Gidgegannup CNC - Dressage

Finally we have been eventing and it was so awesome! We had an incredible weekend and Henry is the best pony ever, but I better start at the start.

We had dressage on Saturday afternoon, but we headed up early because parking was diabolical! I plaited up before we left so when we got there I mucked  about a bit before pre riding. Just as well I pre rode because Henry was riled up, especially when he saw people walking the XC. How dare they! It  took a while to work him down and I just kept him busy until he relaxed. 

He came up for our test much more laid back. I had a solid plan  for my warm up and my test and the main thing was to keep him forward! From there I kept him busy until it was go time. I allowed lots of  time to warm up, though I could have shortened it a lot, but I'm still trying to work out what works best for him. He was relaxed and happy the whole time and he felt very rideable.

Our test was great, I came out smiling! I did all the  things I intended to, but I needed to ride my figures more accurately. I maintain a good forward pace, I stayed in the moment and rode the horse I had on the day. Our transitions were all amazing! His canter and walk were brilliant and his trot was so consistent. He just got tense once when he really wanted to look at  the trade stand and I wouldn't let him, but he came right back to me and got on with it in about 2 strides. 

The  judge was very fair and pinged me for my accuracy, We had a fair range of marks and there  was nothing new t take away, our weaknesses are all things we already knew about so we will just  keep chugging with it. She mentioned Henry putting his quarters in on the circles, so I need to be more aware of using my legs to keep him straight, and that his rhythm changed throughout the test so we still have to work on self carriage, but i was aware of that too. 

I was so proud and it was such a refreshing change to come out of dressage feeling positive  and smiling.

We scored 7s for all our upward transitions, but I need to work on my accuracy and make sure to smooth the downward transitions out a bit more. Mostly we lost marks where I could have done something in the test, so it's something to work on for next time. 

I walked the cross country course before we headed home to have a good rest and relax all ready for cross country day!