Check out this Sway! "Mumaathel Race horse to Riding horse"

Check out this Sway! "Mumaathel Race horse to Riding horse"

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Check out this Sway! "Routine For a Healthier Tummy"

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Check out this Sway! "Imperial Coffee: The Journey so far"

Mumaathel's lesson and show debrief

Very good training day and show debrief yesterday

From the second review of the competition videos I watched me closely and I noticed I was slipping to the side and our overall horse/rider straightness wasn’t the best it could be at times.

Alfie has been compensating a bit lately but now his saddle has been adjusted he does feel much easier to tweak.

With the saddle adjusted I can sit a lot taller, just wish I could control my position at competitions those horrid habits keep creeping back in.

Training session was the other way round compared to show day he was a bit ploddy and croup high to warm up and then he sprang into action and starting running off. 

Once settled we used the session to readdress our straightness and how as I rider I should be able to feel every footfall.

Once we had ‘togetherness’ we moved onto the ¾ lines and starting asking for a bit more trot before half halting to rebalance the turns at each end. Soon we were executing the bigger trot all the way round with balance on the curves and straightness on the long sides.

The improvement at the end of the session did give me pause for thought on the tests the day before and although I preferred the second test as a ride I can now see where he was falling short on the marks.

I need to go into next weekend’s test thinking forward, thinking confidence, thinking tall, thinking horse’s shoulders positioned not quarters corrected. Novice test here we come we can do this!!!!!!!

One thing my trainer did notice from the ground was with the saddle adjusted she thinks the girth is touching too close when the foreleg comes back, so more shopping for a lovely rolled girth sleeve is needed, so we can make the sensitive boy is comfy, so no excuses.

(look at the concentration face planning the corner)

Feel versus scores always a good debate

Today we ventured off to a venue that we have competed at with the RC but today was our first BD there.

OMG the talent was frustrating fantastic but also in a good way something to aspire to

Having competed at our first ever BD regional in the summer we were not put off by the posh pony warm ups. I just kept remembering that somehow we pulled off a decent 12^th place in our Regional section, despite rider going a bit wonky and horse disliking the ornamental trees (but that’s another blog)

Today first test scores came out 68.75 uhmm I thought that’s ok we are staying with Mr consistent. Normal judge comments, we fidgeted the end halt and needed more FW stretch. But I had come out the test thinking he had run away with me a bit. I felt I was struggling to stay calm and relaxed in my own body so he wouldn’t yak against me.

Popped back into the warm up to try and get a deeper stretchy trot and canter to set us back up for the second test with more togetherness.

I came out the second test really pleased with our start middle and end, thought I had maintained my relaxation. Hindsight I probably reined it in too much in the second test and should have just kicked on for the same activity I had in the first test. Alfie can go into tight necked race horse mode if I ask for too much but also at the other end of the scale it can be a fine between under control and being boring. The scores went up, yes a different judge, a different perspective, but, oh dear here comes deflated me with my 64.04%. Where had all my 6.5 and 7s gone?

How did I not feel the quarters swinging down the first CL and certainly didn’t feel like we were on the forehand in his second canter. Couldn’t see either on the video play back, but that was being taken on angle at the arena corner so a different view from what the judge was seeing.  We all know that a Judge at C and a Judge at H and a Judge at E can all have different views of the same move.

My advice. Always look at the bigger picture. No rosette this weekend but I have been on a good roll lately with scores staying reasonably consistent with not too many bloomers.

I am a competitive Amateur that for one reason or the other has let her core and general position get sloppy. Having a super dressage horse in the making has made me realize I need to buck up and step up. I can’t ride him like an Amateur I have to believe I can ride him like a pro and the results will start to shine through.

Confidence is a marvelous thing but when you lose it it’s a bitch to get back !!!

I am very competitive but have learnt not to take the knocks so personally.

I have always used a spreadsheet to track and look back at my horse’s feed/behaviour/work load. Having had tricky horses this has been an absolute must. To be able to look back and see what we did a month/a year ago was an invaluable tool I was able to track trends, see the bigger picture and resolve issues.

I decided to do this for my competitions this year logging results and comments so that I can look back. It has helped me see how far we have come in a short time together.

Confidence is starting to return. Which means I can sit her looking at all the positives from today instead of lingering on the bits that didn’t quite go to plan. 

Saddles and Hoovers

Q: What do you do when you take a day off work?

A: Spend the morning with the Saddler and if you have sycamore trees you spend the afternoon with a leaf blower

I have been very unlucky to see EAM up close and it’s not nice to see your precious boy in so much pain, so sad and helpless stuck on the floor unable to move. Even if they recover the muscle damage is horrendous.

I managed to get most of the leaves blown out the paddock today but with the rain the helicopters are sticking to the mud so that’s back to picking them up by hand tomorrow.

Last year I couldn’t keep on top of two paddocks. One was small so we didn’t use it. The other one had the worst section roped off under the trees.

We have cut a lot of the branches down this summer and so far it has helped to keep on top of the bad areas.

The paddock they are in gets a few helicopters that need collecting so all eyes are open everyone from now on. I am hoping the top paddock with the trees has enough grass cover for me to swap over paddocks next month.

The boys are out 24/7 at the moment but as soon as they go into the top paddock they will come in at night to make sure they have a break from that ground and get plenty of hay

Alfie has been giving me tell-tale signs his saddles needed realigning but we haven’t had him that long and we are still getting used to him. His walk was finally beginning to cover the ground but lately it has turned into a tight almost jig jog from the free into med. I noticed I wasn’t maintaining a good enough seat in the canter and looking at recent videos of my tests I realised I was starting to perch again.

The dressage saddle was lifted from mid to front and looks 100% better on him sitting straight and level once again. Even just sitting in the saddle for a quick trot round the field was enough of a test to know how much that was needed.

Fingers crossed no twitching of the neck tomorrow and a lovely ground covering walk in both tests

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