Post by pboy on Nov 10, 2013 12:05:11 GMT
Today we had the warm-up competition for next week's FEI World Dressage Challenge. They set up the arena as it will be set up next week and we did the FEI tests, great chance to practice in front of a judge 
It was also an afternoon competition for a change so I got a lie-in, whoopee!!
I decided to start with some in-hand work, as I always do it at home before we school. Classy was very tense and spent more time looking at people / golf carts (the venue is next to HK golf course) and just about anything else, along with plenty of attempts to charge back to the exit
Not to be put off, I jumped on board and within 30 seconds he did a nice big buck. I put my new tactic into play and booted him into canter on a 6m circle, keeping him going for a while after he wanted to stop. I saw a great quote recently - 'make the wrong thing hard and the right thing easy' and it is so brilliant and simple. Hence the 6m circle, he finds it hard and it forces me to push him forwards instead of riding him defensively after a buck. Well, he tried a couple more then seemed to give up, hooray!
He was still tense but forwards, for once! So I did a lot of work in trot and canter and he gradually became more relaxed and supple without losing the power. I was feeling quite pleased, though it still felt potentially explosive. Then just after I'd been told that I had one minute, he suddenly humped, half-REARED and shot forward. He's literally never reared with me before so I was taken a bit by surprise and lost both stirrups, but recovered, asked for the same transition again (did it nicely) and headed in.
I was pleased with him in the arena - he kept the forwards power and focused on me for most of it. He seemed to lose attention during the four-loop serpentine and the subsequent canter transition was late as a result. Our circles were somewhat inaccurate as we don't have a 60x20 to practice in and I was a bit lost, and our halts are crap. But overall I felt that I could really ride him forwards into the contact for the first time, which meant I could get more bend and more engagement. Let's hope it continues!!
I was still quite surprised to find we'd come third I'd been joking as I watched with some friends that the last rider (a teenager on a pretty dun pony) looked great and how good it was that children and adults have separate FEI classes - lo and behold she won!
Unfortunately no pics or vid this time
It looks like we'll be able to stable the horses at the comp yard for a couple of days leading up to next week's competition so hopefully that will help with the warm-up issues with Classy.
In the absence of pics of us, here are a couple of another rider from my stables on a mare he imported from England a month ago. Weird coincidence - turns out she was owned by a friend of a friend of mine! Mutual friend put us in touch and she was soooo happy to be able to stay in touch with her old horse. I love it when that sort of thing happens!!
It was also an afternoon competition for a change so I got a lie-in, whoopee!!I decided to start with some in-hand work, as I always do it at home before we school. Classy was very tense and spent more time looking at people / golf carts (the venue is next to HK golf course) and just about anything else, along with plenty of attempts to charge back to the exit
Not to be put off, I jumped on board and within 30 seconds he did a nice big buck. I put my new tactic into play and booted him into canter on a 6m circle, keeping him going for a while after he wanted to stop. I saw a great quote recently - 'make the wrong thing hard and the right thing easy' and it is so brilliant and simple. Hence the 6m circle, he finds it hard and it forces me to push him forwards instead of riding him defensively after a buck. Well, he tried a couple more then seemed to give up, hooray!He was still tense but forwards, for once! So I did a lot of work in trot and canter and he gradually became more relaxed and supple without losing the power. I was feeling quite pleased, though it still felt potentially explosive. Then just after I'd been told that I had one minute, he suddenly humped, half-REARED and shot forward. He's literally never reared with me before so I was taken a bit by surprise and lost both stirrups, but recovered, asked for the same transition again (did it nicely) and headed in.
I was pleased with him in the arena - he kept the forwards power and focused on me for most of it. He seemed to lose attention during the four-loop serpentine and the subsequent canter transition was late as a result. Our circles were somewhat inaccurate as we don't have a 60x20 to practice in and I was a bit lost, and our halts are crap. But overall I felt that I could really ride him forwards into the contact for the first time, which meant I could get more bend and more engagement. Let's hope it continues!!
I was still quite surprised to find we'd come third
I'd been joking as I watched with some friends that the last rider (a teenager on a pretty dun pony) looked great and how good it was that children and adults have separate FEI classes - lo and behold she won!Unfortunately no pics or vid this time
It looks like we'll be able to stable the horses at the comp yard for a couple of days leading up to next week's competition so hopefully that will help with the warm-up issues with Classy.In the absence of pics of us, here are a couple of another rider from my stables on a mare he imported from England a month ago. Weird coincidence - turns out she was owned by a friend of a friend of mine! Mutual friend put us in touch and she was soooo happy to be able to stay in touch with her old horse. I love it when that sort of thing happens!!
Must be a good sign...
for so much hard work we thank ye!!
