4th on 68.93%!

At Allens Hill, Pinvin. 68.93% and we came 4th amongst some really stiff competition. Still can't believe we even placed!
Six 8s! Lost most of our marks this time on the transitions, and that last centre line where Niels thought we were doing leg yielding. :/
lol @ me gathering my reins after the (attempt at) free walk! Couldn't work out which rein was which! Bloody plait fell out after 5 minutes by the way...

We qualified for the Championships at that venue on bank holiday monday (next Monday)!

We're now moving on up to competing at Elementary! :D

Need to blog more!

Haflinger Show! It was brilliant. The first day was the dressage, it went terribly... My mum rode like she does when our instructor isn't there, so she got a pretty bad score. haha My brother had stage fright and forgot to ride Niels... Whoops.
My tests should have been amazing, there were parts of it where I watch and I tear up, especially some of the trot work. A lovely bouncy trot, wonderful self carriage, nice and uphill... but the judges hated it. All I can think is that it was because it was a haflinger show, and they didn't like that I was making him look dressage-y or something. NOT A CLUE! We had a lot of problems throughout the test because I was having my test called... erm, not particularly well we shall say. Niels was super tense because I was and we got the lowest scores we've ever got. Still got us 5th in the Novice. lol Hate to see how 6th's test went!

So much fail.

The second day however! I did a 2ft 3" show jumping round, my first ever sj class in my life. I didn't get lost, we knocked down only one jump, but refused a grand total of 6 times. XD I really don't blame him though, I'm not a confident jumper and he's not a confident anything! (Except eating. ;))
We did the Novice Ridden Stallions and Geldings (under 21s) and we came second last. *snort* Niels is not exactly breed standard, we think he's beautiful, but he's not the modern haflinger look. Plus he's 14! I didn't expect anything special, I just enjoy doing the classes. Niels went brilliantly, really easy ride (except for one minor napping issue in the first canter. "No judge I wasn't aiming for a 20m circle, an oblong circle thing was planned all along!") and we did come away with a rosette and a lovely photo! :D
Then the last class of that day was the accumulator. A jumping round with various jump heights and points attached to the jumps. We jumped mostly the small jumps, all cleanly, not a single refusal, and then near the end we went for it and jumped a 'big' 2ft 9" spread, the second highest of all of them. The only one bigger was easily 3ft 6" and had this box filler underneath it that Niels refused twice in the previous jumping round and was spooking at throughout the accumulator round. haha I assured him I'd never make him do that one. :P

The last day, I didn't do anything. My mum took him in the Novice Handler class... we don't need to explain how we placed there! Then my mum and brother did the family pony class where they both had to do a show for the judge. There were 4/5 pairs and Team Niels came 2nd! So proud of that one. :D I warmed him up for them, so he was a super responsive ride, and then William hopped on and in the ring they went! Really nice atmosphere in that class. Lots of Mums and Daughters (fyi I'm too old to be the 'daughter' in the class), mums proud of their daughters and most common was daughters proud of their mums!

BIG NEWS!
I'm getting a 3 year old haflinger filly! She's called Oxnead Opal. If you fancy having a look at her breeding, she's by Norvic, out of Oxnead Ovation (by Alpine). She won the 3 yo filly class at the haflinger show, and has the nicest temperament. She did the potential RDA class and the potential driving for the disabled class as well, and did pretty well. There was a man-in-a-hedge-asaurus watching her whilst she was being ridden and people entering and leave the paddock we were in. Horses calling out to her... the list of things going on was endless. She was calmer than Niels, calmer about it than any horse I've ever seen.
She's so willing, and so friendly. I'm in absolute love, and extremely excited for our future together. We were laughing yesterday about how when she's 30 I'll be 48!
I have so many plans for us, we'll be doing handy pony classes galore, she's coming with us whenever we go to any shows and I'd really like to do some serious in hand showing with her as well. It'll be at least another year and a bit before we can do any ridden shows of course, we'll just keep that ticking along in the background. She turns 4 in March btw.
I'm going to learn so much, it's nerve wracking, but exciting at the same time!

Here she is:




Not the best conformation shot unfortunately. She's got some coat damage on her hind that you can see in the photo. That happened when she was a foal apparently, she was kicked. She doesn't favour that side though, and the judges don't care about it either! We'll point the vet at the area during the vet check to be on the safe side.


Went to a Swallowfield Equestrian Centre today. My brother did a prelim test, and I did a Novice test. He wasn't going very well yesterday, I was hoping it was just because of his complete day off the day before, not even lunged or handled, which he hardly ever gets. He's like a baby himself, has to be kept busy! He usually goes better at shows anyway, looks to me for confidence, so he listens like a dream. The adrenaline creates a fabulous trot, but sometimes makes the canter strong, and the walk staccato. It all depends on the day with him though. :) It went really well though, he was an absolute dream to ride. Self carriage to dream of, we were going to be perfect and ready to enter the ring at our allotted time. Then we get told that the judge was running late, so I had to keep just walking Niels and then do a bit of work so that we'd be ready if he suddenly turned up... and he did. After we'd been in the warm up arena for about 45 minutes.
Despite being tired from the long warm up, we had a great test. No major cock ups. We got three 8s. One of them was for 'riders position and...'. Two of them were for the very beginning of the test, our trot down the centre line and then a 20m circle in trot. Then he started to get tired and fidgety, so he began to get heavy on the forehand unfortunately. We still got a nice lot of 7s throughout the rest of the test, including one for showing some medium trot strides. I really think that's coming along, it's one of the things that Niels finds most difficult.
We got 66.42% and came 4th out of a lot of really good horses, I really can't believe that we were right in amongst that lot!

Solihull Riding Club 17th July 2010

Finally got to a show! Pony is lovely and sound, and feeling good about himself. :D
He was brilliant, the best to ride he's ever been. Nice lot of energy, but in the right way, so I'm really proud of him!

We would have done so much better if it weren't for the stupid reins! We have a bridle that we only use for competitions, and we used it yesterday properly for the first time. Turns out the reins are super slippery and I couldn't hold the contact for more than a few strides. In the walk sections he kept trying to do free rein, but I couldn't check him to keep the medium walk so I had to push him on instead hoping that would work... so he jogged. In both walk sections! Argh...
We got 61%, but that could have easily have been pushing 65%. We got a nice lot of 7s and 6s, but at least one of those 6s would have been a 7. The walk sections got us 5s, which was generous! At least we know about the reins for next week!

Anyway, long story short we came first! My first ever red rosette, and I'm mega happy!

We went to Swallowfield Equestrian Centre today and did Prelim 19 and Novice 22. Niels was brilliant as usual, but our test sheet didn't reflect it. Totally my fault of course, he was really willing and I just didn't do him justice. We weren't placed, just missed out in the Prelim, and nowhere to be seen in the Novice. There were a lot of warmblood and sports horse types there, I'm trying not to be put off by it all, I really enjoy competing and I've just got to focus on that aspect and try to squish my competitive side. :P

The first test was the prelim 19, I was so flustered in the test because it was the first time I'd ridden the test in a 20m by 60m school, and I was constantly panicking about where all the extra markers were! Worst panic was at the end of the test when I had to do a 20m circle at V (victor you'll hear my mum say) and I did an oh **** where's V?! Of course I'd just gone bloody past it hadn't it? So that was totally cocked up.
The 15m circles are 20m circles, he really drifted to the wall both times. Doesn't look like it on the video, just looks like I planned it like that...
Our walk is appalling.
Canter not too bad, but not very balanced at times.
He kept bloody spooking at the viewing gallery, didn't think we were going to manage to track right at the beginning...
Then the trot again they said was hurried. Definitely agree with that in some occasions, but I'm not really sure. I've arranged a lesson tomorrow (only time she was free, I'd usually give him a day off) and I've made a nice long list of things to ask and get help with, this will definitely be at the top of the list.



The second test was Novice 22. I was quite pleased with him in that one. I was worried about the counter canters, but he didn't break out of them early at all and I thought we deserved at least a 7 for one of the two, but they disagreed, 6s for both reins. I really slowed Niels down from the start and I didn't get so many hurried comments. Totally cocked up the medium trot strides across the school. Really unfortunate because they're quite lovely when he does them right, he broke into canter half way through. On both reins. I'm blaming Niels for that, we've practiced that SO much, we hardly ever canter across the school in that way and he pretty much associates going across the diagonal as medium trot time, so he was just being a cheeky little sod and choosing to play up. Our medium canter section was brilliant, needs work still obviously, but the way he came back to working canter on each rein was so brilliant and balanced, I'm so chuffed with him! Only got 6s for them, but no comments about balance or anything so I'm still pleased.
We did get a few 7s, so the entire thing wasn't diabolical. :P


Only the beginning of the test because the memory in the camera ran out.

Again people were saying that they were marking harshly today. There were some gorgeous warmbloods competing today and they were doing quite lovely tests, with quite experienced riders on their backs and the highest mark I saw on the score board was a 65%. Bit odd if you ask me.

No more competitions until the end of August I think. God knows how much I've spent these past few weeks!

We didn't have quite such a successful test on Sunday at Solihull Riding Club. We did the Novice 28 test, and we should have got a nice result. Niels was going wonderfully, we were brilliant in the warm up, but when we entered the school, I didn't really ...perform. I suppose that's the word for it. It wasn't appalling or anything, anywhere else we would have got in the 60s but Solihull have some really strict judges who obviously aren't keen on ponies. They said that his trot was hurried, but I was awaiting a sluggish written all over my test sheet. We've watched back the video as well, and everyone agrees that it was sluggish, so the conclusion we came to was that we were the only pony they'd seen that day and that pretty much explains it... Still came 5th though and got a rosette! It's all about the rosettes after all. ;)

The other thing that I'm going to change is that I'm going to go back to carrying out the tests in rising trot, I got told at Solihull by someone that at this level you get better markers in rising trot than in sitting, the more swinging the movement the better. Which makes sense, you're getting marked on how ready you are to move onto the next level really.
The only problem with this though is that his carriage doesn't stay as consistent when I do rising trot. He's a very easily distracted pony and if I'm not telling him constantly to pay attention, he doesn't. I know I should be able to do this in rising trot as well, so I'm going to work on that for next week.

I have constant battles with Niels about him being a complete chicken. If something in the school has moved positions he'll shy away from it the first few times past it, hacking out he's not so bad, perhaps he's just so surrounded by scary things that maybe he kind of resigns himself to the fact that he's going to get eaten. haha Anyway, Solihull Riding Club arena is scary. It's indoors, really high roof and there's often birds there, viewing place down the sides, you enter straight through a door from the warm up arena so there's napping issues, the judges are in a glass box/conservatory thing, a cafe/viewing gallery above the judges, a walkway at the judges end to toilets, adverts, etc, a vending machine and most importantly random chairs. Niels doesn't like randomly placed things. :P So I enter the arena riding really positively, Niels is positively shaking in his boots as we walk down the side past the chairs, away from the warm up arena and then all the way past the judges (who talked to us! Shock and horror!) and he looked like a nutter the whole way, felt like a nutter but didn't at all behave like a nutter. I was so proud!
So even though we didn't do so well in our score and performance he was brilliant and I'm super proud of him not showing me up. Apparently some other girl's horse went loopy when they were going past the judges in their test and shot off up the school. I had visions of that being us, but he really stepped up and did me proud instead. :)

We're going to Swallowfield Equestrian Centre on the 9th August (This Sunday) and we're doing the Prelim 19, which we will be doing again on the 31st for our very first championship! :P We're also doing the Novice 22. Both tests are in a 20x60m arena... I don't have a 20x60m arena to practice in, not sure how to go about this. lol At least we'll have a warm up test this time, Niels can have his worries about the arena and so can I without too much of a worry.
Fingers crossed for a better weekend! : )

I have photos from the Haflinger show! : )









Isn't he the cutest? : )

:D Haflinger Show today!

We won 6th place in the restricted prelim dressage. It was the worst test I've ever done. EVER.
We shall move on.

We then did the Novice ridden showing under 21s. Never be doing that again! Niels didn't like that very much, too much slow sluggish trotting and standing around. I can see why people like doing it, must be quite rewarding to be told that your pony is gorgeous, in a very official way. :P We got a rosette for our troubles, it says 4th, but there was only 4 in the class. xD

BEST BIT OF ALL! We entered the Novice dressage on a kind of spur of the moment thing, just thought ah hell, worst that happens is we do a bad test. Interesting to see what happens. First proper show of the summer too, so we gave it a go.
We got 69% and got 3rd place! We were less than 1/2 a % below 2nd place, I'm quite gobsmacked. :P

I'd never got a rosette before, and today I got 3, and we got read out over the speakers! :D No videos unfortunately, miss judged how much room was in the camera. :( We did, however, have some lovely photos taken of us. :)

Next competition is 2nd August at Solihull Riding Club. We'll be doing the Open Novice 28!

I took Niels to a show at Allens Hill at the weekend. He was brilliant. All the hacking out and socialising in group lessons with my mum he's been doing recently seems to be paying off. He was relaxed pretty much from the moment I got on. No different really from what he's like when I first get on at home.

Our test went well (unaffiliated prelim 10), he was more consistent in the hand that he usually is, but not quite enough yet. Maybe by the end of the summer, please? :P
Only a couple of proper mistakes (A really wonky centre line at the start and breaking out of canter early got us 5s...), everywhere else we went wrong are just things that we're working on and are just down to training. Consistent contact, clear transitions, balanced canter, etc. I'm very pleased with him though, for the first show of the summer he was amazing. We only got 60%, and didn't place, but there were some professionals competing along side us so it's to be expected. To be honest I expected a higher score, we've done worse in a test before and got a higher score. I suppose it's just down to the venue and the judges.

I'll stop micro analysing, here's the test. Critique is definitely welcome. : )


: ) I love my pony.

We have the Haflinger Show to look forward to this weekend. We're competing in the Restricted Prelim dressage (Prelim 4), Restricted Novice dressage (Novice 34) and Ridden showing under 21 geldings and stallions. My mum's competing in the the Open Prelim dressage (Jammy sod, we went to the same show and did different tests, she was in the restricted section and I was in the open section. She got a lower score than me and got a rosette. -_- lol It's all about the rosettes!) and ridden showing over 21 geldings and stallions. According to the judge from last year Niels should have won because he's got a really good bloodline, but he didn't because my mum wasn't dressed for showing, nor was Niels, and he was being a bit of a lunatic. :P We're determined this year!
So we're doing our first Novice test this Saturday... A tad nervous, but Niels is more than capable, it's just down to how he is on the day. I don't know what he'll make of all the saddle changing though!