Yesterday was the second day of the competition in Hannover. I was on later in the day at 1pm, right in the midst of the sweltering 38 degree heat! No, I am not kidding, it really was 38 degrees, my car told me so! It felt a bit like Australia though, so that was quite nice :)You know from my previous post that I didn't have the best warm-up on Saturday, as dodging trees and showjumps whilst in a shoulder-in isn't an everyday procedure. Well yesterday (Sunday) was much better because we could warm up in a proper dressage arena, however I was only able to warm up for 15-20 mins. Because of the close riding times between Leonie and I, I had to wait until Leonie's test was over to get Seb off the trailer. So I ended up getting on 10 minutes late, which was still okay because it was hot and I didn't want to wear Seb out before the test with too much work.
BUT, the first person didn't turn up to ride, so everyone went a slot early, so that was another 10 minutes cut from my warmup! I only discovered I was the next to go when a woman said something to me in German about still having Seb's boots on and that I was the next to go, so Volker quickly took my boots off and gave me my jacket and we were straight into the arena.
I have learned from Leonie that whatever happens, you just have to deal with it and ride. So I did, I just rode. It didn't matter that Seb wasn't really "ready" and needed 5 more minutes just to release his neck and back a bit more. I could only do what I could do, and I thought that what we did was actually pretty good!
Like Saturday, he went down the centerline ears pricked, ready to go for me. This new feeling has no comparison to how he felt before we started our training in Germany. I love doing tests on him now, and I can't wait to get him back out in England to practice more test riding! It is so good to focus on the quality of the movements now, rather than being occupied trying to get him to just go forward.
Seb enjoying his grass after our test
We ended up with 64.9% and 5th out of 12. Still not bad! I don't know what the judges comments say, because they are obviously in German, but I can only guess that because the test was so crafty (rein-back then straight into canter, a simple change down the centerline where the horse thinks he should halt rather than walk if you're not careful) there was a lot of places to lose marks. There were no canter or walk pirouettes and tempi changes in this test, which is really where Seb picks up his marks. He has always been a horse for a good PSG test because of those tricks that he is good at doing. I did get an 8 for my walk though - MIRACLE!
It was such a relief to finish the test and I'm sure Seb and I both left a trail of sweat behind us. It felt so good to put the hose on Seb and myself, and then chill in a bit of shade letting Seb eat some grass. As soon as I had finished putting Seb to bed with his dinner back at the stables, I went straight off to the beach at around 5.30pm for my own little celebration. I had a salad and a glass of wine for my dinner at the beach restaurant, and relaxed in the evening sun. Sure, I was probably the only person out of the hundreds of people that were there that was alone, but I always go to the beach alone so I'm kind of used to it. Just felt a bit awkward eating dinner on my own, though they do say that being able to sit in a restaurant and eat a meal alone is a liberating experience!
So now the focus is packing up my room here in Germany, ready to leave on Thursday. What a mammoth task that is. I am excited about the posts that will be coming in the next few days though. Some serious recapping of my German experience complete with lots of pictures!
Now that the competition is over, the next thing to think about is packing up my room ready to leave on Thursday! I'm excited about the next few posts I'm going to be putting up
