The first day of this weekend's competition in Hannover is done and dusted. 6th place out of 36 horses, not bad!! Martin (Leonie's Bereiter) took me this morning and helped me warm up, which made it good fun because we get along quite well and it was all very relaxed.I was riding quite early, at 9.24am, so it was good to ride before the 30 degree heat rolled in. I may be Australian, but that doesn't mean I ever got used to the heat - in fact that is half the reason I left Australia, I'm a wuss with the heat! And I hate to see the horses get so hot and unable to cool down, I feel so mean for making them work hard in it. Only when I am lying on a beach is 30+ degree weather good.
The warm up was very difficult for Seb and I, as Germany threw another surprise at us, as usual. We had to do the warm-up in an area that had big trees scattered through the arena, with showjumps everywhere, and no real boundary. So everyone was riding randomly everywhere, in and around trees and jumps (suddenly a horse pops out in front of you from behind a tree, and you have to screeeeeech to a halt!) and there were no boundaries to set your work on (ie shoulder-in or traverse down the long side). I know that this shouldn't matter, because if you ride well enough and have control of your horse you should be able to warm up anywhere (remember Leonie warming up in a field that one time?!) but Seb and I were seriously not used to this!
However, we made the best of the situation and I just focused on getting seb as laterally supple as possible with leg-yield and traverse on a circle. I didn't feel like I could properly engage him because of the unevenly sloped ground, but I had a feeling that as soon as Seb was back in his four-walled arena he would stop being so confused and know what he had to do. Well, I call it a feeling, but it was probably more of a desperate plea to God.
My plea was answered, because as soon as we entered the competition arena he seemed to say "ohhhh so THIS is what we are doing, I get it now!" and was a dream to ride. Finally, for the first time in me and Seb's partnership, I can trot off from my first halt and salute, and feel like Seb is ready for me, to do anything I ask and last the whole test. Previously, it was like as soon as I trotted off from the halt he would put up a wall and say "nope, you're going to have to sweat bucket-loads if you want me to go". But after so much training here with Leonie and work to get him engaged, properly using his hind legs and body, he has been completely unlocked and feels like a different horse to ride now. It is so rewarding to ride a horse that actually feels excited to do a dressage test for you.
We got 65.5%, which Martin thought was a bit low and that it was more a 67-68% test, but I think the scores were pretty low overall. I didn't mind though, the personal achievement I got out of it meant more than the number. And considering our shocking warm-up, what we did in the test was a bit of a miracle!
So, all up I had a really nice day! The sun was shining, I was with my horse all day, and even ended it nicely with a little trip to the beach tonight. Tomorrow my class starts at 1pm, so although I get a little bit of a sleep-in, I will probably be riding in the maximum heat of the day. Oh well! Better than snow!
