Dressage
I’ve some catching up to do on my postings, as so far this year we have done 4 dressage competitions:
- Myerscough College
- Arkenfield EC
- Warren Farm
- Arkenfield EC (again)
Myerscough college and was a complete wash-out… literally! It poured with rain, and the warm-up arena was outdoors. We were all soaked to the skin, and by the time it came to perform our test Jad was wet, frozen, fed-up and completely tense so we did not fare anywhere near as well as I’d hoped. To top it all off, the dye had run off my coat and ruined my favourite white breeches and my brand new wool jacket got absolutely filthy. Still, I’m always up for an excuse to shop so breeches were soon replaced and the local dry cleaners sorted the jacket.
Arkenfield was a different matter. I like competing here because it has a nice relaxed atmosphere, and more importantly an indoor warm-up arena. The only downside is that there is usually a very long wait between tests. This tends to mean that we do OK for the first test, but Jad gets fed up and wants to go home by the time we get to the second, so we tend to scrape just over 60%. We did more than OK for the 1st test though… a score of just over 70% gave us 2nd place and a partial qualification for the regional finals! To explain, qualification requires being placed 1st or 2nd in 2 qualifiers with scores in excess of 65%.
Warren Farm was new to me; dressage was also new to them as it was their first affiliated show. Again an outdoor warm-up arena, but at least the weather was fine! Disappointingly there were only 3 in the class. I felt that this could be our best chance to get full qualification given the entries, but sadly it wasn’t to be. We’d got stuck in traffic on the way which meant that we only had a 20min warm-up. Jad needs about double this before his first test. We managed 2nd place, but didn’t quite manage the required 65%. However, he was much improved by the time of his Novice test and got 3rd place! I felt we were on a bit of a roll! There was some discussion with the organisers over prize money. Being their first show, they had not realised that they had to give prize money to each section (open and restricted) unless they had stated otherwise in the schedule. A quick call to BD sorted it out, but it meant that they were going to be out of pocket. I felt a little badly for them, but then I had paid more for entry fees than I had won back so I was also out of pocket!
My hopes for full qualification were now pinned on my second outing to Arkenfield. Nerves were running high, especially when I saw the quality of some of the horses that were being warmed up for the class. I had squeezed into my beautiful, but too tight, riding boots and was struggling in the warm-up because using my right leg gave cramping feelings in my calf muscle. The competitor before me on a beautiful bay wished me luck as we entered the arena, and I really needed it! However, Jad rose to the occasion and was an absolute star, producing what I felt to be a lovely test. It was a shame that the too tight boots and nerves meant that my riding left something to be desired… serves me right for getting too fat! Afterwards there was a nerve wracking 40 minute wait for the results. But it was worth it! 2nd place again with a score over 67% gave us our qualification!
Roll on the Regional Finals!