As we wrote back in October Jad qualified for the Winter Dressage to Music Regionals.

Most of winter was then spent travelling up and down the M6 on my behalf as I took my own horse hunting.

Jad loved a winter of Rest & Relaxation, and Kirsty was bringing him back into work nicely. We even hired an arena, which I duly marked out at 70 x 20 metres by mistake, for a practice session. Then that evening Jad tried to pull away from me on the lead rope, I pulled back, and pulled him over.

As he got back up I was mortified. Scuffed knees and a fat leg! Make up borrowed from someone who shows would cover the one, but you couldn’t hide the other. Kirsty was straight onto the vets and we followed their advice to the letter to get him ready for the big day. The letter involved nothing in the way of practising for the Regionals though.

With such preparation there was no place in the prizes for Kirsty or Jad, but I was proud of them, and I think the music suited Jad admirably.

Since the Regional Finals Jad has been on holiday, out at grass all summer getting flabby and lazy.

Kirsty decided after the Regional Finals that she should do some dressage to music. Cue hours spent analysing Jads’ various gaits with a computer metronome and choosing music. Jad suits piano music a la Coldplay – his trot exactly fits ‘The Scientist’ by Coldplay. Too bad that we support the Make Coldplay History campaign.

Out of the 3000 songs in iTunes (and much more still on vinyl) we struggled to find much that suited Jad. It turns out that the iTunes store 30 second samples were a great way of choosing music though. For some reason I still haven’t fathomed Kirsty settled on a Glenn Miller theme and found a tune to match each gait. Cue memories of my days as a barman in the late 80′s when all we were allowed to play at lunchtime was Glenn Miller tapes on heavy rotation. So we ended up with Pennsylvania 6-5000, Rhapsody In Blue and In The Mood.

The next step was to put together a test that lasted 4 minutes 45 seconds and video it. This allowed us to edit the music to the test, get the appropriate British Dressage licences for the music, overcome the stupid digital rights management on the iTunes files – even though we have the aforementioned licence from PPL to use the tunes, burn a CD, and hire somewhere to practice.

Before we splashed out on hire we parked the car next to the riding paddock at the yard just to get Jad used to the music which does rather come in with a fanfare. We ended up with an audience as folk nearby (for instance the golf course across the stream) wondered what on earth was going on. The impromptu audience theme continued when, with two weeks to go, we hired somewhere to practice, backed the car into the arena, and spent an hour trying it for real. We found a couple of flaws, but were loathe to go all through the trouble of re-editing the music, so changed the test instead.

Without a 60×20 arena at home to practice properly all we could do then was wait until the day itself.

Today we drove to Myerscough for the Area Festival, and a first step into the gay¹ world of dressage to music. Kirsty’s only concern was not coming last, wishing that she’d entered the Elementary, with only four competitors.

The good news was that the PA system was broken, and so the music would be played from a car backed into the arena. I don’t know how some folk practice, but this would suit Jad down to the ground.

Despite the technical hitches and delays at the venue Jad did a storming test. There was some rather partisan applause at the end of the test as family and yard hangers-on voiced there support. Turns out Kirsty need not have worried about coming last, as she managed second place overall. This has already qualified her for the Winter Regionals. I hope she’s not going to change the music.

It Don’t Mean a Thing If it Ain’t Got that Swing!

1 Take that as you will. Ahem.

It was all aboard the new wagon at the weekend as Kirsty and Jad had qualified for the North-West Regional Dressage Finals at Somerford Park. Eager to bask in the reflected glory we had a full complement of hangers-on and ne-er do wells who managed to make the 7 a.m. leaving time.

Trakhener

Jad’s rivals in the competition were seriously well-bred. And I mean horses and riders! One girl going into the Prelim was executing perfect canter-pirouettes in the warm-up arena! Another was being coached by Lee Pearson. Camp men abounded.

Jad can turn in scores anywhere between 75% and 50% depending purely on how he’s feeling on the day. Today was an average day, and he scored just over 60% in both tests.

Meanwhile the support crew got on with the arduous task of drinking rose wine, and eating nibbles. In fact the event was so chilled out that we hung around for hours after Kirsty and Jad had finished their tests, chillling by the back of the box. The fact that we had been surrounded so completely that we couldn’t have got out without making serious use of the reversing camera had little to do with it, and it was only when the wine ran out that anyone showed an inclination to move.

Now that the finals are out of the way Jad is currently on a break. Come the end of August and Kirsty is going to enter some Elementary tests.

I took plenty of photographs and have put a photoset on flickr.

Has it all been worth it? Oh yes!

Spring is sprung, the grass is riz, I wonder where the birdies is. Actually I’ve been riding so early over winter I’ve been buzzed by the local barn owl as it returned from a nights hunting. Jad is now out in the field getting a bit of grass so he’s a happy bunny. (She’d never make a vet – ed.) This means that I am now able to get out of bed at 6.30 or sometimes even 7.30 and ride in the evening instead. Oh yes, and Jad won another Novice test yesterday :-)

I was more astounded than anyone if truth be told. Jad was not in the mood for competing, he wanted to scoff grass and play with his mates instead. He was like a sulky teenager who has been told to clean his room. He did it, but with as little grace as he could manage and he made life as difficult as possible for all around him. Cue all the usual tricks of leaning on the bit, chucking his head around, sticking a leg out in halt, not wanting to stretch in free walk, etc. Basically, he was being rude.

I left the arena a little grumpy, but chalked it up to experience. We did the usual of giving Jad a net while we grabbed some lunch and waited for the score to go up. Unbelievably, despite sulking he’d still managed 67%. As far as I can make out from the judges comments, he may have been stroppy with his head, but he was still working well from behind. It was good enough to win the section and take 2nd overall.

I had to go and apologise to him for saying he was rubbish! I did it quietly so no-one else could hear.

As another plus, this was the first test I had ridden without a commander. There is a reason for this; Jad has a very long stride. So long that it is nearly impossible for a commander to keep up. We’ve given poor Andrea a sore throat from the effort, so I’m now riding them without. Also this was our first test ever with a halt on entry. We managed OK. We even got a 7 for the rein back that I didn’t realise was included so hadn’t actually practiced until the day before!

So yes, the 6am winter mornings have definitely been worth it.

Jad had felt a bit flat the previous week so I increased his feed, but then I panicked when the evening before the competition he completely freaked out on the lunge line and wouldn’t stop galloping around me. Obviously feeling better then! Nerves really started to get to me as I was plaiting up and I had to redo a couple because I couldn’t concentrate properly.

The day of the competition was absolutely gorgeous and Jad being the sun worshipper that he is was really happy. It looks terrible because the moment I start to work him his veins raise and he gets covered in sweat, but he is actually very relaxed and keen to work in those conditions. He’s just weird.

I used quite a bit of counter canter, leg yield and shoulder-in during the warm-up and Andrea gave me the thumbs up, saying he looked nice and round. This was a massive confidence boost so I felt quite buoyed as we rode to the arena. As we worked in round the outside I started to really relax and smile. Jad felt soft and relaxed and happy with a nice spring to his step.

We went down the centre line at A, he stayed nice and straight, did a good turn at C and I just thought “I am so enjoying this!” His medium work felt good and strong, and he collected up really well afterwards. We had a bit of a problem on counter canter and didn’t quite hit the marker but it wasn’t too bad. I felt he rode a good 65% worth of test. Andrea laughed her head off when we left the arena; apparently it was blindingly obvious that I was enjoying it because I was just beaming the whole way through.

I walked Jad off, gave him a drink (which he didn’t want but he did enjoy spitting water at us) and put him on the wagon to munch at his haynet and enjoy the warmth of the sun. We wandered off to see if scores were up yet. Unfortunately mine wasn’t yet but my heart fell when I saw the marks of a previous competitor. They had scored about 72% which was a good 5% higher than I’d managed in a Novice test before. Andrea had watched that particular test and had said it was very nice.

Still, it didn’t detract from how pleased I was with Jad’s test or how much I had enjoyed it, so we headed for the burger van to blow our diets and then watched a couple more competitors. After a while we decided to take another look at the scoreboard. As I walked up to it I saw that I had scored about 66% and was pleased. However as I got closer, I realised that it wasn’t about 66%… it was about 76%. 76.54% to be precise! I just couldn’t take my eyes off the board and had to read it and re-read it before I could believe that was actually our score! I was completely speechless!

Now came a very nerve wracking wait, we were currently leading but there were some superb combinations still to come and Arkenfield has a high standard of competition. We watched some very impressive tests and tried to work out if they were in the restricted (therefore competing directly against us) or the open (would affect the prize money only). As we watched I got more and more nervous but I just had to wait it out.

Finally, the competition ended and we hovered around the scoreboard for the results to go up. We had done it! Our 2nd win and qualification for the regionals. And for the first time in my life we got more prize money than I had paid on entry fees. Pity that I spent the difference at the burger van!

Regional Finals here we come!