I have been so excited about going to camp for now. Mark said it's all I've talked about, which makes a change from always talking about Ceaser.
I booked the Friday off work so I could bath Ceaser and get everything ready. Early Friday morning the lorry finally went for its new radiator and I slowly got things together and set about the always time consuming task - cleaning the pony!
Finally it was time to hit the road and although I was nervous that it would be Ceaser's first time travelling in the lorry on his own - something we couldn't do in the 7.5t lorry - he amazed me by walking straight on and standing there as cool as a cucumber whilst we shut all the doors. Gold star number one!
Upon arrival at camp we were shown to our stables and whilst I got Ceaser ready for bed, Mark put up the tent and got our camp site ready. It was very clear Ceaser was going to live the weekend in luxury whilst Mark and I slummed it in a tent on an air bed. I'm not quite sure this is how its supposed to work; Pony's living quarters better than the humans!
Finally Ceaser was happily munching away on his haynet and it was the humans turn to go for dinner and attend the "meet and greet" session. We ended up sitting with some lovely people at dinner and Mark quickly took them up on an offer of some wine. I use the word "some" very lightly, it turned to be a whole bottle...
After dinner we were asked to write 3 goals down for the weekend and then a short term, medium term and long term goal. We were then asked to stand up, introduce ourselves and our pony and share our goals. Mine were as follows:
1) Ride a test confidently - don't go in and rush. Enjoy my time in the arena.
2) Master the medium trot properly - stop it from going flat at the end.
3) Grasp how to get Ceaser working uphill consistently, not just in bursts.
Short term: Get Ceaser working uphill.
Medium term: Continue to compete at Elementary level.
Long term: Ride a medium test and be selected for Northern Region teams.
I'm looking forward to coming back to this blog and seeing if we can achieve all of our goals.
** Saturday **
Friday night I got absolutely zero sleep. The rain hammered down on our tent all night and I was cursing our decision to sleep in the tent rather than the lorry. Whose bright idea was that anyway??
After breakfast on Saturday it was workshop time for me first. We had been asked to take a cardboard box and I was intrigued as to what we were going to do with it; climb in it? Build something? No!
The workshop held by David Collins began with an explanation of how success in the dressage arena isn't always down to our horses way of going, but rather down to our minds and how we think and ride that test.
We were given a little help on how to focus our minds, how to approach our horses in a morning and shown how our mood can affect our horses and how well they perform for us.
Then it was time to find out what the box was for. David asked us to think of things that were annoying us, making us angry or were upsetting us at the time. It could be anything from our life, not just equine-related. Of course I wrote "work" and "Ceaser rearing" down. We then had to write a number between 1 and 10 next to the words, with 1 being this didn't annoy us much, and 10 it annoyed us a lot! 10 went down next to work and 7 to Ceaser rearing. David then made us scrunch the bits of paper up and throw them in our box with some effort, and then close the box up. It really did feel good "throwing" our problems away and like we were trying to eliminate these problems from our life. Once the box was closed he made us stamp and jump on our boxes and destroy them as much as possible, and then throw the box in a corner.
David said after this we had to think again what the number next to our problem would be. Work went down to a 7 and Ceaser rearing to a 4. It's amazing how a simple task like that can make us reflect differently on our problems and make them seem easier to deal with. I recommend anyone to try it!
David really was fantastic and I'm definitely going to be looking into getting him to the yard to do some workshops.
Next up was my lesson with Verity. Verity gave me lessons at university and was the main coach for our equestrian team so I was really looking forward to her meeting Ceaser and getting her perspective on him. Verity became somewhat of my idol throughout university and I just love the way she teaches, so it was great to see what she thought of my aims and goals for the next year.
Having watched us at the Sheepgate Tack and Togs Championships the week before, Verity and I had already had a quick chat about what I wanted to work on and that was getting Ceaser uphill, slowing everything down but maintaining him in front of my leg and keeping the impulsion. Verity identified exactly what I needed to do to get Ceaser more engaged and working from behind, that within 10 minutes of working with her we had it. She also noticed his tendency to drop his head in the canter and said when he does to just give him a little half halt with my left rein to almost say, no.
Once we had got this Verity asked what I wanted to work on and I asked if we could do our walk to canters, however Ceaser really wasn't playing ball. He turned very testing and reacting back with a few legs in the air, but we carried on working through it and finally got it. Verity said he is very testing of me and almost tells me he can't do it to try me. She thinks if I just get a bit firmer and in stead of saying "oh come on" I need to say "no, do it" and show I'm in charge, but in a nice way. She said its about expecting that bit more from him, and I do agree - there are so many things I know he can do because he's done it with Amy in lessons, but when it comes to me doing it I struggle because I'm a little softer. So goal for me - be a bit firmer and expect more.
Overall we had a great lesson and I was feeling really confident about everything at the end.
After lunch and a quick catch up to see how everyones lessons had gone it was time to start thinking about the test riding. I had never seen or heard Andrew Fletcher teach so I was quite interested in watching what he was like. I had a spare hour so went to grab my lunch whilst watching his test riding. Mark had been asked to video all the tests so I managed some me time to sit down and just watch.
After watching a few people ride their tests I was nervous to say the least - Andrew was firm, but fair and reminded me very much of my old instructor from my first riding school - Ian. I was just so worried about what he would say about Ceaser. We weren't perfect and are definitely far from being the best, so I must say, everything David had said in the morning went completely out the window - I was nervous!
Unfortunately the rain came down quite heavy as it was my time to warm up so Andrew called me into the indoor and I had to warm up at the side of the dressage ring. Thankfully Oakridge's indoor is huge, so I had enough room to do what I needed. Ceaser felt on fire - he just felt powerful. He was using his back end like he should and when I asked for an extension a huge powerful medium trot came out. This instantly set my mind at ease and I began to look forward to riding my test.
I was due to ride Novice 38 which is a test I have become to love riding. Ceaser was unstoppable - quite literally! He was forward, really off my leg and it felt like he took me round the test rather than me having to hurry him along. Once we had done we had to go to Andrew and get feedback. My heart was literally pounding - what would he say about my little cob that wasn't exactly made for Dressage?
"I loved it - the test was forward, willingly ridden, accurate and overall a good test" Phew!! I honestly could have cried. Andrew then went through why he had given us the marks he did and he said everything was good and spot on, but we just needed to work on getting uphill more. He said it annoys him when a rider rides a pony/horse downhill, but he felt in my case Ceaser just generally wasn't uphill and I needed to help him, which I wasn't doing. He said he is a lovely pony that really does try hard and seem to love what he's doing and gave me some tips on how I can make the overall picture appear to be more uphill and help get him working through his back more. He gave us mostly 7's or 7.5's in our test and a 7.5 for my riding which I was thrilled with! Andrew also said that our sheet added to almost 70% and quite honestly he could see no reason why he shouldn't get this in any Novice test. Our final score was 69.80% and of course when I took Ceaser back to my stable I did shed a little tear, but Ssshh don't tell anyone...
After I had popped Ceaser away I was down to write for Andrew in the afternoon. I had volunteered as I felt it would give me a good insight into what the judge was looking for and I couldn't have been so right! Because it was camp Andrew was talking the audience quietly through mistakes and good bits as he was judging. Where something looked good to me Andrew would say quarters in and it made me realise there was a whole new world to learn about within dressage. He was a great man to sit next to and listen to for a couple of hours and if he is ever judging near by I will definitely put my name down to write for him.
Whilst writing for him and Mark was videoing we both picked up on something he said and discussed it between us over dinner because of how true we realised it was. Andrew said that often if a judge is riding at the level they are teaching at, then they can be harsher markers because they are looking for so much more. If Andrew is judging at Prelim for example, he just wants every movement to be correct, accurate and ridden positively - he doesn't look further than that for things that shouldn't be questioned at prelim level. Mark and I discussed how true this is, and it is something we are finding when I am judged locally. Maybe now I won't take it so much to heart.
Saturday evening over dinner we sat down as a group and watched all our tests back on the projector whilst Judge, Cherry Elvin talked through the marks we had been given by Andrew on our score sheets. Watching mine back was really different for me as I never have anyone to video my tests for me. It definitely didn't look like it felt and I actually thought it looked nice! Everyone commented on how happy Ceaser looked throughout the whole test, which was some great feedback as I honestly wouldn't do it if he wasn't 100% happy.
** Sunday **
Saturday night Mark and I had an even worse night sleep than the previous night. I am not even exaggerating when I say this, but the tent fell down. In the middle of the night, the wind blew the tent down, at precisely 3am. Who knew there was two 3 o clocks in one day?! Anyway, of course it was MY fault the tent had fallen down because I had been the one to put the guide ropes up on that side and they had come out.
I was absolutely shattered Sunday, I am not going to lie - I could have easily have given the mornings workshop a miss and gone back to bed, but I didn't and off I went to Equipilates with Lindsey Wilcox-Reid. I cannot believe some of the stuff she had us doing, it was amazing and I really cannot explain it - but if you're thinking of going, then definitely go to an Equipilates session!
After my workshop it was time to tack up for Verity's lesson again which I was really looking forward to. Quite a few people said their horses were feeling lethargic due to the hard work the previous day, but Ceaser still felt fine - in fact he felt better!
Verity and I discussed our score in the Novice test riding the day before and how I want to improve this. She took away my stirrups and asked me to warm up without using them. If you have read any of my previous blogs then you will know how much I detest work without stirrups, but we got there! Once I was allowed them back I felt I had a much better leg position and Mark said he could notice a big difference just watching from the sidelines.
Once warmed up and with my stirrups back, we did small exercises on each rein that required Ceaser to leg yield, then shoulder in, then half pass. This exercise really got him stepping underneath and using his hing legs much more - it's a great exercise and I recommend it to anyone wanting to get your horse that bit more engaged. Verity felt that I tend to draw my leg up because of Ceaser's size and I need to get used to keeping it long.
Verity asked me to work on my walk to canters again, but this time in small 10 meter circles off the wall, to give me something to base my transitions at. She said when I asked for the walk I had to mean walk and be clear in what I wanted, go straight for a few paces and then ask for canter. This worked perfectly and within minutes we were getting clean, uphill transitions both upwards and downwards. I think my smile said it all as this transition is one we struggled with on one particular rein. Gold star for CP again!
Verity said we should leave it there as he had done some fantastic work, but just to keep expecting more as when I did, he showed he could do the walk to canters perfectly. I finally took the plunge and asked her if my goal of doing a medium test was reachable and was over the moon that she thought it was, definitely! Phew!
After lunch it was time to get ready for our second test ride with Andrew. I was really looking forward to it this time and again Ceaser felt great. I was really adamant to put into practice what Andrew and Verity had both said over the course of the weekend so I focused on sitting up tall, using my core more and simply enjoying the ride! The ride Ceaser gave me just felt fantastic, I was so confident that we had reached 70% in this one and was very much looking forward to what Andrew had to say this time.
The feedback he gave me was just out of this world for me. To others it may not have seemed much, but I was so thrilled with what he had to say. He said that I rode it much better and by sitting up more, keeping my legs long and using my core muscles he had noticed Ceaser working uphill in places and said we now just needed
to focus on maintaining this. He gave me an 8 for my riding; eeek! and said to continue what I was doing. I took the plunge to ask him what he thought of our medium test goals and he said I had absolutely no reason not to go out and do it now. Finally my hard work this year where I have spent endless hours working on Ceaser's medium trot seemed to pay off and Andrew said he really opens up well and there is a noticeable difference in my medium and working trot - yay! There was more, but honestly if I start gushing about everything he said I will go on and on. For me it was just a really big thing to hear from someone like Andrew that Ceaser COULD go and do the medium test and that my aims and goals aren't stupid. I had always been afraid to tell people I wanted to do a medium test, but I really feel now I will say it with confidence. When we added our test sheet score up I couldn't believe it we got 70.96%!!!! YES!!!!
Unfortunately that was the end of our weekend at camp and I was well and truly exhausted but at the same time buzzing from my experiences throughout the whole weekend. I was going away with new friends, new confidence, new goals and new achievements! Anyone thinking of going away to a BD camp really should go - it is fantastic and whilst you think you'll be sat around a lot of the weekend, you really won't be! There is endless opportunities to volunteer and help out and it is great for meeting new people. I have booked onto the camp in August now and I really cannot wait. For now Ceaser has a couple of days off and then another 2 novice tests the following weekend at a venue we haven't done BD at before!
I'd like to say a huge thank you to the Northern Region for making Ceaser, Mark and I so welcome this weekend - Ceaser definitely approves!
Not a lot has happened here over the last couple of weeks, apart from work and more work.
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