It seems almost crazy that it was only a mere 24 hours ago I decided to not listen to the angel in my head for once and go with my gut instinct. Do I or don't I?The guy who drives my lorry for me when I want to go competing was on jury service this week so by chance I booked in for some affiliated Dressage for today with the hope his jury service would be over and we could go. If not... I had a long day ahead of looking after the kids on Pony Day. Oh how I prayed for jury service to be off.
I booked in on Sunday with the attitude that if I couldn't go it wouldn't be the end of the world, but it would be nice to be able to seeing as we hadn't anything planned for a couple of weeks. Ceaser had not been schooled for 10 days because of the hot weather - all I had done was ride him in our hay field and do some canter work up the hills to build his stamina up.
Monday evening I decided to check that "if" I could go, who else would be in my two classes and who would we be up against. After a brief glance I felt immediately sick as I saw two professionals would be in both my classes. Admittedly with youngsters, but still, I do this for fun and enjoyment, not to make any money.
When the thunder storms hit on Tuesday and I still wasn't sure whether to go or not, I had almost talked myself into not bothering. Ceaser was dirty, I didn't have time to plait him Tuesday night and we were forecast rain. However, just as I was about to phone the organiser to tell her I was withdrawing, my driver came to me and told me he didn't have any more jury service and did I want to go to Dressage. Without a second thought and not realising it was 6pm the night before I was supposed to go I said "yes". Oh when will I ever learn. I seem to love throwing myself into the deep end.
My first test was due at 11:21 so I had to be up ridiculously early as I had stayed in Boston at Marks. As soon as I arrived at the yard I pulled a rather shocked looking Ceaser out of his stable to plait his (filthy) mane. Thankfully before departing him back in his stable to wait whilst I got his bits and bobs ready I pulled up his cotton sheet to find a mass of green looking stains. Great. After rushing about to find washing up liquid (it removes everything - even poo!) and anything else I could get my hands on, I nearly went flying on the slippy concrete near the hosepipe tap - Which reminds me, I must tell Dad about that - where there's a blame there's a claim! Mumbling to myself what a bad idea this was I set about trying to Ceaser's legs and bum clean and thought smugly in my head that all those people that have ever laughed at me for wanting to keep Ceaser so clean can eat their words now as if I wasn't so Pony Proud I'd be doing a lot more cleaning....Anyway, after a quick legs and bum bath, Ceaser was all ready to go and I loaded him and Sara - who comes with us to keep Ceaser company - into the lorry.
As soon as we arrived at the venue I calculated I had about 50 minutes spare to get tacked up, ready and dressed and warmed up. Ceaser had his massage pad on for 20 minutes whilst I got myself ready and set about finding a caller for my tests.
Ceaser came off the lorry blue from sweating in his denim rug. Crazy - never get a coloured pony that is mainly white! Thankfully I take my chalk everywhere with me and the young livery that had come along with us for the ride set about chalking him and brushing like her life depended on it. (I told her it did!)
Warming up went ok. Despite Ceaser having not been schooled for almost 10 days he felt fabulous. Maybe a little lazy in his trot to canter transitions but I had jumped him the previous evening so he was probably feeling a little tired. Which reminds me, I must buy some electrolytes!Soon enough I was trotting down that centre line again concentrating on keeping everything slow, collected, calm and ensuring that this time my circles represented circles and not squares - rider error!
It all felt wonderful, apart from the trot to canter transition on the right rein which he went a little too deep in, but having not done much schooling for a short while I wasn't going to be picky. It didn't feel our best test to date but then how can you measure what is?
Warming up for my second test I concentrated on getting Ceaser moving forward and listening to my aids more. After a few bucks and a rear that NO he didn't want to move forward I finally had him where I wanted and he was going nicely. The key with Ceaser is to know when to back off and not push him forward any more than needed. If you do he tends to object and can be difficult to ride.
My second test felt equally as nice but this time with a little more power in the canter. Our circles were spot on and he felt like he was using his back end more.
All too soon but just in time before I collapsed with heat exhaustion our test was over and I was halting and G and saluting. Phew, it was hot!
I must admit I quickly untacked Ceaser, sponged him down as quick as I could to cool him off and left him munching on his haynet whilst I went to check my results. As I neared the bus where you fetch your results from I was greeted with a rather loud well done from a fellow competitor I hadn't met before and I realised we had only gone and won with a huge 68%!! My little coloured cob had done it once more! To add to the excitement, attached to my score sheet and rosette was £20 prize money! Woohoo!I got talking to the lady who had congratulated me and she said how nice it was that Ceaser had won and he truly deserved it. She said the whole of his test looked neat and tidy and the two of us just looked "together" throughout. My score sheet was rather promising as well with some really positive comments. Finally, nothing about Ceaser needing to be more uphill - have we finally cracked it?!
I noticed I was also currently in the lead for our second test but with four more GOOD competitors to go I didn't get too excited as, as I said earlier, there was quite a few entered, with some big names in there. Unfortunately we dropped from 1st place to 3rd, but I was still over the moon - we were 3rd with 66%, just 1.something percent behind the winner!
I think my smile went from ear to ear as I beamed my way through the crowd to collect my rosette!I am also pretty sure we have now collected our three scores needed to qualify for the PetPlan Regionals and are well on our way to getting enough points to qualify for the Winter BD Championships!
Another successful day out with my superstar of a pony and I am going to bed smiling once more because of him. I have been told tonight I need to start believing in myself a little more. The time and hours I spend preparing for these events are endless and when you achieve it really makes it all worthwhile. Thank you to both my helpers today; Tony and Megan and of course my superstar of a pony, whom I couldn't do all of this without. He is one in a million.
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