Long Time No Blog!

Been pretty busy. Niels is in a real 'willing to learn' phase, so I took full advantage of it and over the summer we've got ready to do our first elementary tests together! Not expecting to do amazingly well, and I don't know how he'll react to being asked to do more complicated things in a different environment... Usually it improves him, but we shall see.

I ran through the tests at the weekend, and here they are:





Medium trot and free walk are still pretty much non-existent, and walk to canter is hit and miss. :/ I'll try not to over analyse, makes for a very boring post!

I clipped Niels naked at the weekend too. He had an immense woolly coat, so now he must feel a lot better!

Opal went to a Trailblazers qualifier last weekend (even though she'll be too old for the actual championship...) and she came second! :D Very proud of my baby girl, she behaved herself so well.

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

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!

Started Practicing the Dressage Tests Last Night!

"B or C?" "C!" "C? Here?" xD Probably should have looked at the test before hand... Need to work on square halts, my 20m circles are drifting, trot-walk-trot transitions, give and retake the reins in trot (done in hundreds of times in canter, not so much in trot!), left rein trot to canter transitions... Lots to work on.

We started practicing the Novice test, but that turned out to be more complicated, and we couldn't even run it through because I had to keep stopping to look at the test! I have a video where we were sort of practicing it, although we miss read the test and did 3 loops instead of 4, therefore ending up on the wrong rein as well... That confused us!



There's a few places in the test that we really need to work on. The test starts with a halt on the centre line, which we've never done before, so Niels thinks it's finished, but we then have to proceed in trot! There's also a rein back in the test, Niels tends to want to stick his butt out when he does though so we end up a horse's length back and not on the track. Just have to keep practicing it, it'll come. The medium paces need some work as well. All good fun though. :)

I'm Back Home!

Finally home, and back for good now. (Depending on where I get a job... All a bit confusing at the moment!)

I've only ridden once since I got back, but I bring videos.





In that last video, you just miss a lovely walk to canter. He always does them so much nicer on the right rein, as you can see in the video, it's just a dribble. Used to be better, but he hasn't done them since easter.
The trot video shows that more impulsion is definitely needed, he's looking a bit lazy and distracted. The canter work isn't as controlled as it was before I left, canter's become a big deal to him unfortunately. He'll soon calm down though. :)

My little brother's riding him wonderfully now, he's cantering on both reins and he's started learning a dressage test! So proud.

Haven't got much else to say, I'm riding tonight so hopefully there'll be some more videos!

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!

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!

June 20th and 21st 2009

On Saturday 20th, my dad, me and a couple of people from the yard boxed up our horses and went on a ride around the Ragley area. We had a brilliant time, I love not being scared to ride out anymore. I'm very comfortable on Niels now and I trust him more than ever not to do anything too stupid. I think my (velcro :P) seat has improved, so even when he does spook at something, I'm not really going any where. Now I've just got to persuade my Mum to work on it as well, it's so rewarding!

On Sunday 21st I hacked down to the cross country course that I've been lucky enough to have use of 24/7 (really going to miss that when I move in a few weeks...) and we played a bit at cross country.
I have some videos. My jumping position needs some real work, and I need to practice more with Niels to get the feel of how he jumps, but for someone who hasn't jumped for 5 years I wouldn't say it was a disaster.








...and collapse over the last jump. *facepalm*









Niels definitely needs to get more confident too, he gets very worried every time I ask him to jump a new jump and will always over jump, as you can see in some of the videos I posted above. There's one above where I'm jumping a log, it's surrounded by grass and I was really expecting him to leap over it since it was the first time I'd asked him to jump anything like that, but we'd been jumping for about 15 mins by that point and he didn't even bat an eyelid. So it doesn't take much to relax him into it.

Unfortunately once we move yards there'll be no facilities like that on the yard, but there are a few schools and courses nearby. I'll definitely be saving my pennies so I can go visit!