Tielcey Winter Dressage

Didn't have my first class till 1.30pm today! How fantastic is that? Meant I got to have a little sleep in and still get there with plenty of time to catch up with people and have a bit of a rest after the drive (I have the flu and I am seriously bad company at the moment - all sniffly and grouchy). Swifty came along with to ensure I didn't overdose on flu medicine or get too tired to lift the ramp at the end of the day!

As I'd nabbed Gem from Mum last weekend with the intention of just putting some work into her for Mum, I'd entered her in a couple of tests today. Turns out Gem is going to stay with me and learn to be a jumper/eventer as well as a poncy show pony! Great fun. Gem was a real tart at the beginning of her warmup and was ignoring me well and truly - she's not had much work and it was really showing! But I kept at it and got some really nice soft work from her.

In our tests she was still a bit wound up, but I am really pleased with some of the work I got out of her. Makes me motivated for next weekend on her, and also really excited about eventing her - as from the very little jumping she's done, I know she is brave and honest. So a good dressage score to start the day is always a bonus. Gem's marks and comments reflected her lack of work, but I also picked up a few new things to work on which is good.

Little Kody came out today too! He has been quite spooky, as you can see from the pic below (not sure if it was his shadow, or the ditch he was worried about as we warmed up in the arena). After an initial ride around he was pretty good about all of the surroundings and other horses though. It was certainly a worthwhile outing just to get him back into that frame of mind of being at shows and how busy things are.

Kody only did the prelim test - which was a bit much for him (but I'd entered so I only had to learn a minimal number of different tests). We're still a bit overbent and counterbent, but I'm pleased with how kindly he went - and now I have a list of things to get onto with him over winter so he can come out all cylinders firing next season! He is such a cutie.

Xev was a little stronger than usual today - I have upped her feed to include quite a bit of crushed barley (taking her off the sporthorse mixes and starting to wean onto more basic winter feeds) - it seems the barley is giving her a bit of energy! She did some neat work, but our transitions were pretty poor today, which is gutting as they are normally our "mark earning" feature! She does super transitions. Not all her, of course! Rider needs to prepare more! But I will put some extra schooling sessions into her through the week before the next dressage outing at Solway - then she can be turned out for a month or two and have a rest from it all.

It wasn't all bad though - she did some neat work and even came home with a 3rd in her 2.4 test which I was really pleased with (and it was in the indoor arena too - luckily she had been in there before so already knew not to spook at the mirrors on the walls).

No pictures of either Gem or Xev indoors - we tried, but the lighting was just too difficult in there and the poor camera wasn't having a bar of it!

Happy with the day though, and looking forward to next weekend to see the improvements I can make based on the judges comments from today. Plus next weekend will also be Coco's first time out in public! How exciting!