Not much has happened lately. With numerous BeastfromtheEast weather fronts, and snow and ice every weekend, it's been safer to stay home! What has happened though, we have learned from
Dressage - how to warm up
We almost got 70% this month! So close with 69.81%...
In the warm up other riders were having issues with overly bouncy horses, and some riders were so focused there were actually a few crashes. Beau is pretty wise though, and when two horses crashed right in front of us he simply stopped, waited and trotted right on as if nothing had happened! The result of this chaos was a particularly useless warm up from me because i was just trying to steer round everyone else
CVRC chairman Amanda was on hand, and seeing that we were just aimlessly bimbling about waiting to be called, she got me working on lateral work and transitions to get him listening - this was a complete revelation! He was so attentive, soft and rideable in the test I truly believed we might get a 70% Until i messed up my signals during a canter transition and we had to do it again - DOH!!!
The judge was very kind and gave me an 8 for my riding :D She may have been marking highly but I am taking all the encouragement I can get. It's just a shame that before a competition you never know who the judge is
I suppose picking and choosing based on generous judges defeats the object of competing which for me is to benchmark myself against others and measure progress - even if that is simply being more consistent rather than massive scores
I read online about a lady who looked up as she rode down the centre line and described how her heart sank when she saw the judge! I went out under the same judge last weekend, scored a spectacularly bad 59% (double trouble tension issues) but when I read the sheet i actually though the scores and comments were completely fair. Especially as we got an 8 for our entrance, though it deteriorated pretty quickly and stayed bad ;)
I'd again used lateral work in the warm up, riding small circles in walk leg yielding in and out to relax Beau. However, this time i overdid it and the old feller was tired through his back and neck by the time we got in. Add tension to tiredness and you get an uncomfortable horse who completed the test at 100 miles an hour with his ears up my nose, so he could go home
Mother Bee - http://motherbeeonline.co.uk/
This month I wanted to include a plug for this marvellous cream - if it works let the world know I say!
I got a small tub of it at YourHorse Live last year, and luckily enough have had no cause to use it until recently
Last week Parker decided that he was hungry, and Beau's neck looked tastier than his hay. He managed to bite right through Beau's rug and gave him a sore looking weepy hickey which this cream sorted out overnight. It also helped my sore chapped hands when i came in from the ice and wind - lovely scent to it too, very natural and clean
Lunge lessons
It's Beau's 21st birthday on 1st April (his official birthday - like the Queen). I plan to celebrate by having a lunge lesson with my friend who is hurtling towards her instructor exams. We will both be good guinea pigs ;)
Actually it's proving surprisingly useful and i think is something i may wish to carry on with. To start with it's quite difficult to let go and trust that someone else is controlling your horse. After a while though i was able to focus more on my position and on fighting my own body which was going into default slouch position whenever i stopped actively thinking about it. I found it much easier to sit to the trot, to use my body weight and see its impact on Beau, and to keep my hands up when not slouching, and to work all this out when not steering!
More work to do yet....
Much love
Team and Beau
Dressage - how to warm up
We almost got 70% this month! So close with 69.81%...
In the warm up other riders were having issues with overly bouncy horses, and some riders were so focused there were actually a few crashes. Beau is pretty wise though, and when two horses crashed right in front of us he simply stopped, waited and trotted right on as if nothing had happened! The result of this chaos was a particularly useless warm up from me because i was just trying to steer round everyone else
CVRC chairman Amanda was on hand, and seeing that we were just aimlessly bimbling about waiting to be called, she got me working on lateral work and transitions to get him listening - this was a complete revelation! He was so attentive, soft and rideable in the test I truly believed we might get a 70% Until i messed up my signals during a canter transition and we had to do it again - DOH!!!
The judge was very kind and gave me an 8 for my riding :D She may have been marking highly but I am taking all the encouragement I can get. It's just a shame that before a competition you never know who the judge is
I suppose picking and choosing based on generous judges defeats the object of competing which for me is to benchmark myself against others and measure progress - even if that is simply being more consistent rather than massive scores
I read online about a lady who looked up as she rode down the centre line and described how her heart sank when she saw the judge! I went out under the same judge last weekend, scored a spectacularly bad 59% (double trouble tension issues) but when I read the sheet i actually though the scores and comments were completely fair. Especially as we got an 8 for our entrance, though it deteriorated pretty quickly and stayed bad ;)
I'd again used lateral work in the warm up, riding small circles in walk leg yielding in and out to relax Beau. However, this time i overdid it and the old feller was tired through his back and neck by the time we got in. Add tension to tiredness and you get an uncomfortable horse who completed the test at 100 miles an hour with his ears up my nose, so he could go home
Mother Bee - http://motherbeeonline.co.uk/
This month I wanted to include a plug for this marvellous cream - if it works let the world know I say!
I got a small tub of it at YourHorse Live last year, and luckily enough have had no cause to use it until recently
Last week Parker decided that he was hungry, and Beau's neck looked tastier than his hay. He managed to bite right through Beau's rug and gave him a sore looking weepy hickey which this cream sorted out overnight. It also helped my sore chapped hands when i came in from the ice and wind - lovely scent to it too, very natural and clean
Lunge lessons
It's Beau's 21st birthday on 1st April (his official birthday - like the Queen). I plan to celebrate by having a lunge lesson with my friend who is hurtling towards her instructor exams. We will both be good guinea pigs ;)
Actually it's proving surprisingly useful and i think is something i may wish to carry on with. To start with it's quite difficult to let go and trust that someone else is controlling your horse. After a while though i was able to focus more on my position and on fighting my own body which was going into default slouch position whenever i stopped actively thinking about it. I found it much easier to sit to the trot, to use my body weight and see its impact on Beau, and to keep my hands up when not slouching, and to work all this out when not steering!
More work to do yet....
Much love
Team and Beau
Comments
Post a Comment