Claremorris.....Round Two

On Sunday, we hit the road for Claremorris again, this time it was a Dressage Ireland competition. In the run up, we had our usual preparation.

Thursday evening I had my postponed lesson, it less nice weather, but still nice and dry, so no complaints here! CC is getting better and better. The consistent work and the draw reins are helping. I've read up on draw reins a lot recently and I know that they are not very popular and widely known as being used incorrectly. I have to say for me, they are making a huge difference. But I did use them under instruction firstly and have been under instruction ( I keep thinking construction in my head?!) since, so I know that I'm using them correctly and I'm confident that they aren't harsh on him. They're going through the flash band, so I'm not pulling on his mouth with them, and they only come into force if he puts his head up high. I have more of a contact with the reins then the draw reins, leaving them as loose as I can.
We both left our lesson in a sweat and he had a few carrot stretches after - but yet I don't do it for myself?!

On Friday, the boys had the evening off. They came in for food and I groomed Pablo again. I'm at the stage now where I can groom him without tying him up, so he eats away his food and I give him a groom, walk around him, pat him, etc and he's fine with it. I still can't approach him in the field, but he's much improved in such a short time.

Grooming time. Felix is wondering if it's cat food

Rusty taking in the sunshine

Saturday I gave a quick clean up to the stables and managed to find a part of my bulldog lock I'd been missing for ages! Delighted. I soaked my white saddle cloths and mamma mia washed them for me. I was delighted with how the white jods and show shirt came out after soaking over night on Monday.
It was very hot again on Saturday and the flies were a pain, so I hacked out CC and we did some flatwork on route. He's so sensitive that the flies really irritate him and he can't do his flatwork. On the hack there is less tree coverage, so less flies and he was good. He spooked a bit at god knows what, but sure he is an animal and he has a mind of his own. I actually nearly came off at one stage! The road looked rock hard though, so I hung on!! (ignore that part Mammy!)
Both the boys had baths and I gave CC's mane a good shampooing. I rugged them and left them out, because it was the only way they'd stay clean, CC especially.
I put the box on the jeep and loaded it up with tack and what nots that you need. Did a snackage shop that evening, so I threw them in too.

Sunday morning was an early start because I had to plait them up that morning. Well actually only CC, because I knew I'd get time between classes to do Fred. We had a fry to keep us going and said goodbye to Rusty ( he was minus impressed with being left behind). We hit the road after 9 to be there for half 10ish. We made good time and the jeep was just hitting the 'refuel now' as we got to Ballindine. I kept going, mostly because I knew it'd be grand till we got back to Ballindine later, but also to give groom-in-training(GIT) heart palpitations.......
We got there in good time and I went up to get my numbers. I took CC out and gave him a brush and fixed some plaits that had fallen out. I am using the silicone elastics at the moment and I did like them initially, but I have found that the come out a lot easier than the rubber ones and break easier. Ever since Killossery, Fred has managed to get them out every time. You will see in some of the pictures 😢 The only ones I'd recommend are the slightly thicker ones, they come in a clear plastic bag with a brown label, no idea what brand makes them. I have them in the white ones but desperately need them in black. I couldn't find them in the RDS last year. The search continues......
I got CC tacked up and we hit the warm up arena. He was lovely and chilled out. I had a new tactic for him, because I'd been getting it wrong lately. My plan was to just walk him around and maybe trot, but not work him until I knew there were only maybe 3/4 people ahead of us. So when I asked the caller, he said they were running 15mins behind. That was fine and I continued walking around on a long rein, nice and chilled. Then we started to work. We did slow leg yield along the long side and then leg yielding on a 3/4 line. Twice on both reins in walk and then in trot transitioning to canter.  He was a little stressy with the transitions to canter and then in downward transitions to trot, but it was a huge improvement from even a few weeks ago. I was happy with his warm up, he was still relaxed in his walk and trot and he was as good as he was going to be today. Luckily we were good to go as we were actually on our scheduled time. We'd a much better centre line this week and it didn't feel half as crooked. He got tense with canter transition and then the following trot, but overall I was delighted with him. So big pats for him and some carrots. I untacked him and put him in a stable I'd organised for the day. It was nice and cool there and they had a constant supply of water - they drink water like they live in the Sahara!!

Warming up

Relaxed walk

Enter at A

We had a little break and I plaited up Fred. I re-hydrated myself & had a banana ( my absolute must at shows because I can never eat meals). It wasn't long before CC was up again. I'd gone over my test and written it out on the back of an envelope. We had a few more issues with this warm up, but he was fine by the time he went in. This test was in the long arena. The longest centre line in the world (especially if you don't have a halt)!! No major issues again, just some tension, but we are getting there. More big pats and hugs and he was done for the day.

Job done. Time to chill out for awhile

Finito

Back in the stable

Next up Mr. Fred. At this stage it was absolutely roasting. I had to take my jacket off to warm up. I had my schooling whip and spurs on for Fred. He warmed up lovely and I didn't need to use the whip except a bit in walk to get him to really march. We were last up in the prelim class and first up in the novice. Two long arena tests. I used to be afraid of the long arena, but now I like it. It really suits Fred as he is so big and has a big stride, it gives me a lot more time to prepare for transitions. His prelim test was lovely and just felt so easy. He glided along and there were no arguments, he knew his job and we had good communication. I almost forgot one movement, so we'd a late transition to walk on a circle, but still managed it! I think we got an 8 for our final centre line and halt. It felt like a great test, I was delighted with him.
Next up was the novice and had far more difficult movements in it. This test had rein back, extended trot, extended canter, counter canter and half 15m circles. So we practiced some of them outside the arena as the judge finished off our test. We had drawn a crowd now - only joking. Some people were doing judges training and were sitting up near the judge. So that was now a crowd of 6 right beside C where we had to do rein back -eek.

Test 1.

Getting ready for the novice

Check out that step!!

Up the centre line, track left

Add caption

Floating

The judge gave us our bell and it was time to enter the arena for the fourth time. He did another lovely test. There were things that we can work on, but it really is coming together now.
I put him back in the stable as we had a long break till our last test. I went up to the office to see what I could do to help, after re-hydrating again and another banana, some jellies and a double decker ( couldn't bate it with a shtick!!). The ladies in the office were lovey and it was so nice to put faces to the names. I got our results for the prelim. CC scored 60% in both tests!! Wahoo!! And placed in them both!! And Fred won!!! Yippee!! He scored a massive 66%!! They actually didn't need help, so I had a nice sit down in the shade and went over my last test. I was tempted to ask someone to call it out for me, but then stupid me wanted to challenge myself and see if I could remember it. Why do I do it to myself?!!?! GIT was off taking photos of people competing - after a few reminders to reapply the suncream!! I was managing to top up my farmer tan 😆 I went over to see how many people ahead of me. I thought I'd way more time. Eek time to go again.

Our audience

 I tacked up and we went down. There was 1 person in the warm up and 1 in the arena. Soon I was the only one in the warm up. We only managed a canter serpentine on one rein before it was time to go in. But he felt fine and I was happy to get going - before this test fell out of my brain!! Jacket and gloves on again, for the last time thankfully. The judge was delighted to see me as I was the last one of the day! So we entered at A for his 3rd time that day and my 5th! I remember cantering down the long side and saying to Fred 'we got this!!' I had remembered the hard part of the test, it was plain sailing from here on in. We went up that centre line and halted and saluted and big hugs for Fred. Job done!!! Whoop whoop.

Big pats!! 3 tests done

Gloves off. Jacket off.

The long walk back...

More pats

CC looking on in awe 😂

We walked back to the stable, tired and happy. 5 tests, 4 different tests, and I remembered them all!! Definitely a personal best there and I'm proud of me 😁👌
I untacked him and put the stuff back in the jeep. Got out of my boots for the last time and threw on my runners. I went down to the office to get our results and tests. Fred absolutely outdid himself. He won ALL 3 classes!! He got 66% in 1 and 68% in the other 2 ( I think). Great scores. I was on cloud 9!!! Which was great, because I was going to need something to get me home!! There were hugs and kisses for both my boys before they were loaded. I unplaited them there too to give them extra comfort on the way home. Let's just say there were no issues loading as the both practically ran into the box!

Too many for his headcollar!

Time to go home

We stopped in Ballindine for some fuel for the jeep and fuel for us!! Trying some of the local cuisine...
We eventually got home around 7 and I hit a wall about an hour later and crawled into bed before 10 that night. I'm still tired today, but I think that's from the whole busy summer we've had. Fred is on a 2 week holiday now and CC will get a few days off. The white jods are retired until August 20th -wahoo! I have the next two weekends off from competition and then it's back for the Tullamore show in August. I've never been to it and can't wait to see what it's like.We're gonna give the working hunter a go and coloured class seeing as we're there.

His biggest fan

Little wave for Fred too

Thistles are way tastier than grass mam, how could you not know this?!

This September I'll have had Fred 5 years and this is the best form he's ever been in in that time. I think it's safe to say probably the best form of his life ( I know his old owner). It's hard to believe that he has ringbone arthritis in both fronts. I could have retired him when I found out!! But he was too good to not to try to see if we could work around it.
This is the most consistent work we've had put in. We've been doing regular lessons and he's improving and improving - as well as me. When I get up on him to warm up it's just head down, uses his whole body and works all his muscles, I don't have to ask him. It feels amazing.
We've come along way this year with respect to dressage. But as with everything we're still learning. The day you stop learning is the day you give up!
I know I need to work on preparation in my tests, preparation for movements and transitions. But the more tests I do, the better I get at this. We've qualified in the prelim now for Dressage Ireland summer championships and we need one more score in the novice to qualify.
Cannot wait for the next show in Duffy's. There will be a dressage to music class at it. This time we will be far more prepared for it. We have the music, now to make a plan to go with it.

Now to go enjoy some time off and head to the RDS horse show, cannot wait!!


All epic pics courtesy of groom-in-training 😊😀😁