bravery and dressage

On Saturday Fi and I braved wind and impending rain to go to an "out of the field" dressage competition. The yard running it is one of those friendly places that keeps the stress low - so the concept was that you could just take your horse from the field, don normal riding clothes, and do a test. We'd entered to do Prelim 1.

Having had a bit of a wobble about whether to go or not, big sis and I headed off. Fi had been completely hyper once her pals went out so was in a slight nervy sweat, but calmed down once she saw her Highland boy waiting for her in the trailer ;)

She was a good girl - a little worried about a black cob being taken for a ride down away from the arena - perhaps monsters would get him and she should keep an eye out ! But we did the test, got canter both reins (never a certainty if she is a bit stiff) and not a bad score (114 out of 190). The collective marks were all 6's and the comments said the test "lacked energy". I figure that is fair for two reasons.

One is that Fi is not very fit. I found out before that if I worked her for more than 30 or 40 mins twice a week, she seemed not to cope. Through the summer she did one 3 day clinic with an hour each day, and was fine. But since then we have had on and off lameness again. I am reluctant to up the work unless I know she can cope. So she had leapt about the stable when her pads were turned out, balanced in the trailer, got slightly sweaty with nerves, and then warmed up for about 20 mins. She was a bit puffed after the warm up. I warmed up carrying a dressage whip just to make sure I could ask her to work properly, but dropped it for the test itself. The whole fitness issue alone would make energy an issue.

But on top of that I am aware that if I ask for bigger movement I take a bigger risk with her balance. And if she loses balance, everything falls apart and she ends up sore. So I suspect I am holding back slightly.

None of which can the judge see - they just judge what is in front of them :)

Plus it was our first outing in the new english saddle.

Given our last outing (to the western show) was stressy and tense in the ridden class and *lame* for the in-hand, just surviving and getting a reasonable score was an achievement :D

We were equal fourth (with big sis) out of a class of, I think, eight.

On Sunday I rode Fi to give her a chance to work any stiffness from the day before out. Then worked with mum and Rosie - starting on the lunge but quickly moving off it as she was being reasonable. Rosie had two sore eyes so we didn't work her too long. And then I rode Duds for about 20 mins before the cold and incipient rain dulled my drive and motivation and I called it a day.

Rosie has been getting a sore eye since they came in. Sometime it seems to be the wind when out, but mostly it has been after she has been laying down in the stable. We've swapped her bedding to cardboard (Bedexcel) to see if the shavings were an issue - but it seems not. I remembered soothing Red's eyes years back with teabags, so we tried that. I think it is just having something warm and wet that helps, but Red has a dark head so the tea did not really show. Whereas Rosie is a grey so now has tea stains on her face ! Still, she seemed more comfortable afterwards.

Dudley has his vaccinations due shortly so we'll check with the vet about Rosie's eyes then (and get her microchipped).

Edit to add: Fi was shod on the Monday before the competition. We'd been waiting a couple of weeks but the farrier had been ill and then away. I was getting a bit worried as long toes tend to add to the stress on Fi's legs.

you poisoned us !

just got back from sevenses for the horses, and we wormed them. We had done worm counts on the two girls and they were both <50 eggs - but we wanted to cover them all for tapeworm. I did the maths and we covered all four from 3 syringes - which meant that Fi's dose was made up of the remaining parts of the three others. So the poor girl had to have 3 "lots" (even though in total it was the right dose).

They all decided I was rotten and was attempting to poison them - and even turned down a treat, an apple or a carrot after as they still had the taste of the wormer. I am persona non grata :(

Last weekend we rode Saturday afternoon thanks to the demise of my parent's fridge. And Sunday morning. A pretty normal weekend and I worked on Prelim 1 as there is a dressage competition next week that I hope to take either Fi or Dudley (if Fi is lame or it is windy) to.

This weekend the weather forecast was not optimistic. Saturday was pretty dismal with high winds so Fi and Rosie got long reined. But J was down with Mullet so Duds ended up with a day off.

Fi was interesting. Normally when I ride her, I do a quick walk-trot-canter online on each rein first to check her movement and soundness. I've found that when I get on, the initial trot is quite stuffy and I was concerned this was due to saddle and/or me.

But long reining she did the same thing. So I think it is more to do with being asked to work correctly and needing to warm her back up. And she soon warmed up....and tanked off ! I had to have a discussion about the fact I *was* still there :rolleyes: and do some transitions.

Rosie did some good work as well, and did a good amount of trot and canter, with some moments heading towards softness.

On Sunday the morning was still quite damp but the wind had dropped. So I did housework in the morning in the hope it would clear a bit... and it did. I rode Fi through the test a couple of times, carrying a long dressage whip so she was clear I meant it ;) (I hardly used it). Then I rode Dudley while mum worked Rosie online. It was a short session for all three, but at least they did something ! Both Fi and Duds were puffing by the end of the test so are not terribly fit :(

The other change to note is that, since she has been in, Fi has been making a habit of tipping her water over. She has a triangular manger for her water as it seemed to help in the old stable. In the old stable we thought she might be catching it when she went to get up from lying down. That doesn't apply where she is now. We were not sure if she was knocking it with her snack ball, or dunking hay... but were increasingly suspicious that she was simply picking it up ! (She likes picking buckets up). We had got a manger bracket, but Him Indoors opined that it was not going to be easy to fix to the wall... and while in conversation we came up with a plan. So she now has one of the spare feed buckets in a tyre as her water bucket, and that seems to have helped - at least for the first night.

quick to remember

well it didn't take them long to settle in to their first routine. Three of them get snack balls last thing to keep them amused. Rosie always had hers in her feed bucket as she has just slip bars at the front so the ball could escape...

But this year there is a slight edge in place, so we thought we would try the snack ball loose... Nope, she put her nose in the bucket and then looked at me as if you say "in there dummy !". So I did what I was told ;)

Fi felt a little sore last weekend, so I didn't do loads with her. On Sunday she had the excitement of sharing the arena for part of the time with a sexy Highland boy. She was a very good girl.

Mum rode Rosie for a short while in Saturday, and then I took over for a bit longer. On Sunday we long reined and then loose jumped. Rosie scared herself a little by bouncing a one stride gap so it took some time to get her settled back down and able to face the jumps put right back down.

Dudley was a good boy both days. I hopped on him bareback for a while on Sunday - I was planning to long rein so didn't have the saddle around - but had his bridle and my hat ;)