You never forget your first Furst first

WE WON!!! My positive thoughts worked and the clever mule went out and won at his first ever medium level competition. Let me bring you back to the scene.

It was raining. It was actually pouring dreaded sideways rain out of the heavens. Apparently some hurricane named Gert was on her way to reap havoc throughout Kildare, which was convenient because guess where our competition was? You guessed it...Gert ridden Kildare.

Romy had been feeling good and I was really looking forward to competing. The nerves that come with not competing regularly have now subsided and I actually adore going out. The early mornings less so and the 04.30am Sunday alarm did NOT make for a chirpy Victoria. Coffee: Check. Croissant: Check. Horse groomed within an inch of it’s life and plaits sewn in: Check (on a side note, I chose NOT to sew in my plaits recently...never again. I heard the THWANG of elastic bands with every stride and by the end of the test Romy looked like he had been hacked at by a teenage My Little Pony lover).

Warm Up

Romy is loading well now, I’m less nervous pulling a trailer and so other than good old Hurricane Gert, we had nothing holding us back. Romy warmed up well and even my yard managers husband saw us and admitted he said to himself ‘who is that lovely horse?'. I DO have a lovely horse *insert smug face*. I’m actually going to talk a bit about his personality for a minute. Romy is the best horse I could ask for when it comes to his temperament. He really is. Sharp enough when ridden so I can get some flicky toe action out of him but on the ground he is an angel who loves cuddles. Sure, he is quite babyish, loves to chew things, likes to pick things up and throw them around but he is a DARLING really. So well behaved. Even if he is scared of something, his spooks come by way of bunching up. But it never explodes. When I ask him to go forward, he does. When I leave him by the trailer, he stays there by himself. When his ditzy owner doesn’t tie him up with a 100 loop knot (he can undo them) he gets himself loose and rambles to the nearest piece of grass without any funny business. So yeah, love ma poneh. I believe a lot of the Furst offspring have good temperaments (Romy being by Furst Romancier) and I wouldn’t hesitate in recommending them to someone considering buying one.

Counter Canter

OK so test day came.....rain, rain, wind, wind, bright orange burger stand, sideways rain, mud...’Victoria you have five minutes’...gulp...and we’re in. First test was Medium 61 with a tough but fair judge. Romy went well, he lost a bit of rhythm in his medium trot but his canter work was lovely and I was happy with how it went overall. And the judge was happy too. 2^nd place in our section, 3^rd overall and a score of 64.48. Not bad for his first time at that level. Then came the Medium 76 test. There is a LOT in that test and I was a little nervous about forgetting the test (I MAY have been known to go a wrong way or two in tests previously...ahem) and I think I focused a lot on the test and rode relatively safe, although I didn’t ride a couple of the movements particularly well and I was reminded of that by two 3.5’s. But he did feel a little tight over the back to me. I think probably it was to do with the awful weather. Romy does get tight in his lumbar region and I have to be very careful to listen to how he is feeling. I think he did a nice test but I felt him struggle a little in some of the movements and the judge agreed. However, despite all that he still won the class! He was the only horse in our section to get over 60% with everyone else in the section getting scores in the 50’s. I’m not going to say she was a harsh judge but...... I did agree with all her comments on our test sheet though and was delighted with our first ever red rossie!

Champion

A glutton for punishment,I brought Romy out again the following weekend. I hadn’t done much with him during the week to see how he coped with less schooling so I had mainly done some caveletti and lunging on the pessoa with him. Then he threw a shoe so I didn’t get to school before the competition. And it showed. He was tired, I could feel it, which resulted in him getting tight through the back again. We started on Medium 76 and I went in and decided to ride a safe test but not to push Romy too much. He won the section with a PB score of 68.64 and a whopping 9 for his extended trot so I was delighted with him! But I decided to listen to what my horse was telling me and he was quite sweaty after the one test so I made the choice to withdraw from the second test and bring the big clever boy home.

A real life 9!

We went out again the following weekend after upping the training and he had been going much better. Again, drama ensued (not with the horse, of course with the ditsy rider). I was excited about this day. The venue was our nemesis as we had had some sort of drama each time we went there and today was no different. Driving down the road on the way to the yard I realised I had left my show jacket at home. After a quick call to the groom at my yard, Kevin, he found my instructors spare jacket and cycled his little heart down country lanes with the jacket over his shoulder,  the little legs peddling away like something out of the goonies. Now, without going into TOO much detail, lets just say Sandra is about half my size. There was no way I was going to fit into her jacket. Kevin looked at me with a steely stare and said ‘You’re going to have to make it fit Victoria'. So I did.

We got there in plenty of time, the sun was out, I was feeling good, we warmed up, my name was called and I buttoned up the jacket and stood by the entrance of the arena. I took a deep breath to help keep the adrenaline at a steady pace and heard a POP and the top button of the jacked promptly went catapulting through the air. I calmly asked someone to please pick it up for me, slipped it into my pocket and went in to do my test. Romy was super! I really loved how he felt, and actually I would say it was the best he has gone for me and the happiest I have been with a test. I do keep messing up his simple changes at competition though, which is really annoying because they are so super at home. It’s less the canter to walk and more the walk to canter which is the problem. It usually ends up with Romy doing his best Passafino pony impression until he figures out what leg I want him to be on. So I need to figure that one out ahead of  nationals. His second test had less energy in it and Romy starts to bunch up when I ask him to go forward if he is feeling tired so I rode relatively safe again, and other than the simple change mess he did a good job. We ended up in a first overall and 66% in Medium 76 and a second over all and 65% in in Medium 75. He got 8’s for his halt rein back (which he hasn’t been doing for very long) and his medium / extended trots which are his party trick, I just need to keep them steady and rhythmical! Most importantly, the scores meant he qualified for nationals so I will be doing Elementary, Elementary Freestyle and Medium Freestyle at Cavan in two weeks time (TWO WEEKS....AAAGGHHHHH).

Flicky Toe Action

We have a lot of strengthening up to do now because Romy has struggled in the stamina department when he has two tests in a row so we will be doing a lot of gallops work! Plus I need to try get the freestyle floorplans together PRONTO! But heading into nationals with three consecutive wins in our pocket has definitely helped with the confidence levels. WE CAN DO THIS ROMY!!!

Until next time y’all

V&R x