Well, despite the very wet and horrible weather we experienced yesterday, Ceaser still managed to do me proud and pull out all the stops once again.
A friend, Kirsty had agreed to take me to Dressage yesterday in our lorry and what a day it was!
I knew I probably should have cancelled going anywhere when at 2am in the morning I woke up to hear it hailing outside and blowing an absolute gale. However, not wanting to be defeated by the weather, I woke up to 8am alarm and trekked to the yard to get Ceaser ready.
Luckily, my dressage times were not until late afternoon so it meant no rushing around, no loading ponies in the dark and I could do all my jobs before we left - bonus!
I had decided to take Sara, my 12.2hh along to dressage with us to keep Ceaser company as he always travels better with a friend. Once I had mucked out, got haynets ready for both the journey and for the evening, loaded the lorry with my tack and made sure I hadn't forgotten anything we loaded the ponies and went off into Spilsby to fetch chips from the chip shop on the way to the competition - just because we could and we had time, unlike usually!
However, once we got on our way, things started to go a little wrong! The rain started to come again, rather heavy and Kirsty noticed the lorry was making a bit of a peculiar noise. At first we passed it off as nothing, but soon realised something was wrong when despite being in 4th gear we were only doing 15MPH.
Luckily we weren't far from the venue we were competing at and Kirsty made the decision to just keep driving and get me where I needed to be and then worry about the funny burning smell that was looming!
Once we arrived, I phoned Dad and told him what had happened as by now the clutch peddle wouldn't even come up from the floor. He told me to just get on competing and not to worry, he would send someone to sort it for us.
So, off I went to warm Ceaser up. Initially I was booked in for a Prelim and Novice test as the classes were qualifiers for the most important championship of the season. The Veteran Dressage Championship. However, when I got there I made the decision to withdraw from my Prelim, do the Novice test and swap to the Elementary as it was a much better test for Ceaser. We can do the Prelims with our eyes shut and I know I need to stop entering him in to them and just work on our Elementarys and then getting a medium test in before too long. It isn't that I think the Prelims are beneath him, but I can tell he gets bored and isn't really listening during simple tests. During the more complex and difficult tests he feels a lot more switched on and certainly works so much better.
I knew from our previous outing that Ceaser needed to show more of an extension during the medium trots in stead of simply quickening his paces. So many people I know mistake a medium trot for a 'faster' trot and it really isn't anything of the sort!
Anyway, I quickly hoped on, 10 minutes before my Novice test and attempted to warm up in the arena. Despite it being very boggy and wet he warmed up well and seemed rather switched on and listening. Finally we didn't have a tantrum during the first canter and he only flicked one back leg up in excitement. As usual, I hadn't ridden through my tests at all during the week and in fact, had only ridden twice due to the wet, horrible weather and university! So, our test would be interesting...
Much to my amazement it really wasn't that bad. I thought with such little warm up time it would reflect in our marks but it really didn't. I think if I had of had more time to warm up we could have done better but he did the walk to canter transition fine and everything else I asked, which included 10 and 15 meter circles. There wasn't anything I could fault and was happy with how he had gone. He was uphill, did every transition in the right places and as usual tried his little heart out.
With just 15 minutes until my Elementary test I quickly jumped off, checked how the man who had come to sort the lorry out was getting on and then hopped back on! I don't know how I got through the Elementary test if I am honest. I read through it once before I was due to go in and I had a different reader to usual as Mark was busy working at a gig!
I couldn't hear what my caller was saying as by now the rain was coming down on the roof and when I'm concentrating I need someone to read very loud.
However, despite one minor blip where we broke in to trot two strides too early, the test went rather well. If I had read it more times or had time to go through it during the week I may have been able to prepare transitions and extensions better. As I am sure you are aware by now though, I don't do things by halves and always love to throw myself into the deep end - which I sure did with that test!
I put Ceaser away in the stable we had been allowed to borrow because of our broken lorry and quickly went to see what was happening and then collect my scores.
I was thrilled to find I had got 3rd in the Novice with 64.64% and 2nd in the Elementary test with 60.31%. Not bad for our first Elementary test of the season. Getting these scores also luckily meant we qualified for the Veteran Horse Dressage Championships which was fantastic as it was I set out to do that day! I loved the comment at the end of my sheet which stated I had a "lovely, obedient little horse".
Unfortunately for the lorry it wasn't good news and I was told a recovery truck for both the lorry was on its way, as well as a horse transporter to take me, Kirsty and the ponies home! I must say and recommend to absolute everyone that they ensure to take recovery insurance out on their horse lorry. Luckily for us, Dad pays roughly an extra £80 a month with the NFU to ensure that if we break down we get the horses as well as the lorry recovered. Had we not have had the extra insurance, the recovery for the lorry alone would have been £1000 apparently, and then there would have been the costs of getting the horses home! So, despite an extra outlay each month, if something does happen it is completely worth it. The service we were also provided was absolute with was second to none. We were asked what type of horses we had with us, what size and what they were currently traveling in. Up until the point when the horse transporter arrived for the ponies, I had been phoned 3 times to check I was okay and the ponies were also comfortable whilst we were waiting. Despite us telling the recovery people we were at an equestrian centre and okay, they still phoned and kept phoning every so often until they knew we were all loaded and on our way home.
The lovely horse transporter that came to take the ponies and us home was also fantastic. When I told her I was going to fetch my haynets she told me not to bother as she had provided haylage for them...which Ceaser loved! She saw I was worried about loading Ceaser in to a different lorry because of his previous problems loading but didn't pressure me into hurrying up and helped as much as she could! Amazingly though, Ceaser loaded after just two tries and was very relaxed, despite having a previous bad experience in a small lorry very similar. Sara also loaded with no problems and soon enough, only an hour and a half after initially calling for breakdown services, the ponies were tucking into their haylage and we were on our way home with the lorry not far behind on the recovery truck (with a rather nice looking recovery man driving!).
We drove lovely and slow home and the lady driving very kindly put the CCTV on for me so I could watch the ponies in the back. I now have no idea what I worry about every time Ceaser sets foot in a lorry as watching him travel on the camera showed me that he is in fact a perfect traveler and barely moves! I think I often worry because he can panic in small spaces that I think he does whilst we're moving too. It has also proved to me that I can accept lifts from friends when they offer them now as he will go into another horsebox, despite me thinking he wont and we have to go everywhere in ours! Although it was a very mixed day of some goods and some bad, I think the good that came out of the bad made everything worthwhile. If we hadn't of broken down I would have never have known Ceaser both travels and loads fine into other boxes and not just our! By 6pm, we were all home and the ponies were back in their stables eating dinner. What could have been a very stressful day, turned out to be not so bad. (thanks to Dads recovery insurance!)
Our lorry has now gone to be fixed and should be back in the next 2 weeks so it wont stop us from competing too much - I have also had offers of lifts to my next competition just in case anyway! There's no getting rid of us off the dressage circuit that easy. Plus, since getting home I have been pestering Dad that I need a 3.5 tonne lorry that I can drive and he hasn't outright said no. I think he realises now that it is much easier to have a smaller lorry for so many reasons. When I told him the benefits he also agreed. Of course, the lovely 3.5tonne horsebox I have seen on Ebay is now on my Christmas list.....
A very wet, windy and snowy weekend competing
Sian Lovatt
Sunday, October 28, 2012
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