Chad is turning into a bit of an eventer! I took him out to his first competition on Wednesday of this week which was an eventer's dressage day. We did the Pre-novice 102 which is probably equivalent to a preliminary/novice test in official dressage. He was great, apart from thinking that the other horses were going to trample him every time they came close so he had to move out of the way as quick as possible! I expected that though, he has done it his whole life so I just need to take him out a lot more so he gets used to being in the big world of strange horses. In saying that, he is a lot better than he was in Germany as Ampney is a quieter environment with a bigger school so when working with the other horses he doesn't feel so trapped.
Chad strutting his stuff at Eventer's dressage day
He felt so light on his toes with his freshness, like a fairy! He was lush to ride, however I had to pretend we did eventing and I don't think we pulled that off very well! Everyone said he was really "snazzy".... I suppose you could be a snazzy eventer? Well, Chad can anyway.We got a score of 26 (which to us dressage people is 74%, so don't worry it is a good score!) and won the class which I was well chuffed with. He was a bit unbalanced especially when getting closer to the white boards of the arena which apparently had teeth according to Chad. It's ok though, he is five, he doesn't know these things yet bless him.
So yesterday he got fitted for his first jumping saddle! It feels amazing to ride in, I think I prefer it to my dressage saddle actually! It is a Prestige Paris but 2nd hand so got it for half price which was amazing. When we were trying it out it would have been a useless exercise if I didn't jump in it to see how it was, so we stuck a cross pole up and off we went. Bearing in mind the only time Chad and I have jumped was a few months ago where we only put up a tiny pole to see if he would even go over it. He did, so we left it at that.
Now I had to actually jump a bit bigger, and my god he was awesome! He jumped it with so much ease and felt so nice over the jump because he has so much power in his hind legs, he is like a gazelle. The height went up to only about 75-80cm so still not huge, but enough to feel he was competent and the saddle fitted right.
So with my new jumping saddle to hand, we are off galloping today! I'm actually taking Seb too, as he will love to have a bit of a run rather than do canter pirouettes in the school. I'm excited now, I like to go fast.... maybe it will make me slow down in my car!
