Prince hadn't done any classes on Saturday, but had his first overnight away from 'home'. I was really pleased with how he came through the night, he'd eaten all his dinner (& brekkie) and drunk a reasonable amount of water. So that was a good start! He was extremely distracted in his warmup - calling out to the others and not settling well.
He focused on me a bit more while we were trotting around the outside of the arena, but it was still certainly a bit of an ugly dressage test. He was also finding the arena quite tight and slippery. Still, I was happy that he was listening from time to time even if we didn't manage to pull it all together in the ring. His transitions were at the correct markers and his halt was immobile... so can't complain!
Showjumping was a marked improvement over Onslow show for us. Prince was calm for the entire round and happily coming back to me between fences. I was stoked with how much improvement there was.
Crosscountry I wasn't sure how we would go, as his last time out he'd been very strong for the previous rider. He tried a couple of times to be a bit tanky and I had to give a few good strong half-halts, but he did come back each time. He wasn't quite as responsive as the showjumping, but still really good.
He did a super clear round, and within the time (which not many horses did... as the distance was measured on an incredibly tight line). At the end of the day he came 5th, which I thought was a good effort.
After the crosscountry, while removing studs, we noticed that Prince was feeling a bit stiff. So he will head home to his owner to have some more recovery work done and get his muscles in tip top condition before coming back to do some more dressage and jumping outings.
No comments:
Post a Comment