When one (stable) door closes......

Okay okay okaaaaaaaaaaaayyy...I’m sorry. I’ve been a bad blogger! My last blog was written in early February and Romy was suffering from mud rash...nasty little bugger, that stuff. It eventually cleared up and we headed out to try qualify for the Winter National Championships. We qualified (just about) at medium level with some nice tests and some really not so nice tests. I must admit, there is a specific judge who I know doesn’t like Romy and I. We got an absolutely shocking score of 53.97% at one show. Yes, I admit...I went wrong...twice (numpty). But still, 53.97 seemed incredibly harsh and looking across the entire class, the winner was on 58%. So I’ve etched the judge down as being a particularly tricky judge to impress and if I’m completely honest, I will withdraw from shows if I know that judge will be judging in the future. And I know that seems incredibly unsportsmanlike of me but it’s less to do with the score and more to do with what it does to my confidence as a rider. I KNOW Romy and I are better than that. And I know the other people in that class were better than that too. Does anyone else have judges they try to avoid?

 

Anyway, I digress. Winter Nationals came around in April and I wasn’t feeling overly confident, given Romy’s mudrash which hadn’t totally cleared up. The mudrash had meant he didn’t have the turnout which he so desperately needs. Thankfully we had a walker at the yard so he got the movement but it’s not quite the same as Dr. Green, in my opinion. He had been quite sore on the hooves effected by the mudrash and I’m not sure if it was that or if something else was going on but looking back on my video at nationals he wasn’t totally sound in front. Refreshing, given Romy’s issues have always been behind, but he actually felt good to ride so I’m annoyed at myself for not picking up on it. And guess what...I went wrong. AGAIN! I’ve actually been considering having some sports psychology sessions again to try figure out what the hell is going on in the little Barbie brain of mine during tests. So the first test on the Saturday I felt went quite well although he was tense in some spots. He was quite forward and I enjoyed riding the test. A couple of little blips and lack of concentration (or perhaps TOO much concentration) on my part landed us in third place, which I was delighted for. One judge had us in second place so I went into day 2 feeling confident. Maybe TOO confident. And then went wrong. And Romy wasn't totally sound. And the surface of the arena was AWFUL so I spent the time looking at places to avoid. So we got a measly score of 61.397, however our score from the day before was good enough to end up on an overall placing of fourth in the medium. I was really happy with Romy...his attitude as always was the best. He’s just the nicest horse to be around and it really felt like I was having a weekend away with my bestie (insert heart emoji). 

After that we had some changes in our lives. We found out the lovely yard we were stabled at with Sandra Blake-Farrell (Dollanstown) was for sale and all liveries had to find a new yard. Coincidentally, I was tagged in a post by the owner of my old ride, Woody (horses name...humans name is Amy), who was letting me know that UK trainer and list 1 judge, Mark Ruddock, was opening up a yard with his partner in crime Sean Burgess in Kildare...IRELAND! Yes, a bit more of a drive but after speaking to Mark and Sean and going for a little trip to visit the yard it was a no-brainer. Yes, the journey is long but less than the journey I drove for Woody when I lived in London. The surface is great, the facilities are / will be great and having two trainers plus a list 1 judge live on site has so far been an incredible help. And the yard itself backs on to the Curragh, a gorgeous part of Kildare with rolling hills which has been great for Romy’s fitness. We’re also close to the Equine Aqua Centre so easier to get to the water walker in future.

Very shortly after arriving at the new yard, Brownstown, I decided to give advanced medium a shot. Most people are fond of getting really high scores, some accused of ‘pot hunting’...staying at the same level for as long as they can in order to bag a first place and red rosette. Not me. If I thought I could enter a grand prix tomorrow, I would! Ready to wear tails...HELL YEAH! So probably a little too unprepared, we went into our first ever advanced medium test together. And guess who was judging us? See paragraph 1 above (rolls eyes). So expecting to get in the 50’s I wasn’t too surprised to see our score of 58.5%...but it was better than our last medium test and we didn’t come last so while I was disheartened with the score I wasn’t completely disheartened by the performance. I'd also like to point out that EIGHT riders either withdrew or went HC when they saw judgewhoshallnotbenamed was judging.

Vowing to prepare more, ride the test more, get more lessons ahead of the next competition I decided to try again last weekend. The sun was beaming, I was excited to be out and DELIGHTED that judge ala paragraph 1 was not judging us and rode two advanced medium tests...one not so great and one way better. I was super happy with Romy, as always...he’s my little darling. Any issues we had were because of my poor riding rather than his effort. We got 64.67% in the advanced medium 85, ending up fourth in a class of nine and in the advanced medium 91 we got a score of 64.74% and came second from six. I was over the moon. So much to learn and as a rider I learnt so much that day. I know I, for some reason, don’t ride well in tests but Sean was there to help me warm up and he kept telling me to ride...it was like my body froze and I stopped really riding once I went into the warm up arena and the first test. I don’t know why or what makes my mind go but I need to figure it out...stat! He spoke to me after my first test and put a fire under my arse so I went into the second test and rode like I would at home...willing to make mistakes for the sake of trying to get Romy going correctly. In fact I think that’s it, I’m so scared of making mistakes in a test I kind of sit there and baby Romy around the arena instead of putting my leg on and really riding him.

Romy is still very green in the changes but the scores varied from a 4 because it wasn’t on my aid to a 7 (most of them were 6.5 or 7 so I was happy with that!). So I think I’ll stick at this level now until we are getting comfortably in the high 60’s before donning the tails and galloping head first down the centre line!

We have one qualifying score under our belt and I need another score from a qualifying test before we can start thinking about summer nationals. Romy, as always, tests me at every show and the last show we went to I withdrew from because he just wasn't feeling it. But I just keep reminding myself that it's the nature of the game and they're entitled to off days, just like us. I'm putting less pressure on summer nationals now and will try to just see what happens......pretty tough for a planner like me!

Till next time,

V&R

Our brush with fame (kinda!)

So it’s taken me a while to write this post, partly because it took me that long to come back down to earth and partly because of seasonal festivities and trips to South Africa! Let me take you back to the super exciting message I got from Irish Olympian Judy Reynolds shortly after our lesson, which I wrote about in my last post.


I was chilling at home browsing documentaries (definitely NOT watching videos on the funny noises squirrels make when they sleep) when Judy messaged me to ask if I had been approached by Leinster Dressage. I knew Leinster Dressage had a super secret night of dressage planned so I had the evening in my diary but I wasn’t sure what it was about. The night would involve a dressage masterclass in which Judy would talk spectators through a variety of horse and rider combinations and look at the common mistakes and training methods that they come up against at their particular level. And it turned out one of those rider combinations would be ROMY AND I!!! In front of hundreds of people. So exciting and scary, all in one. But mainly exciting.

 

There would be 5 combinations throughout the evening working on varying levels and as we spruced up the horses back stage, the tractors touched down at JAG Equestrian in Kildare and the spectactors and media (the Irish Field did a piece on the evening) settled down with blankets and hot drinks. Not without it’s drama, the evening started with me getting a flat tyre so I got to the event slightly flustered and thanked the world, once again, for my cool headed horse who helps me keep calm.


First in was Joanne Logue and Cashmir’s Hadena while I warmed up around the outside. I was at a slight disadvantage that night as Judy had only ever taught us once but the other riders were regular students of hers, not least Joanne and the gorgeous ‘Hattie’. Judy spoke about the importance of taking it slowly with a young horse and overall leaving them with an impression that they enjoyed themselves so they are always eager to work. She worked on the basics of teaching them to stop and go and encourage the correct reactions when asked by doing lots of (correct and accurate) transitions throughout the session.

 

 

Romy and I were in next and Judy emphasised the importance of a horse of his age and level learning to take the weight on his hind leg. She worked on getting his hind leg quicker and then we moved into the lateral movements in trot. I don’t think I had ever done so much sitting trot on Romy so I could feel he was starting to get a little grumpy by the end of it and as always I was focussing too much on his attitude rather than be practical so I gave allowances for it and didn’t ride a very clean half pass. When I threw all that out the window and just rode a half pass like I should do, he was perfect. But after so much trot work I was thankful when Judy said ‘lets look at the canter’. We gave Romy lots of breaks throughout the session and Judy rapped my wrists slightly when I used the walk to throw everything away and sit like a baked potato (holding your stomach in for that long is tough work y’all). We finished with the flying changes which Romy, as always, did perfectly one way and took a little more persuading on the other rein but he got it eventually...much to the delight of the crowd! Little clip below.
 

https://www.instagram.com/p/BcQj_mnAkEq/?taken-by=victoriaocarroll

 

 

 

 

Next in was event organiser (how she rode AND organised I’ll never know) Sarah Mellor and her fab horse Hotshot. The mare is really my type so I’m raging I didn’t get to see much of them because I was too busy giving carrots to Romy backstage but I believe they focussed on how to channel tension into something positive by encouraging her to lower her frame and listen to Sarah’s leg by using some leg yielding exercises. They did lots of circle work and finished off the session by looking at the beginnings of the canter pirouettes.


Following Sarah and Holly came Irish Draught gelding Duke and his owner Simone Hessian who were training at Prix St. George level. I always loving seeing non-warmblood types doing dressage and this horse was no exception. The chunky monkey was already established in his collection, however Judy reminded Simone to ride forward too in order to help engage the hind end further. They worked on the tempi changes with an emphasis on short, correct changes which Judy pointed out can be easier for a less expressive horse and so a possible opening for some good marks in a test.

 

 

Kate Dwyer closed the night on her gorgeous Welsh D x Warmblood Grand Prix horse, Snowdon Faberge (Fabio). After competing on the international circuit last year they had taken some time out after Kate had an unfortunate fall on one of her younger horses. So the night eased them back in to the higher level movements, with lots of breaks and breathers in between. Judy mainly looked at the passage and piaffe and reminded Kate to really ride the piaffe to encourage more expression.

 

If you want to read the full article produced by The Irish Field you can click here.

 

 

After the masterclass Christmas came around quickly, followed by a near 3 week holiday for me in South Africa where Romy got lots of field time. Unfortunately this meant he got a nasty bout of mud rash so we haven’t had a chance to do much lately and I am ITCHING to get out. I’m hoping the mudrash will clear up in the next week and we’ll get a chance to compete before the end of February. Qualification dates are running low so I desperately need to try get a few marks under our belt as we hope to compete elementary and medium at winter nationals before moving on to advanced medium for summer nationals.

Christmas Kisses

 

 

Till next time y’all!

A clinic with......Judy Reynolds

As everyone knows, I'm a big fan of training with different trainers. Not only is it great to have another perspective on things, it's fun to do something away from the yard without having the pressures of competition. Having a good understanding of your goals with your core trainer is absolutely vital and I am reminded every week how luck I am to have Sandra Blake-Farrell as my regular trainer. There is always something I take away from every single lesson and having trained with a lot of different trainers across Europe I can say that it isn't always the case so to keep learning from my regular weekly lesson is fantastic. Often with Sandra I will spend quite some time walking around her in circles while she explains something to me and that's when I get the light bulb moments. It's all well and good riding around trying the competition movements but personally I want to really understand the reasoning behind each movement and learn not only the concept but the purpose behind them. To find out more on the objectives of each movement and the general rules of dressage, I found this link really helpful: https://inside.fei.org/sites/default/files/DRE-Rules_2017_GA_approved_clean.pdf

I started really teaching the changes a few weeks ago. Romy had done them before but they hadn't really been focussed on and I hadn't done much with them since buying him. In my first 'changes' lesson with Sandra, she quickly realised that we needed to change up our way of going so rather than collect him into the change, I had to ride forward into a counter canter with my seat, ask for the new bend and then stop asking for counter canter, rather than ask for the new canter lead. Romy is VERY sensitive to my leg behind the girth (and yes, he showed negative to test for both front and hind gut ulcers!) and while sensitivity is a fab thing to have in a dressage horse, my overactive right leg, coupled with Romys overactive sensitivity can result in a few teenage strops from time to time. Romy understands what I'm asking of him now and other than the odd aforementioned strops (usually my fault for asking too much with the new outside leg) he is really starting to get them. HUZZAH AND HALLELUJA!


On the 26th of November last year I was kindly offered a slot to train with the Irish Olympic dressage rider, Judy Reynolds. Judy was really hitting the headlines as she was doing so much for the Irish dressage scene and she and her horse JP were smashing world records for Ireland across the globe. So I was excited to train with her. And of course, sods law, Romy started to get poorly. I had to pull out of that lesson so when I was offered another lesson with Judy this November and Romy was feeling great, it seemed somewhat fitting to see in the anniversary of his injury with a lesson from an Olympian! The lesson was at her family home in Kildare and the weather couldn't have been better. Blue skies and a crispness to the air, perfect weather for horse riding if you ask me.

I decided to ride without a stick and in a snaffle for the lesson and I didn't miss the stick once so I'm not going to carry one in future. I'll always bring one to my training sessions just in case but Romy really doesn't need any added aids at this stage, which I'm thankful for. Romy has been going really nicely in the Micklem bridle lately, which was good as we have just ordered new double bridle bits and they haven't yet arrived so don't have much choice!

After warming up and going through all of Romy's history, current training plan and areas to work on, Judy asked us to pick up trot and watched Romys way of going. The main thing I took from the entire lesson was the first thing she said to us and reminded me of throughout the lesson 'make him quicker behind'. Quicker, but not faster. Romy is a good learner and is always looking for the next challenge so he was willing to try this new quickness....I on the other hand was puffing after a while. After a little break she looked at the canter and did some canter trot canter transitions, something I had been working on with Sandra. I think I mentioned before that Romy often thinks passage when I half halt so Judy wanted to maintain the quickness into the walk. If I half halted and Romy started to slow down and think passage, I would ride him forward out of it and keep doing that until he kept the quickness and activity into the downward transition.

We then went to look at some shoulder in in trot. I had worked on the shoulder in with Sandra the day before so I was confident enough riding them and was happy when Judy seemed content with both reins. Her main comment in that movement was for me to be aware of the flexion at the poll rather than angle at the neck, which Sandra had also spoken to me about. I really do find shoulder ins quite tough if I'm honest....I think they're my nemesis!

On to the half passes in trot, Romy had no issues with the half pass right but in the half pass left I almost forgot who I was riding and rode it as I would ride a typical half pass, asking the horse to bend around my inside leg and controlling the quarters with the outside leg (cue aforementioned teenage strop in the form of a buck into canter and 'I REFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUSE TO TROT YOU WITCH HOOMAN'. Romythemostsensitivehorseintheworld doesn't like me reminding him, particularly with my right leg, so I have always had to ride his half pass left with more shoulder steering than leg control. Judy reminded me that he has to allow me to put his leg on him so that's something I will have to work with a little more at home.

We then went on to the canter and Judy asked me to ride the flying change as I would at home......right...this is the moment Victoria, what were you told....ride forward with your seat, check. Counter canter, check. New bend, check. Don't ask for the counter canter anymore.....he did it! He did come a little croup high which meant I couldn't feel if it was clean or not (it was) but for our first attempt Judy was complimentary. Yay! The other way (left to right) was slightly more....exhuberant shall we say so Judy got us to change the canter a bit. She wanted him to be quicker behind, and when I asked for that I felt like I was sitting on a bouncy ball, it was a great feeling! We did a few changes either way in a straight line 5 meters in from the wall and Romy did a super job so we left it there.

I was a little nervous to see how Romy coped the day after the lesson as I had two training sessions one with Sandra on the Saturday and the other with Judy on the Sunday but I stretched his legs on the Monday and he felt super! His hindquarters are looking stronger and his coat has definitely changed for the better since putting him on Baileys Racehorse mix and spirulina.

I feel like I have a good training plan in place now and hope to continue with my lessons every Saturday with Sandra and also train with Judy when she's back over. I think so many riders feel a certain loyalty to a trainer, which I understand, but I think like every service you need to shop around until you find the product that's right for you and your horse. Good trainers are hard to come by and I feel like this is a pretty good team I've got going on now. I don't want to jinx things but I'm feeling excited again about Romy's future! *touches all the wood around her in the hope that her horses legs don't fall off*

Until next time
V & R x

Dressage Nationals 2017 - The Result

Well, we made it down the centre line and I’m proud to say WE CAME FOURTH!!! The sun was shining on the day that we were travelling to the Dressage Nationals at Cavan International Equestrian Centre and Romy loaded like a pro. I had the music blaring, a smile on my face and other than a slight hairy moment involving a ditch we made it safe and sound up to the venue in plenty of time to do an arena walk. The arena walk was...colourful, shall we say. A usually chilled out Romy found the atmosphere a bit much and decided to show off some illegal (and some downright never seen before) moves. It did mean we had a lot of space around us as other competitors side stepped out of our way with a look of sheer panic on their faces. I put the nerves down to the fact that Romy hadn’t been anywhere quite like it before so tried not to let it effect my confidence too much. Plus, bonus, we got away without the destruction of the arena markers, flower pots or innocent bystanders. After his little...ahem...incident, I gave Romy his evening feed, wrapped him up in his pj’s and settled him in for the night. A glass of red wine settled me in for the night.

 

Weeeeeee!

The alarm went off at 05.30 the following morning and I was at the yard, like an excited Duracell bunny, ready for the arena walk at 06.30. He went around the arena like it was something he does every morning. Aattta boy Romy...not a bother to you. I warmed up in the collecting ring, in hind sight I should have gone up to the big warm up arena instead as the space was tight and I didn’t get to ride Romy forward much, which meant he decided to think passage when I half halted (note for the future, half halt with your seat...wally). But I was feeling pretty confident when the time came for us to go in. I was announced as an international rider which made me fluff up my chest feathers and Romy (Furst Romanoff) was announced as Dutch..he’s German. We were both happy to run with our new found aliases (yes, I did just Google search that to make sure it was actually a word). I was focussing so much on Romy (particularly trying to ensure he stayed rhythmical and DIDN'T show the judges his illegal passage moves, by rising in my trot rather than sitting) that I only went and did a 20 meter circle where there should have been a 10 meter circle...again...wally. But Romy did a nice test, I rode it pretty safely to say the least, and we ended up on a very respectable 5^th place out of 40 riders in my class and only 2% behind first place. Had we not gone wrong we definitely would have moved up a place but we live and learn. We had another elementary test the following day, both scores would be added up to give our final score so I knew I had to take a few more risks the next day.

 

Side Steppin'

 

Saturday came and I was feeling really excited about this test. I knew Romy could cope with the really quite spooky atmosphere now and any initial nerves had subsided. I decided to get out his fancy schmancy show rug and give him a really long warm up in the top arena. It was a windy day...I’m sure another one of the many storms that seem to have come our way lately. Romy got a bit of Storm Whatsisface up his bum and decided that he was going to have another go of those illegal moves, ala day 1 arena walk. And when he had a bit of a side step away from a very scary bush, the aforementioned show rug flapped against his side and poor Romy got an awful fright. We nearly went up a wall, with the focus being on the word 'NEARLY'. We didn’t. I stayed on. And I must say, it gave Romy a LOT of extra power and bounce. If that’s what we have to do from now on to get that lovely feeling then I will be hiring minions to stand in bushes in the warm up and jump out with a BOO from time to time. He felt lovely. And when we went down that centre line I couldn’t get the smile off my face. Some negative tension did creep into a few movements unfortunately, his walk got a little joggy, he broke in one of the simple changes and his halt, for which he ALWAYS gets 8’s, was akin to an impression of a passafino pony...his little legs couldn’t stay still. I managed a salute with a smile on my face and was just so over the moon with him, it didn’t really matter to me what we got. Given the marking is tough at nationals, we ended up on a super score of 67.031 and finished overall in 4^th place in the class, ending up on 4^th place overall in the elementary category 2 championship. Anyone wanting to watch our second test (elementary 59), see below;

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUjOJjjSDrg

 

Collecting our prize from Mark Ruddock

 

Sunday was the day of the freestyles. I was riding in the medium freestyle and the class was incredibly hot as they don’t separate the freestyle classes into categories so I was against a lot of professionals. I was excited about my music though so it was the test I was most looking forward to. And Sunday afternoon was the elementary freestyle...the class that I had originally thought we would have the best chance at doing well. I don’t know how to say this but, well, I did a Vikki. I mean, what type of blog would it be if there wasn’t SOME drama in it, right?

Game Face

 

I went to bed on Saturday night, high as a kite from our placing (which would have been third if I hadn’t gone the wrong way...grrr...wally). I set my alarm to be ready for the arena walk and would then go straight into the warm up, with the test on at 08.10. Easy enough task;

 

1.     Get charged phone: Check

2.     Set phone for the correct time: Check

3.     Set time for the correct day: Che….oh, wait….the correct DAY…oh no….FAIL

 

So. After all my preparing and sleepless nights and new white errtang and printed emergency numbers and first aid boxes, I only went and set my alarm for the wrong day. Expecting to wake up at 05.30 on Saturday, I jolted out of bed at 07.15 on Sunday. I’m actually still in shock about it, I never sleep in. I won’t go into too much detail about HOW I got to the yard (it may or may not have involved some driving-by-knees action) I pulled poor Romy out of his bed and gave him a very quick 15 minute warm up. He needs at least 15-20 minutes of walk alone so Romy went into the arena without warmth in his muscles and I went into the arena without mascara on my face. Neither of us were pretty. But Romy looked after me and did what I asked of him, just not in the most elegant fashion. I couldn’t ask him to do what he wasn’t ready for so didn’t collect him too much, meaning he was wide behind and on the forehand and I expected to come out with a 62/63%. I got 64%, didn’t come last and beat some professionals. But I felt awful that I had put Romy through it so swore to myself I would be uber prepared for our test later that day.

 

My Heart

 

I’d like to say the ele freestyle went smoothly, and the warm up did, and the pony went well but the rider forgot her floorplan, omitted two required movements and when the music finished we were mid leg yield out to M. It could have been SO good. And it wasn’t, all because...well...I’m a wally. Even without two movements (marked on each rein) we ended up on 62% so it could have been a LOT better. He deserved a better score. And everyone that was in that class we had beaten in the Elementary Category 2 championships, bar two combinations who we hadn't competed against.

 

AAAAAnnnd Breathe

I gave myself a hard time, I deserved it because I let my amazing horse down, and I’ve learnt for the next nationals. Even if I’m not nervous it doesn’t mean that I shouldn’t concentrate on the task in hand! For our first nationals, I never dreamed to come away with fourth place in such a huge class and most importantly my horse was happy and acted like a pro  (I’ve chosen to throw the memory involving the initial arena walk into the bad memories vault, along with the memories of my boyfriend from university and the purple lipstick I used to wear, aged 13).

 

So, what now? Unlike most horses, who would get a bit of a break after big competition, Romy has to keep on working to ensure his lumbar region remains strong. So I’m starting to teach him flying changes, so far so good...perhaps not the cleanest behind but it’s very early days and I know he can do clean changes because he likes to throw them in throughout tests sometimes...clever boy. So it’s just matching up what I’m asking him to do with what he can do. I’m hoping to get some training with Pammy Hutton in November and word on the street Matt Frost is going to be clinic'ing nearby in October so all of that, plus my regular training with Sandra Blake-Farrell will have us flying (changes) in no time! A little clip of the second day of working on changes is below from my Instagram feed;
 

https://instagram.com/p/BZ1UsObAXUA/

 

The dressage Ireland AGM is coming up at the end of this month so I’m going in with the main objective of requesting that they reconsider the rule around HC tests. Currently you can only ride HC at a level LOWER than the level the horse is competing at, which doesn’t make any sense to me. I would love to see what judges think of Romy’s changes before actually getting points on his record. And the moment we ride (non HC) advanced medium we are automatically pushed in to category 3 (similar to Gold in the UK) which would mean I would be competing against a lot of professionals...no fair.

 

Till next time,

Victoria and Romy x

The Final Countdown!

Last minute preparations for nationals have well and truly begun. We head up to Cavan International Equestrian centre next Thursday and I’m proud to say we will be riding two elementary tests in category 2 (the scores are added together to give your final score), the elementary freestyle class and the medium freestyle class. By ‘last minute preparations’, I mean that I actually timed my music for one of my freestyle tests (yes, yes, I realise I should have done this months ago, not the week before nationals) and figured out that there was only 1 minute assigned to the trot work, 3 to the canter work and the whole thing was over 5 minutes, when it needs to be under 5 minutes. So in true Victoria unorganised fashion I had a panicky couple of days trying to be DJ, cutting and mixing my music and redoing my floorplan. I ordered some additional white goods to ensure we aren’t the grubbiest person at the party by the time I’ve done my fourth test and have upped Romy’s training levels and amended his feed to allow for this.

I went test training last week with Alison Mastin-Moore and found it really helpful. She made me really think about my accuracy, which I used to be pretty good at but I think I’ve concentrated so much on how Romy is going I’m almost throwing away half marks by not really thinking about each movement and what is needed in it. She worked a little on how Romy was going by encouraging lots of transitions and then I rode the test, Alison scored it and then we went through it at the end. Romy got 8’s for both of his halts and another 8 for his rein-back. Embarrassingly I went wrong (learn your test ahead of Nationals Victoria) and I rode a very sloppy medium walk (which looked like an extended walk rather than a medium walk). Alison encouraged me to really think about my corners, to prepare the transitions, and to really think forward with Romy because if I hold him back he gets tight in the back which can result in issues with regularity. We ended up on just under 67% which I was happy with, because without the niggly bits we could have broken the 70% barrier.

I have one more lesson with Sandra on Saturday so I will go through both my freestyle tests with her. I need to be careful not to try throw in tricky movements to get higher technical marks and focus more on Romy being correct, supple and forward. I’m pretty sure I will go from number one Phil Collins fan to never wanting to hear his music again but riding to music always makes me smile so for our first nationals I really want to focus on having a fun weekend and keeping Romy happy and sane.

I’m lucky that there are many friends at my yard who have also qualified so hopefully we can all give each other a helping hand and fingers crossed I get some video footage of our tests. The countdown is well and truly on....wish us luck!

V & R x

 

Rough Times
 

 

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