Rocky’s Dressage Debut…

On a cold but bright January morning, the 11^th of Jan 2015 to be precise, Rocky and I made our Dressage Debut at Woodington Training Centre.

I entered Rocky for the Intro A class to introduce him to this thing called “Dressage”, but the main object of the day out was to build confidence and gain experience, so the Intro was ideal to begin his career.

One of my concerns was the warm up arena as working around other horses recently has been, well, exciting! Never in a nasty way, just a genuine excitement, so again, the warm-up was an ideal opportunity to “school” around others.

We have been doing our homework over the last week, hiring local arenas after work to school in and run through our little test, all of which paid       dividends as when we got to the show Rocky simply had a look around and I could almost see him working out “oh right were doing “work” again today".Excellent!!

Woodington Training Centre is a super friendly, local venue which I have previously judged at, but not for a good 2 years. The warm up is a large arena with mirrors and surrounded by a glorious log home, jumps, judges boxes, fields with grazing horses etc so clearly a lot for a baby horse to look at!

Rocky however entered the arena and yes had a glance around, yet was honest and willing to get on with his “job”. At this point we were in the Warm-up on our own, other horses were around but not yet in the arena with us, but not for long, we were joined by some beautiful horses and ponies, all getting on with their jobs too, Rocky quietly working around them and although a little look was given every now and then, he was attentive and responsive.

As it was getting closer to our turn, we returned to the trailer to change jackets etc, at which point Rocky was watching the other horses doing their tests, almost in a “OK so this is what to do then” kind of way!

Our test time arrived and as the previous horse was leaving the arena the steward let us in and off we went. Name provided to the judge and a trot around the outside giving Rocky chance to take the white boards etc all in.

The bell sounded and a deep breath taken, our very first Centre Line was happening!

Rocky felt a little introvert throughout the test, behind the leg and a little unsure, however he responded to every request, and I firmly believe he tried his heart out for me. We had one slight miscommunication on the final Centre Line, all my fault as I was too late preparing him for the turn and we lost balance, he came against my aids and basically we fell around the turn!! Arghhhh stupid jockey!!! However we regained our balance and finished our first ever test.

I had a quick chat with the judge on our way out, as had most of the others, she was thrilled with him, then asked if he was about 6yrs, erm, no, he is still actually 3, but in his 4^th year (which means he is now able to compete), at which point she almost fell off her chair as she honestly thought his attitude etc were outstanding for his tender age.

Rocky had his Nettex Tastytreat, then quietly stood munching his haynet and watching some of the other competitors while we awaited our score sheet.

We achieved 61.74% with better moments than others, (would have been better had I not have messed the final line up!!) with lots of positive comments, but this was immaterial, the whole idea of the outing was for gaining experience, and I feel Rocky had a very good experience which was vital.

So there we have it, our very first Dressage Competition was over, Rocky had exceeded all my expectations (yet again!) and behaved impeccably.

The diary is now out and our next outing planned....

Click HERE to view the test.

Today's hacking was somewhat eventful and could have been disastrous.....

After the lovely new clip Rocky had done this morning, as a reward for his impeccable behaviour, I took decided to go out for a short hack, just round the woods and home I thought would be nice even though it was raining and miserable but that wasn't going to stop us!

We set off and immediately were confronted by a huge tractor towing an even huger trailer containing Christmas trees all wrapped up. Ok, here we go, only 2 minutes in and already we have questions being asked! I managed to park Rocky on the verge and although he was a little unsure, the tractor passed uneventfully. Phew..

On we went down the track to the woods, the puddles were more like lakes and stretched across the track, ok, we have had some issues with puddles before so leg on positive thoughts and.... Oh we were paddling through! Result! Good boy Rocky said lots of times!

We met lots of pheasants, cows, more pheasants, more cows and lots more lakes, but all was well until one of the "lakes" seemed to be a lot deeper than Rocky anticipated and he stopped dead, just as a pheasant (yes another!!) tried to fly through some fencing and got trapped prompting some seriously frenzied flapping and squawking from said pheasant, and as this happened Rocky , eyes on stalks at the squawking monster, jumped sideways in a nano second and seemingly got stuck where he landed.

Thankfully the monstrous bird managed to get through the fence and left but we didn't go anywhere, I peered down to check why and noticed the reason, my poor boy in his attempt to flee from the monster had landed in a collapsed hedge which had hidden barbed wire running through it and he was tangled up in it.

Omg, don't panic I was telling myself, quick thinking talking quietly to Rocky, who didn't appear phased by this situation thankfully, I leapt off into the water and assessed the barb wire from the ground. Rocky seemed to understand I was trying to free him and stood rock still waiting for me to magic up a plan...

I managed to untwist the wire from his legs and physically picked up his feet one by one and placed them to safety, from where he casually walked away. I closely inspected his legs for injury, his brushing boots had twisted round but there was no visible sign of blood, but there was lots of mud so I couldn't be sure. Rocky didn't seem upset by the situation and so we walked through the woods until I found somewhere suitable to remount.

On our ride back home we came across more lakes and to be fair Rocky had a good look at these again but I managed to coax his through, we had little option as this was the only route home!

On returning home I immediately washed him down and checked him thoroughly for injury, thankfully not a single hair was damaged, unlike his brushing boots which were very badly torn and split.

I know everybody has their own opinion on boots and leg protection but having witnessed what has happened to Rocky today and the damage inflicted on the boots, I can honestly say I firmly believe that those brushing boots prevented injuries that could have been career threatening, or even worse, just from a simple freak spook.