Unaffiliated Dressage - 18/10/13

Thursday is usually my day off college, however on Thursday 18th October I took part in an unaffiliated evening dressage competition held at college. I was at the yard from 3pm getting ready before my evening yard duties, then I had to quickly go back to prepping myself and Mac (thankfully one if my friends is good at plaiting & was nice enough to plait him up for me!) I did the Intro A class on Mac. We achieved a score of 65.65% putting us in 4th place out of a large class, as well as being the highest place academy student in the class?! Mac went well, I made a few minor errors, such as a not so circular circle, but I am proud of our test, which earned us 6 and 7 throughout, with an 8 for our halt & salute!

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Highlights From The Past 3 Weeks?!

Monday 7th October

Prior to an unaffiliated dressage competition the following week, I have been riding Mac,(the horse I rode for the competition) in ride sessions in the run up to the competition. 
We spent our ride session on Monday riding centre lines, first in walk, then in trot. This may sound exceptionally easy, however in practice I realised how much as riders we can cause the horse to drift one way, from something so simple as not looking or sitting straight. We then followed this exercise with getting the horses to go forward into a soft, natural outline.

Friday 11th October

We went on a trip to HOYS for the day to watch the competitions and do some all important shopping. I had such a great time watching the classes (especially the show jumping) and will never pass up the opportunity to watch people competing at such a high level! I obviously squeezed in some shopping while there! As well as meeting GB show jumper Tina Fletcher?!

When I met Tina Fletcher!

William Funnell & Billy Mexico

Saturday 12th October & Sunday 13th October 

I spent this weekend helping the course builder at a British Showjumping progressive show held at college.
On Saturday I helped set up the jumps, then on Sunday I assisted the course builder during and between the classes. It was interesting to see how the colour, style and location of the fence affects both horses and riders - I took note for my next show!

Monday 14th October

I was on yard duties from Monday 14th October. While on duties I was responsible for 3 of the horses on the college yard - Hannah, Storm & India. This involved being at the yard from 7:15am for duties before college then staying at the yard till 6pm afterwards - not too bad, except I was on duties the week in which it rained the most so far..

Thursday 17th October

I competed in an unaffiliated dressage competition, for which I have written a separate blog post...

Dressage Blog Post: http://bit.ly/1dcmT9g 

Sunday 20th October

As part of our duties week we help with any competitions scheduled at the weekend. I helped with a British Dressage competition, that went from Preliminary through to Medium level. I found it quite interesting (for someone that usually dislikes watching dressage, unless its at international freestyle level!)

Monday 21st October

In our ride session on Monday I rode Rylea, a young coloured. I previously rode him in my first week at college when I went to watch his owner ride. He is still quite green, especially in the indoor arena, where there are some spooky sights and sounds for him. Nevertheless he has settled I found he went quite well for me, allowing me to split my concentration between him and my own position which the lesson was focusing on.

Last time I rode Rylea

Tuesday 22nd October

On Tuesday I rode Joey, a 16.3hh thoroughbred, who was quite fresh first thing in the morning! We worked in walk, trot and canter without stirrups. He was a challenge as I had to ensure he was bending and working correctly, while concentrating on my own position. However I really enjoyed my ride on him - his canter was like a rocking horse. Also, my seat and lower leg position are definitely improving!

Joey having a snooze!

Friday 24th October

My last ride before study week was at jumping academy training, on a chestnut called Tom. After the previous session in which we rode away from a fence in a controlled manor, this time we were riding a distance in the form of a dog leg line - off the left rein, cross pole to upright, then ride right away from the fence. I walked the distance correctly on foot, before warming up and jumping it on the horse; however as I found, despite his size, if not asked to work through his back end enough Tom can jump a 4 stride distance in 6 strides! This was majority rider error, as I didn't push him on enough, however as the instructor said, this would not cause fault if done in most competitive situations, it is just not ideal.

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College Week 4

(..As you can tell I'm struggling to think of an inventive name for this post..)

Monday 30th September

I rode Chancer a 14.2hh blue & white Cob X gelding (needless to say I looked massive on him!) We spent most the lesson doing sitting trot without stirrups to improve our lower leg position. I had the additional challenge of getting Chancer to bend round the corners, which he wasn't to keen on! After bending round a few corners he thought it was a better idea to bend so much that I went into the wall, or not at all. Then we
when I continued to ride him forward he decided to have a cheeky prance about & tried to rear. He tried it on a few times, but fortunately I could use my height as an advantage till he stopped playing about!

Chancer

Tuesday 1st October

Instead of riding on Tuesday we worked on lunging the horses. I have only ever lunged once before (a cheeky exmoor pony that liked to buck when on the lunge..) so it was nice to lunge Charlie Brown, commonly known as the slow one on the yard! I've still got a way to go as my coordination is all over the place, but I think it was a good start to lunging.

Wednesday 2nd October

In Wednesday's riding session we were filmed riding the horses in walk, trot and canter, so that we can analyse our positions on the flat next week. For this I rode Flash, a flea-bitten grey gelding, who is known for being highly strung when in the school, but with me he seemed ok, apart from going slightly sideways in canter.

Friday 4th October

We were at the college for jumping academy training this week, so I rode Sadie, a bay 15.2hh cob X. We worked on strengthening and securing the lower leg by riding with our stirrups 3 holes higher than jumping length (a total of 5 holes shorter than for flat work) and later without stirrups, both in rising trot, jumping position and also standing straight up in the stirrups. During all this I had to keep the reluctant Sadie in trot - needless to say my legs had a work out!

I'll finish with this post with this picture of Hannah, that I took while on the yard, Monday morning - it's a hard life being a horse!

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