Grassroots Dressage Championship

The second last show of the year is done, and I can’t believe this time next week Henry will be on his summer holidays. It’s been a strange and interrupted year but I am grateful we have gotten out and about and for the success we have had.

This weekend we were out of our comfort zone doing dressage. Not just any dressage but the Grassroots dressage champs, but I decided to go for it because the only way to get better is to do it.

I entered the Novice 2A and Prelim 1C, and we had the novice test up first at 9, then a 4 hour gap before the prelim. I was glad I was riding the novice in the cool of the morning as it was forecast to get warm and my prelim was going to be right at the worst of it.

The novice is one we have ridden before, but this time we had 2 judges. That was a first for me, but I told myself not to worry and got on with warming up. We had a brilliant lesson Friday afternoon that really set us up for the competition, and I had my warm up plan and timing down pat. I gave myself 40 minutes to tick every box we would need and by the end Henry was supple, on the aides and ready to show his twinkle toes at their very best.

As usual, Henry got tense as we went around the outside of the arena, but I took my time to get him back, doing some shoulder in and indirect and direct flexion around the outside and when the judge rang the bell, we were ready to go right in.

I rode the shit out of that test, and tried my absolute best to show Henry and I off the best I could. I rode into my corners clearly, which helped get him into my outside rein and around my leg, Hen was soft and responsive, and even if he got a bit tense or short in the neck, I had him back the next stride. All my transitions were great, and the trot and canter especially was awesome.

The walk lacked a bit of the sparkle, it just needed it be a bit more forward and swinging. He broke in the second extended trot, I got a little greedy and pushed too much but I got him back really fast and he went straight back to a nice trot.

I really used all the tools I had, but I think the warm up set us up best. It was by far the best test we have ridden at novice, he was so much more consistent and I came out smiling, knowing we had done our best. I fully didn’t expect to have got even close to troubling the fancy warmbloods, but I was happy with what we had done.

While I waited for my next test I spent an hour marshalling, then read my book and finally the score for my first test came out. I could have cried, I was expecting a very average score, but instead we had an average of 64.2% and came 7^th, less than 1% behind 5^th and 6^th. We were so close to a place, and I have never been happier not to get a ribbon.

The judge as C was the same judge we had at brig and she scored us so much better on this test (66.7%). The judge at B wasn’t as generous (61.7%), consistently scoring riders lower the whole class. It was really interesting to see that, though they were both consistent across my test (so if 1 judge marked me a bit lower on a movement, the other judge had too).

Our next test only had 1 judge, and it was hot. I shortened my warm up, but probably should have given myself an extra 10 minutes, as henry didn’t feel as supple and responsive as he had earlier. We were both hot and bothered by that point though so I just went in and did the best we could.

Our transitions weren’t quite as good, but I rode accurately and Henry was still very much there with me throughout the test. We didn’t break at all in this test, but it didn’t have quite the same sparkle. I came out still very happy with the work we had done and I quickly untacked and cooled us both off.

I took Henry for a splash in the river before we headed home, not worried about waiting for our score. Because I have the most amazing hubby ever, Andrew ran a few errands before picking my test up for me. This test scored higher, placing us in 10^th with 67.8%. We didn’t score below a 6.5, with mostly 7’s across the board.

It was such a confidence building day, to hold our own against proper dressage horses. It showed me we can do it, and that dressage could be fun too. I managed to perfect my warm up and it will help me out in future comps too.

The end of the season in shaping up very successfully, ribbons or no ribbons. Henry is going from strength to strength currently and he feels just amazing to ride. We have so much fun together, and hopefully I can keep this feeling throughout next weekend, since apparently eventing it so mentally tough for both of us.