Bella is Welsh Cob too? Yes, it was a welsh kind of day, and a very very good one at that!

I shall not be leaving it so long before our next outing again as I think that is what will help Rocky in his education, I just need to make time for it in my very busy schedule!!

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