February 12, 2024
Sophie and I made an appearance at a local schooling dressage show yesterday. We've been doing a lot of solid flatwork practice at home, and I have been feeling really great about how it has all been coming along. It was nice to have the opportunity to put that practice into performance!
Our trip took us over to Bascule farm in Maryland, and their lovely facility boasts two sizable indoor arenas; one for warm-up, and one for show. It was extra convenient to have a roof over our heads the whole time especially since the rain was scattering on and off all day.
Soph was pretty tense as soon as we stepped into the warm up, and I spent a fair amount of time at the walk trying to get us both to relax. For those of you that have seen us at a competition, you know that we often get into fights as soon as we head down the first centerline. Sophie gets tense, I get tense, and then it's just a battle for power. I have been trying to reframe my flatwork to focus on her relaxation and acceptance of the bit in a more natural way instead of us warring over who is in charge. Our walk warm up consists of mini transitions within the walk, some lateral work, and a lot of turns on the haunches and forehand. Sophie carries her tension in her neck and her shoulders, so I try to break up her body as much as I can from the start as well as work on lifting her back. She was feeling better as we got going, and after some time at the trot and canter, thinking about those same concepts, I felt like we were in a good enough place to enter the ring.
As soon as we approached the second indoor, I had pre-warm up Sophie under my seat again. All of the work we had just done seemed to have blown out the window, and we promptly marched up that centerline headed into battle. Our first test, First Level test 1, finished on a score of 62.96. Translating to about a 37 for dressage in eventing, that's actually not too bad for us. I think the judge here was being quite nice, but I also try to make sure our geometry and accuracy is on point especially if I know we will be docked points for suppleness and confidence. There were some highlights: the judge thought Sophie had a 'good quality walk', and that Sophie and I are a 'great partnership'. She spoke to us after the test and mentioned how we need to work on improving suppleness and balance, and that she really liked Sophie (me too!!).
We exited that arena to head back to the warm up, and Jacqui, the head trainer at our new home, immediately called me out on looking down and using my outside rein to pat Sophie during our canter circle to the right - specifically the moment when Sophie's left shoulder blasted towards the wall making the second half of our circle a questionable shape. She was absolutely right - I gave away that aid when I went to pet her. And I have a historically bad habit of looking down. I can hear all my past trainers shouting 'chin up!!!!' at me as I type this.
Jacqui then helped me out in my warm up for our second test, acting as the nudge who calls out all my bad habits as they happen. It was wildly helpful. We again spent a fair amount of time at the walk, and focused on just keeping Sophie's wiggly little body moving forward into my hand and staying straight. Jacqui also helped me focus on getting her to be a little longer in her neck to help fight the tension. We went into the second test feeling more prepared.
Our second test, First Level test 2, finished on a score of 66.82. This is actually pretty good for us! We still had moments of intensity, but having someone remind me of my bad habits in the warm up was incredibly helpful. Some highlights included the judge upgrading us from a 'great partnership' to a 'wonderful pair', and our first leg yield grabbing a 7.5. My favorite moment was our stretch trot, simply because where we got to in the stretch was, as Jacqui stated, the trot we need to have as our working trot. As you can see in the screen grab below, she looks like a completely different horse!!!
We came home with a first and a third place ribbon, and great feedback from both Jacqui and the judge to work on. I am so proud of how far we've come as a duo, and hopefully it only goes up from here with our flatwork!
I have a few weekends of personal activities ahead, so I think our next outing might be some cross country schooling once we head into March... :)
Thank you to everyone who has subscribed / messaged me / read my posts so far!! I really appreciate any and all support <3
K
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