It's a long way...

With the sad, sad news that Elms Farm shows were all cancelled immediate affect I was at a loss with where we would go competing now that Ceaser would be as relaxed as he usually is there. Thankfully news has spread that it is reopening with new management so I can breathe a sigh of relief. However, that didn't solve my problem of needing a venue to rack up some points for qualifying for regionals at Prelim.

So, after much deliberation Mark and I decided to head to Port Royal on bank holiday Monday in an attempt to try somewhere new. Talking to everyone we didn't think it would too much of a trek, but just incase we left at 7am, ready for my first test at 9:28 - thinking that would be plenty.

We watched the time ticking by as we were driving and soon realised we were going to be very late and there was nothing we could do. Finally we arrived at 9:15 and as soon as the engine was off it was all system go to tack up in time ready to make the first class. Thankfully Mark and I have our responsibilities fine tuned when we're out competing. He took off bandages, took out Ceaser's tail plait, passed me tack and I tacked up, hopped on and wandered off in search of the warm up arena with exactly 6 minutes until I was due in.

Unfortunately this left me no room for working on the warm up Amy and I had planned, so I had a quick trot and canter on both reins and simply hoped for the best. What more could I do, Ceaser hadn't ever been to this venue before so I was just thankful he wasn't too spooky at things. He entered the arena like a diamond and didn't even bat an eye lid. Clever pony!

The test went okay - and as much okay as it could have without a warm up. As soon as I had saluted and was walking out the arena Ceaser spooked at the bricks holding the white boards down. I can imagine he had been waiting to do that the whole test, bless him! Okay score of 65%, but comments reflected our lack of warm up and I know we could have been more supple. Oh well, couldn't be helped.

Next up, long arena test, Prelim 19. This time I had, had 30 minutes to warm up and do things "properly" thank the lord! Everything was going fantastic, until it was time to circle 20 metres at C. I had misheard Mark and thought he said B, but soon realised he had actually said C, so just made my circle a little bigger. Judge penalised me for it and beeped her horn just as we rejoined the track at E. Ceaser slammed to a halt wondering what the hell was going on and almost did a sliding stop. Judge got out her car to say I had circled wrong - tried to explain I had corrected myself with just a big circle, but nonetheless was still given 2 penalty marks. Oh well, we lived to see another day.

Still really pleased with our mark, but kicked myself after realising without those 2 penalty marks we would have been near enough hitting 70% and won the class. Bugger; so ended up on 68%.

So, all in all it was a bit of an eventful day, but we're still smiling so that's all that counts!

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Dressage, training and general hectic times!

Blimey, I hadn't realised it had been that long since I blogged. Things have been hectic here and time seems to pass me by so quickly that before long it's been a month and I haven't posted on here. I'll try to fill you in with everything that has happened, but to be quite honest its so much I may miss some things out!

Before I start, I want introduce you to my summer project who comes in the form of a dapple grey Connemara cross called Ziggy. Ziggy is about 4-years-old and 14.3hh. He has a lot of filling out to do and I can't wait to see what he looks like once he's muscled up and has had some feed down him! He's very nervous of people and came to us petrified of mounting blocks and people standing next to him. He is very wary of what your hands are doing and it is suspected he has been hit somewhere down the line of his short life. When you sit on him he is fine but then all of a sudden panics. Already, in just 2 weeks of owning him he has come on leaps and bounds. I can now sit on him - without moving - and he isn't scared of mounting blocks anymore, nor me jumping on and off them! The future for this boy looks really bright and I'm sure you'll agree he has the kindest eyes.

Next up is the Ceaser news. I made the decision to take him to do a Novice and Elementary test at unaffiliated a couple of weeks ago. It would be our first unaffiliated test for a while as I simply wanted to see what our scores would be like. The warm up went brilliant and he was doing everything I asked, however as before at this venue, as soon as we went in to do our test he tensed up, rushed, I kicked on too much and everything just went rather too quickly! With two scores in the region of 65-67% I was pleased but a little confused as we've gotten higher than this at affiliated several times. The judge kindly gave me some feedback afterwards and said I need to slow down to allow his hind legs to come underneath him to work correctly. Feedback in my head, I went home and practiced like my life depended on it for the week. I concentrated on slowing everything down and allowing him to work from behind more, ready for going to Elms Farm to do two Novices at affiliated again the following week.

The warm up was great and he was really switched on. Felt slightly he was enjoying showing off as two young girls had declared their love for him before it was our turn to go and do our test. Lots of pats, scratches and comments like "he is gorgeous, can I have him?" later, he was well and truly in the 'I know I'm handsome' frame of mind. I'm seriously sure he knows when he has an audience! Anyway, first Novice went really well. Everything felt much calmer and change of venue helped, which is odd and he used to not go so well at this venue, but now seems to prefer it to all the rest. He pulled out a lovely 67% test with same judge as the previous week so really thrilled she saw an improvement. I think it was the final score we needed in order to qualify for Regionals and Novice level, so I am over the moon and hoping these calculations are correct! Second test went just as well and I am so sure now he prefers the long arena tests, with much more to focus on and more movements. Change of judge and we got just short of 66% which was great AND an 8 for our halt! Now that has never happened before.

What was even better is we WON both our tests! Definitely a happy Mummy that day!

We have quite a lot coming up now and for the next couple of weeks the plan is to drop back down to Prelim to try and qualify for Regionals at that level too. At the beginning of May I have a BYRDS squad training day and then senior camp the following week which I am really looking forward to! Especially as one of the instructors for the weekend is my instructor from university! It will be great to see her. I'm not too sure if we'll qualify for Regionals in prelim or not as he seems to be getting higher scores for Novices at the moment. We shall see!

Things have been hectic at the yard since becoming a Pony Club Centre. We've had in-house dressage competitions, the rallies and lots more. I've got a really good feeling about 2014 and I just can't wait to see what else it holds.

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