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!

I went home at the weekend and concentrated on doing schooling. I've planned to take him to a show in two weeks time, just going to do a prelim test, nice and relaxed. It's mostly so we can prepare him for the Haflinger show the following week. Hopefully he'll be mentally prepared for the environment then. We went to quite a few last year, and he was really used to what happens, just hoping that he remembers.
At least I'm not scared of him any more, that's going to make it a hell of a lot better for me!

The videos below are just showing the stage we're at now. He's a hell of a lot worse than he was this time last year, almost a full year of not having much schooling has really taken it's toll. He's physically not fit enough right now either, I'm guessing it must be the reason why he can't hold himself up as well. As you'll see in the videos, when he does go round he leans quite a bit. Ah well. We'll make progress.

In theory, with the Haflinger show so near my mum will feel a more pressing need to school him? I can only hope.

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!

6th and 7th June 2009

First actual update!

Went home this weekend. We had a really successful hour of flatwork on Saturday night. Considering he's not being ridden a lot at the moment, he was really good. I can't wait for the summer when I can ride him 5/6 times a week.

On Sunday morning I rode him in the school again, I would have hacked him out, but it was pissing it down. We rode in his Wintec, and did some jumping. He really enjoyed it, as did I of course. Maximum height we jumped was only 2'3" but I don't want to over phase him at this stage, we both haven't done any proper jumping for quite a while. 

I tried to let him sort his own strides out, and he made quite a few mistakes, missing out strides, getting too close, etc but only one fence down the entire time which I thought was rather impressive! I noticed that as the jumps got bigger he had more respect for them and seemed to enjoy it more, made less mistakes on those jumps.

Photo from Saturday. I love that saddle. :P Not entirely sure what he's doing with his mouth though... playing with his bit probably.

Such a muppet. He gets very easily distracted... Cute face though no?

That was the biggest jump we did and probably the best jump of it. (I don't have a hunchback by the way, that's my body protector under an oversized fleece!)

I go back home in 2 weeks time. There should be an update around then. : )