Dressage zero to Dressage hero

25 year old skint female lucky enough to have found a lovely horse and owner to allow my to induldge my dreams of dressage superstardom

[kcdressage-blog]

Dressage zero to Dressage hero turned 1 today!

I cant believe it has been a full year since I began my dressage journey, and looking back it hasnt exactly been a great year - after the initial successes with my darling big fella we had the awful lameness which his owner has only just sorted out. My current 2 ponies are both out with injuries and the grey monster is testing to say the least, I have learnt a lot from her but equally she is a heck of a lot to handle.

Here's to 2014 and fingers crossed at least one of the ponies is fixed soon so I can perhaps get out competing later in the year!

[kcdressage-blog]

Happy new year!

Been rather quiet on the horse front recently mainly down to having 2 broken ponies! Bentley has had a bad infection in his gums and is in a lot of pain so he is taking it easy for a while on painkillers and antibiotics, he might need to be referred to a specialist so we will just have to wait and see with him.

Not sure what my plans are for him just yet, prior to his infection he was incredibly lazy but he cant eat properly with the infection do I bet that has a lot to do with it. Will re-asses once I'm back on board again, I have a suspicion he was bred to jump but he is a big wimp so maybe it might be dressage for him too!

Sassy is still a bit of a monster, she had a neck injury before Xmas so we did a lot of hacking and not much else. Although I must say for a 6 year old WB that has never hacked before in her life she took to it like a duck to water, I think perhaps her calling in life might actually be a happy hacker and not a dressage pony!

In the school we still have a lot of attitude and bucking, bucking mainly limited to canter now although she always seems stiffer and bucks more on the right rein in trot so I'm still not convinced there isnt a pain issue despite the physio having checked everything and only finding the neck issue.

Will be getting back into the swing of things this weekend so I'll try and update again next week when I know if Sassy has had a personality change over Christmas or not. We are starting to bond though which is nice, so while she can be a devil to ride on the ground we get on like a house on fire : )

[kcdressage-blog]

And this is Bentley. He is a 16.3 (almost 17hh) WBxAppaloosa who loves to make a mess with his dinner! Silly boy decided that he was going to put his foot in his bucket, empty his dinner onto the floor and the proceed to flick it around the yard for fun!

Work is slow with Bentley at the moment, we have moved him to a new yard (same yard where Sassy is kept) but there is no stable for him yet so he is living out 24/7, which makes it hard for me to drag him out of the field in the pitch black on an evening to ride (especially with the mud - he is a big mud monster!). Have been working on transitions to get him more responsive, he is very lazy so its a major workout for me! Doing a bit of jumping as well just to keep it varied and keep it fun, the jumping helps get him a bit more forwards as well.

Best of all is that his owner has sat on him a couple of times now, she is overcoming her fears around him and is getting more confident just having a little walk on him. I'm hoping to get her trotting and spending longer in the saddle with him over the next few weeks.

Stay tuned for more updates, hoping to have another lesson on Sassy and then in the new year maybe even brave a competition!

[kcdressage-blog]

So this has taken me forever, but as promised here are pics of my new ponies - this is Sassy a.k.a Pro-Seed. She is 16.1hh, aged 6 and a WBxTB out of the stallion Pro-Set.

She is still a bit of a nightmare, so highly strung and not the best attitude but we had a breakthrough with our trainer last night so we might finally be getting somewhere! Trainer said we should easily be out doing Novice so fingers crossed there will be a competition report not too long after Xmas.

[kcdressage-blog]

Just a quick update....2 new horses to ride and an ongoing love affair with the big man

So as expected August was crazy and I haven't had time to think, let alone post! But here we are and I have an exciting development for you to read, I have not one but 2 new horses to be riding! As mentioned in my last post I am now sharing the lovely, if just a bit moody, Sassy. She's been with us nearly 2 weeks now and is undergoing a bit of an MOT as she's had some teeth issues, neck pain issues and a badly fitting saddle so we are still working a few issues out. She's definitely hard work at the moment trying to buck me off at every available opportunity, spooking at anything she can find and generally being a pain in the bum. She is young though and I think we'll take a while to form a bond so watch this space. Onto horsey number 2, we have another 6 yr old warmblood x Appaloosa called Bentley. I stumbled across him online, his owner is still learning and is a bit unsure on him so wanted someone with a bit of experience to give him some exercise. I wasn't expecting much but boy does this gangly lad have potential! He's so skinny after being malnourished at his last home but he's got a loving owner now and fingers crossed with time and patience he'll come good. It will be so nice to give his owner the confidence to ride him too, he's a lovely boy but a little spooky and a bit unbalanced, but with regular work I think he will be a great horse for her. No competitions planned for a while as need to get Sassy under control and pain free before we go out, plus some lessons would be a bonus to get us working hard and going in the right direction. Finally back to the big man - I'll never forget all that he did for me and all that he tought me, he really is a special boy. I keep popping back to the yard to say hello and give a few treats, he seems happy as larry with his slower pace of life. Will post pics of new ponies soon, I think I'm going to do a before and after with Bentley as his current condition is so awful it will be good to see his progress.

[kcdressage-blog]

Lame lame go away, come again another day

Well those spangly white breeches I got for my birthday have never even left my house. Big man is still lame, turns out its arthritis in the hocks so he's been injected and now it is a waiting game to see if he will get better. If no improvement, that means there is nothing more to be done so he will get an early retirement and can be a field ornament. If he does improve, there is no saying how long that will last and we still dont have any way of improving the muscle issues from that old injury.

So I am in a rather tough situation, I love the big man to bits and he's given me so much in the short time we have had together, however I'm quickly realising dressage is never going to be easy for him and we wont ever be getting those 70+ scores I dream of. I dont want to be unfair to him either by pushing him when he is getting old and is a bit arthritic, even with the injections its not entirely fair to be asking him to train harder and harder to get up the levels.

Which brings me onto the latest horsey development - namely a pretty dapple grey 5 year old warmblood mare. I posted a speculative advert on a horsey site to show my interest in potentially finding a new share, and what do I find - the lovely grey mare of course. She's based with a pro at the moment so went to their yard to try her, she has the amazing flashy warmblood trot and really is working very nicely for her age.

So now its decision time, do I leave the big man and follow my dreams of getting up the levels with an opportunity to do so on a very talented young mare? Or do I see how big man gets on, stick with it and hope that we have a few more years together? I think I know what the answer is, the opportunity with little miss flashy is probably too good to pass by but it will be heartbreaking to say goodbye to the big man and his wonderful owner.

I'll warn you all in advance I wont be around much in August as I'm very busy wedding planning and organising 30th birthdays so I doubt there will be a post any time soon, but towards the end of August that would be when I start with new mare if I do choose to go ahead so watch this space, I'll show her off in due course for you all to see!

[kcdressage-blog]

Back down to earth with a bump (not literally!)

After a few weeks of the big man really feeling better and the tightness issue in his right hindleg getting better, to the point where the physio had said there was very little difference between the left and right leg, I went on holiday for a week and got engaged (yipee!). Came back, jumped on big man on the Saturday excited to start thinking about competing again, and he was lame. And I mean really lame.

On the left rein it was ok but he broke canter and that is very out of character for him, he loves a good canter and would go everywhere in canter if he had his way. On the right rein we tried a little trot and I jumped off almost instantly, it felt so awful I couldn't stay on him any longer. He was really dragging his right leg, it felt so tight and stiff so I came straight off.

All a bit disappointing really, we had made good progress since the end of April but unfortunately we went back to square one, perhaps even worse than he was back in April. I am wondering if it may well be the lack of exercise for a week that really stiffened him up, or perhaps he was just hooning around the field as per usual and tweaked something. Who knows.

Anyway, rode all last week and very little improvement, right rein was still terrible and he had no interest in just walking and trotting on the left rein working on 'long and low'. Eventually we got the odd transition from walk to trot where he remained long and low but that was about my biggest achievement for the week!

Then comes the weekend, Saturday was same as before but Sunday, well I think there was either an overnight miracle or the change of the saddle from the dressage saddle to the GP has had an effect. Denby's owner and I were talking and thought it might be worth seeing if the saddle was having an effect, the dressage saddle was a second hand one and never fitted to Denby specifically so we got the trusty GP out to see if there would be a difference. And low and behold there was, the lameness was almost gone!

We are going to get the dressage saddle checked off the back of this, this will require a jaunt out in the new wagon for towing the trailer so time for us to get over the loading hurdle as well! Will keep you posted on progress, if big man remains sound for the next week then I'll pop out to the local comp venue to do their summer dressage league on 22nd June.

Let this be a lesson for everyone - get your saddles checked! This injury was caused by something else a long time ago but it seems very likely that the saddle was making things worse, so lesson learnt the hard way in this instance!

[kcdressage-blog]

New spangly competition breeches…..love them! How long will they stay this white for is the real question!

[kcdressage-blog]

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger

I am truly awful at updating this on time so apologies (again!), here is our belated report from the Trailblazers 2nd round. Unfortunately it was not the top 10 finish nor the 65% I'd hoped for, more like a disappointing 60% and 20th out of 23!

But to put that into context, the judge was marking incredibly harshly (as agreed by most people there that day), I think it was the occasion that meant his marks were hard earned and he really was looking for the best. Denby did a lovely little test, there were a couple of tiny things that could have been better like his walk was a bit tense and joggy, but no major disasters and even his medium trot work was quite nice! He came out looking pleased as punch with himself, so it was a disappointment to be scored so low when it felt like that test was better than our first Novice outing where we got 65%.

The judge's comments were predominantly that Denby was 'tight', and he was due to see the physio anyway - low and behold he was incredibly tight in his right hindquarters and technically could be classed as lame. I felt awful that I hadn't noticed, so the judge was actually spot on with his comments.

So now it is operation 'get the old man supple', he is having a full horsey MOT! His teeth have just been done, apparently these weren't great and probably were causing some pain so that's one thing checked off the list. He is having regular physio treatments for his tight hindquarters being zapped with lasers and tensing machines. His massage pad is getting more use than ever before, with 1/2 an hour before I ride and 15 mins after I've ridden. He has a brand new supplement (ExtraFlex) to help with the stiffness. New shoes are on and feet taken a bit shorter to help him to turn and bend easier.

All of this seems to be working, if a little too well! Whenever his owner takes him out to the field he is like a stallion, rearing and flying off as soon as the head collar comes off. Not sure whether it is all of the changes we have made, or whether it is just the spring grass but he is like a new horse and really making me work hard to control him when we are schooling at the moment. I like him to be so responsive and eager, but hope he calms down a little as it is really affecting our walk and trot, he just wants to canter everywhere!

Our next outing will be Saturday 8th June I think, trying Solihull RC this time if we can find a 4x4 to tow the trailer for us (lorry still hasn't been sold unfortunately). They have a summer series with the championships in September so it would be quite nice to qualify for that when we missed out narrowly on the winter championships back in Feb/March.

It was a tough day out at the 2nd round of Trailblazers, with very few positive comments on our score sheet and a stiff old man to work with I did question whether it was worth trying to carry on. He is an old hunter after all and perhaps I'm not being fair to him to want to progress up the levels in dressage?

But after a few days of sulking and a couple of fabulous lessons with our visiting trainer Ken Sudsbury from sunny Spain I am motivated again and ready to give it another try. Ken told me that his wife has a horse who she used to compete side-saddle then switched to dressage when the horse was 18, and they made it all the way up to Advanced Medium so there is hope for us yet.

[kcdressage-blog]

A little wobble

So as planned we went out to practice the Novice 27 test, but silly old me managed to lose my stirrups. TWICE. I mean who loses their stirrups twice in a competition? Poor old Denby wondered what on earth was going on, we struck off for canter over X as planned but then my right stirrup went AWOL so I was wobbling around all over the poor boys back, him being the superstar that he is decided to wait for me to sort myself out by breaking into trot however the judges didn't appreciate his kindness so we got a 4 for that movement.

The overall score was 60% which wasn't too embarrassing however compared to our last score of 65% it was disappointing. I've shortened my right stirrup in preparation for this weekend's 2nd rounds, we have practiced last night and he went amazingly well so with any luck we will be on track for another 65%. I have been told there will be around 20-25 people in the class on Saturday so the chances of me getting into the top 6 are slim, I suspect the top 6 will all be around the 70% mark so I'm not expecting us to qualify for the finals.

All I'm hoping for is a top 10 placement and to improve on 65%, oh and to keep my feet in my stirrups would be nice this time!

[kcdressage-blog]

A big jump up to Novice and a big fat 65% to go with it!

First of all, apologies for the distinct lack of entries for a few weeks, working 7 days a week is really taking its toll on me and life is super busy at the moment!

But I do have very exciting news, mainly that Denby and I qualified for the 2nd round of the Trailblazers Unaffiliated Dressage champs so this is my new goal in life - get in the top 6 at the 2nd round and then we will be on our way to the finals in July!

What you might be surprised to know is that we qualified for the Novice section! So long prelims, we managed all but 3 of you before we moved on up! It all happened rather by accident to be honest, I'd entered 2 prelim classes at my local venue (Swallowfield equestrian) however they had to run the classes very early in the morning due to numbers of entries which meant that because of my new job on weekend mornings I wouldnt be able to compete. So after sulking for a few minutes that I wouldnt be able to compete, I had a little nosey at the Novice test they were running in the afternoon and thought it didnt sound too bad. So the lovely organisers let me move class and refunded me for the 2nd class, and I was entered into the Novice class! Eeek!

I had no idea how it was going to go, we had no time to practice the test during the week as I had been learning the prelims, so after copius amounts of Youtube videos and furious revision at home the night before, we had to be ready. The naughty boy decided (in the pouring rain) that he didnt want to go on the lorry that day, so with only half an hour before the test we hacked the 1.4 miles instead. We were all soaked by the time we got there, and I had all of 5 minutes to do a bit of trot and canter, then we were called in!

It wasnt the greatest test we'd ever done, he wasnt all that relaxed, our centre line was very wobbly and he took a step back in the halt, but aside from that it wasnt bad! The judges gave us a great score of 65.18%, canter getting the best scores as always and the medium strides of trot and canter were well received too - my biggest fear was that he would just go faster but the judges said they could see a difference in length of stride (could have done more but there was a difference!) so I was very pleased with that. Our score of 65% easily qualified us for the 2nd round of Trailblazers, and in a class of 10 we came 6th with a lovely pink frilly.  

So this brings us up to date, we have been training like mad for the 2nd rounds learning the test (Novice 27), getting him more supple, more relaxed and working on self-carriage as well. As a practice for the big day (that isn't until April 27th) we are going out this Saturday to do Novice 27 at Swallowfield, it is another 1st round qualifier so there's nothing to really achieve with this one, apart from seeing what my score is and getting the judges feedback so we can work on it between now and April 27th.  

I promise this time there will be a report from the competition, and if I fail on that I will definitely post after the 2nd rounds. It is going to be tough to get through to the finals, top 6 in what will be a big class is going to be a big ask but I'll be pleased if we can simply keep improving on our scores, so we need to do better than 65% - nothing to worry about then!

[kcdressage-blog]

Here are a few pics from the tests themselves, a bit of a soggy grey day but so pleased with how the big man performed on the day. What a superstar!

[kcdressage-blog]

The full report: We are on the up!

Date: 09.03.2013

Venue: Solihull Riding Club, Solihull

Time: Various AM

Tests: Preliminary 4 and Prelim 18 (unaffiliated)

Result: Prelim 4 - 60.9%, Prelim18 - 66.6%

Only one word needed - HAPPY. After the first outing I wasnt sure how this was going to go, but he was a dream and everything went so well. He loaded easily at home, got back on the trailer at the end of the day without problems too. Warmed up nicely despite it being packed and many people not understanding the pass left to left rule. As for the tests, despite having a reader I managed to mess up Prelim 4 (who does that?!) but to still get 60.9% was really good. Prelim 18 I had practiced the most at home and it showed, 66.6% was a brilliant result and we even got an 8 for our left canter!

Judges comments were as expected really, that he had 3 correct paces and we have a nice partnership. We just need to work on getting him more forwards and active (this is a horse that sometimes I cant stop), and that he needs to come through from behind more and I need a more elastic contact.

From this it seems I have pretty much nailed the canter, no comments in the canter sections really, it was just the walk and trot where he needs to be more active and forwards. It is hard to know what to work on to get him more forwards because he is not a lazy horse at all, he is strong and fast in all paces, he is super responsive to the lightest of aids and definitely not a horse that I ever expected to be told he needs to be more 'forwards'. However I can only assume that it is not speed they are looking for here, more that he needs to swing through his back and lengthen his strides. Sorry big man but no more fun cantering for you, we are going to be trotting until you are puffing!

[kcdressage-blog]

Here we go again.....getting ready for round 2

Sorry things have been so quiet recently, been a very busy 2 weeks! Firstly I've just started a new weekend job to earn a few extra pennies at a lovely dressage yard in South Warwickshire, with the talented rider Natalie Allen. Just doing general groom stuff but its great to be around so many gorgeous horses and to get an insight into what it is like being a professional dressage rider.

As for the giant horse, he is very happy at the moment - I last rode on Saturday and he went like a dream, we learnt our prelim 18 test that we will be doing this weekend (more on that in a bit) and he was amazing, I can only wish that he will be that good when we do the test for real. Following on from my jumping post the Thursday before the great Saturday, we had a full jumping session with grids so perhaps the jumping relaxed him hence why he went so well on the Saturday? I'm putting this theory to the test tomorrow, I'm going to do a full jumping session with grids again on Friday night and see if it affects our performance at our next competition on Saturday.

The naughty boy has been having daily loading practice, first attempt took an hour and a half but it has been getting better over the last 2 weeks and his owner has been getting him on with no problems in recent days. My only worry is that his owner cant come with us tomorrow so a friend is taking us in her trailer so fingers crossed he still loads without Dad around.

Onto our next dressage outing, that will be this Saturday (9th March) at Solihull Riding Club where we are doing prelim 4 and prelim 18. I learnt after the last competition that we need to get there LOTS earlier to give him more time to settle, and to do 2 tests rather than 1 so with any luck the 2nd test will be great and he can get all his excitement out in the first test. I've not practiced my 1st test (prelim 4) at all yet which I feel rather bad about, but I've practiced prelim 18 and that went really well, it is a nice test to ride as its fairly similar to prelim 1 just with the serpentine added in.

I probably wont post again until after the test (may well end up being Monday when I'm back at work), so keep your fingers crossed for me everyone and hopefully we will come back with another frilly! The classes will probably be bigger at Solihull compared to Swallowfields so competition will be tough, but if he goes like he did last Saturday I think we might just do well. First 6 in each class qualify for Solihull's dressage finals.....eekk! No pressure then.

[kcdressage-blog]

The full report: Carl and Charlotte you don't need to worry yet

Date: 23.02.2013

Venue: Swallowfield Equestrian, Solihull

Time: 11.42am

Test: Preliminary 1 (unaffiliated)

Result: 53.68% (5th out of 5)

After all that build up, worry and nerves, it was all over in under 5 minutes and it was pretty average to say the least! Denby had been out in the field in the morning to relax and let off steam, all our preparation went to plan, he loaded well.....all good until we arrive at the venue. Once at the venue he comes off the lorry, trembling like a leaf and eyes on stalks. Couldn't get him calm in the warm up, and before I knew it we were called ready to go in and do the test.

At that point I relented and realised that it was better to write it off as experience and accept our fate that this was going to be pretty hopeless. And it was. We went around with his neck stuck in the air (not a glimpse of an outline!), tiny short strides, no bend and gawping at the spectators each time he saw them. It wasn't much of a surprise to get the result, a pretty mediocre 53% but then again he hadn't been away from the yard on the lorry for nearly a year so we can let him off this time : )

Judges comments were as expected - hollow in the back, not working through from behind, not forwards enough, breaking into trot too early out of canter.....such a shame when he works so well at home! I think it is the most frustrating part, knowing he is so good at home and that none of the judges comments would actually apply if they were judging us at home.

But we will be moving onwards and upwards, next competition is 9th March and we are doing 2 tests this time so hopefully the first test he can go round with his eyes on stalks and he will settle in the 2nd test and we will do a bit better.

[kcdressage-blog]

We finally made it....no pics from the actual test I'm afraid but here we are afterwards feeling rather relieved it was all over

[kcdressage-blog]

Committing the cardinal sin - jumping in a dressage saddle

As part of our ongoing training I am starting to worry that the big man is getting bored of dressage, after all he used to hunt, be shown side saddle and do working hunter classes so this is a horse who is used to some variety in his life. Whereas now he is stuck in the school 4 times a week with me trying to perfect his canter, probably not what he had in mind!

This combined with his weak hind legs (and prominent hip bones jutting out to remind me of this fact) I want to start seeing some results of getting him fit and building muscle. After much musing over the subject and some gentle encouragement from a certain horsey online forum I decided to try jumping Denby for the first time.

Note this is a horse that jumped canter poles in one go, hence my reluctance. He is very big, very strong and I've been working to calm his canter down and not rush off, so jumping was the last thing on my mind for some time. 

Last night there was a small cross pole set up in the school and I took it as a sign that I should give it a try, so once everyone else had cleared out of the school and there was no-one to watch me I decided to pop over it in trot. Despite being in our dressage saddle and not bothering to hike my stirrup leathers up, he went over perfectly without even trying to break into canter. His jump is big, but not so huge you cant sit to it even in a dressage saddle.  

I was so chuffed we went over it twice, and now I feel confident in incorporating jumping into our weekly training routine. The video below from Ingrid Klimke shows how the professionals do it, I doubt I will ever be cantering over cavaletti with Denby (I wish!) but Ingrid really advocates jumping for dressage horses; her horses jump once a week, she will take them out Cross Country from time to time and often does a single fence as a reward at the end of a schooling session.

Jumping has always been something I enjoy and I'm pleased to be adding this to our routine, fingers crossed there will be no falls and we will start to see some real improvements in fitness and muscle tone over the next few months.