They say a picture tells a thousand words.... I love this pic. I think it 100% shows how pleased I was with Freddie.
The dressage competition at Badgworth on Monday 24 April was a last minute decision from Jane on Monday 17 April. But we signed up for the Novice - Novice 24 is one of those tests I have committed to memory (along with prelim 2 and BE92) no idea why, they just have. So I figured I could do N24 without thinking too much on it.
There were 4 in my class, and as I messaged to Kim in the run up, we both - very positively (not) were anticipating last place in our respective classes. Both were qualifiers for Hartpury Unaffiliated Championships on 21st May. I had qualified last week for the show jumping but hadn't even considered we might get there for the dressage. Just the top 2 qualify and need to have a score over 65%
I had offered to write for the day too (hence no plaiting) so I got to the yard for 9am to bring Freddie in from the field (let the grass baby go down!) and muck out ready to write at 10am.
As I was writing for the other classes, I could hear the rain hammering down on the roof. I'll be honest, I was a little bit exasperated - after getting a soaking last Monday when we went XC schooling in a day that was forecast to be glorious sunshine and good ground, not a bog with slippery on top grass! (which led me to withdraw from the ODE on 30 April) - and after suffering a hail storm before my jumping the week before, I thought "REALLY?" are we going to (quite literally) rain on my parade AGAIN?
I looked at my phone and sure enough the weather was forecast to 'come in' again at 2pm-3pm - just as I need to warm up for my test.
But as 2pm arrived, the rain had stopped outside and I checked the weather radar again, it was showing no rain until after 3pm. I finished writing mid class in the class before and dashed out to get myself kitted up and tacked up.
I was genuinely pleased with Fred in the warm up. We were in the "spooky" sand arena and one of the horses in there was in "high energy" - I wasn't sure if it was the horse, or MORE LIKELY, the rider. The rider was in a bit of a panic and didn't appear to have control in canter. It was a relief when she went down first to do her test. BUT Fred wasn't really bothered. Aware. But not bothered.
He warmed up beautifully (courtesy of the lovely spurs Jayne leant me! which are softer and less 'pokey' than mine. AND we had a plan. 40 min warm up. walk for 10 mins, pick up, put down, walk, pick up include canter, put down, walk. Wait until the rider goes before me, pick up the trot, go in from the trot.
The trot he picked up to 'circle' the indoor arena was STONKING (to quote my good friend Liane) but after 3 laps, it was starting to go a little flatter - argh isn't that always the way.
My Medium Trot still needs work as does my Medium Canter, but I was really pleased with Fred's attitude to try in the test. I definitely need to work on the canter in my tests though, because in my lessons, we round it and keep it all together in this B-E-AUTIFUL way and so a Give and Retake is easy, in my tests I seem to let the nose drift and so as a result he follows the rein in the G+R and the canter mark is 6.5 for travel and rhythm but losing marks for nose poking.
Anyhoo, I was really pleased with the whole day warm up and test, and had 15 mins after my test to untack, rug up and be back ready to write for the next class. As I ran round to pick up the Novice 30 test sheets, you can imagine my ABSOLUTE AMAZEMENT and DELIGHT to discover I had WON the N24 class!!! AND QUALIFIED FOR HARTPURY AT NOVICE!!
I know it sounds bizarre but I'm just not a rider that WINS shit normally and here we were, WINNING at NOVICE! Although, this is Freddie's 4th 1st place rosette so....
AND EVEN BETTER, Kim also qualified for the Novice Champs at Hartpury.....
And so now the hunt for overnight stabling for our ROADTRIP begins! AND I am just made up that I get to share this roadtrip weekend with Kim and Jayne.
Photo's of the test
The video: