My riding instructor has been helping me out a lot whilst I have been busy at work. If I have a particular busy week she will come to give Ceaser a 45 minute session, which I must say has helped a tremendous amount. I have noticed a huge difference in his schooling since this and it's nice to have given me that peace of mind that he isn't stuck in his stable all day whilst i'm working! He's only had one session a week if she comes, but it's enough to have really got his mediums sorted out, which are feeling fantastic of late.I can't wait for the lighter nights so I can ride. It's not quite the same getting up at 6am to have a quick ride before work, it always feels like I'm rushing and clock watching.
The beginning of January set me back a little and Ceaser ended up having about 10 days off due to me being admitted to hospital. Once again I got chronic sinusitis and couldn't stop being sick. So, after a stay over night in Queens Medical, Nottingham and 2 days on a ward I was finally admitted to the ENT clinic (after 3 years of this happening regularly!) and have a follow up appointment to look at surgery in March. I'm not sure what they will do yet, but it's possible I'll need surgery. I just hope I can schedule this for a slot in the calendar when we have no important competitions. We'll see what happens, but I'm sure Ceaser won't mind 2 weeks off work - which is apparently also what I'll need! I can see me going mad in that time.
Whilst laying in my sick bed I found a lovely small lorry for sale that I thought looked absolutely perfect for Mark and I. Once you see the colour you will know why! So, Mark went to look, gave it a test drive and trusting his instinct we took the plunge to buy it. I cannot believe the sense of relief I got as soon as we picked it up. No longer do I have to rely on drivers, friends or family to take me to competitions. Mark and I can just get up and go where we like, when we like.Which is exactly what we've been doing....
We had some test drives with smaller ponies in and eventually we decided we should bite the bullet and take Ceaser on a short journey somewhere. With nothing major happening at the moment due to weather and time of year, we decided to make use of Sheepgates happy hour and hire their indoor arena. Oh it was lovely to ride indoor for the first time in a while and I am now eagerly awaiting the build of ours.... (more on that at a later date!). It gave me a chance to run through a couple of tests, movements and not have to worry about Ceaser spooking so much like he does at home. He worked lovely, but I felt not his best.
The following week I arranged to go to our first BD competition of the season and enter two Novices instead of a prelim and novice. It was Marks longest drive in the lorry and so we set of rather early and just took it steady to the venue. The wind was howling and the rain coming down sideways when we arrived, but I wanted to get on and do something now we were there so I quickly tacked up and set off to the indoor arena to warm up. Ceaser felt fantastic. Everything I asked of him he did for me and more. He warmed up super and was very much off my leg. I was booked in to do Novice 30 and Novice 34, with Novice 30 coming up first. This test has a bit of walk to canter in a couple of simple changes, so when warming up I really worked at getting him moving off my leg and forward ready for the medium movements. He was on fire and with a gentle squeeze popped off into canter from walk, then for the simple changes through trot popped into trot then immediately into canter when asked. Pushing my luck a little I really collected his trot and then asked for a medium across the diagonal. Unless he's warmed up correctly he usually rushes this, but this time I just felt an almighty push from behind and the most perfect medium trot came out. Just WOW!
Without giving him a break we went straight into our test just as some more rain came hammering down sideways and the wind howled. He tensed a little when trotting around the arena and showed some lovely half passes. To get him back I asked him to come back to the walk and then popped into trot again and he relaxed. The test just felt fantastic, there is no way to describe it. However it is just my luck that no one is there to video it when it goes nicely! His walk to canter was perfect and the simple changes through trot were spot on. I couldn't pick fault with him - only me, where my 15 meter circle ended up being 20 meters due to not hearing Mark properly, but it was fine, I could cope with that.We had an hour until our next test but I asked Mark to tell the steward that if no one was going in and they were running either early or behind could I please go in a gap as I wanted to keep him moving and focused. Thankfully there was a slot vacant in 20 minutes due to someone not showing up, so I was allowed to have that. Again, he warmed up super and this time I focused on our transitions, getting them spot on and accurate.
The second test felt equally as nice as the first and again I was gutted no one filmed me or even took photos. Come on venues, get photographers at your events! His transitions were spot on and everything just felt so calm and not like we were in a rush to get round like I have previously felt. The simple changes through trot again were just right and his walk felt powerful which is a new thing for us! I could really feel him stepping underneath me in the medium trot and canters and when asked to come back to a working canter from a medium he happily obliged - has someone swapped my pony??
After we came out the ring roughly three people came up to me to tell me how wonderful our test had looked and how calm Ceaser was despite the weather. That's my boy, he never lets me down. I really couldn't have asked for any more from him and I was beaming from ear to ear!Our scores were finally produced and was a little disappointing with only 64% for the first test. To me it had ridden much higher and I thought he deserved at least 66%. However other scores were around the same margin and I went with the conclusion that the judge must be a very harsh marker. Despite this she wrote a lovely comment on the bottom of our sheet, so I was happy. Our second score reflected much more how the test had ridden. With just under 69% for Novice 34 I was thrilled. Again, the comment on the bottom of the sheet was wonderful and really gave me some confidence to maybe step him up to Elementary within the near future.
This has really boosted our scores for regionals and my focus now lies on qualifying for regionals and getting selected for the teams. So we shall see! Next up is BD again at the end of February, first weekend in March and then hopefully some clinics and test riding days. I have decided to attend a BYRDS squad day so I can be put into the appropriate squad. This is less because I want to compete as a BYRD, but more to see where Ceaser and I are at. So, wish us luck!
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