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.
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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