Sam A busy month of Shows
RUBY DRESSAGE
Hey everyone! Thankyou for your continued support and for reading my blogs monthly! I’m so lucky to be able to share my highs and lows I have every month with you. This month has been busy with a show almost every weekend. I still have training every week with Jonathan and both the horses are jumping really well.
Ollie is doing fab, we’re really starting to get to grips with each other and I’m learning how to approach a fence and give him time to see it and then still have enough room to ride forward to it and with confidence. We still have the odd blips but I’m learning every step of the way, I think the main thing is that when we get it right it feels so good. But I’m happy and determined this year to get out and give my first 1.05m a try!
Ruby is still as fabulous as she was last month, I’m so surprised how shes coming on and maturing into a really fab all round horse. I’m hoping to get her out to do some cross country at some point and really see if I can try some eventing whether it be affiliated or unaffiliated. I’ve been working really hard at home on her dressage and almost every time she’s been in the 60% with things to work on to bring our scores up.
Chester
CHESTER ON YARD
Chester is back in work now and I’m aiming to do some intro dressage with him this year as I believe having a goal or something to aim for makes me much more determined to get him going. Although we’ve purchased a new supplement for him, called Equinox, I’m absolutely in love with it, it is to help settle his stomach and so far I highly recommend it! That along with my Allan and Page Calm & Condition and my Calm & Shine Honeychop chaff he looks and feels amazing!
Our first show was Beacons BS where I took Ollie and Ruby to give it a go. Ruby was very well behaved with just time faults in both the 85cm (but still getting 3rd) & British Novice. Ollie however didn’t have as good a day and we had a stop in the 95cm, and he got us eliminated in the disco. To jump Ollie at shows I use a market harbourough, which just keeps him focused and helps me keep his head carrige lower so that I can get him to look at his fences a lot earlier, this means he sees the fillers earlier and this helps me with his stopping issue. However in beacons I had to ride him in a martingale as I found out the bit I ride him in isn’t allowed to be used with the market harbourough, so scrapping that idea, I feel his head carrige was just too high and he wasn’t looking at the fillers early enough resulting in the stops we had.
OLLIE AT BROOMES
The next show was second rounds at David Broomes Event Centre, where I just took Ollie. The first day I done the 95cm, where Ollie just died on the turn uphill to a spread, so we had a stop in the first class. Then on the second day I decided to put him in for the 95cm & disco to give him a warm up class. He went double clear in the 95cm and a stupid stop in the disco, and on the Sunday he would have been 3rd but had a very unlucky pole at the last fence in the 95cm because rider got a little excited. Then in the strictly 1m class, which is a class where the prize money and 1st place is split between all DC’s, he smashed the last class of the weekend getting a fabulous DC and my first broomes rosette on him and money prize. Such a nice feeling getting it right with all the hours training we put in and the work that goes into the care of horses.
OLLIE & RUBY WITH BIKES
The weekend after next we had a the TVRC dressage festival. We had to get two scores over 60% to qualify, so Ruby qualified prelim with previous prelim scores. Then when we had to do two different tests on the day which one suited Ruby more than the other, as she likes to be set up for a movement fairly early and one of the tests came up really quickly and the other one was a bit more spaced out. She did fairly well with two scores in the 60% with lovely comments off two judges for each test! (they took an average from both tests) lots learnt and just have to work on getting her head carriage more consistent, suppler and round to begin to engage core and work from behind. But I was super impressed how she warmed up for both tests in the heat and performed the two tests a little behind the leg which meant she wasn’t connected over her back.
Check in with us next month to find out how we get on in Aston le Walls for the Festival of The Horse championships and Broomes again!! 🙂
