On Sunday we packed up and headed to our first show of the year at our Riding Clubs usual venue. One of the girls kindly offered to take us in her lorry and Scottie made a very good start to the day by not being dramatic about getting on the lorry. He went on second time (after being asked politely) by just having someone stand behind him with a whip.
It was absolutely freezing at the venue. It felt much colder than home, which was only a few miles away. But despite this, Scottie was very good, albeit quite tense about being out and about again. Once I was on and in the warm up ring he quickly settled and started to do some lovely work. The classes were running about 10 mins late, so Scottie had a rather long warm up. But the first 10 mins was really just walking with the occasional trot on a long rein getting him to settle and relax.
Unfortunately, as soon as we entered the indoor school for our test, Scottie’s indoor insecurities crept back. The judge was still writing the last test so I had a good chance to walk and trot around the arena on both reins and while he didn’t feel settled, he was forward into my hand and letting me guide him around the arena.
The first few movements of our test were lovely, scoring well (6, 6.5,7) and then I think the atmosphere got to Scottie. He really tensed up and I could see ripples in his neck as we picked up our first canter, which felt awful! However, after collapsing out of canter, he settled enough to score an 8 for our medium walk movement across the school!
The rest of our test and our second test followed this same pattern. Moments of niceness followed by a minor breakdown, followed by another nice bit. Unfortunately because Scottie was so tense, even in the nice bits, he was tricky to really push into the corners so we did lose a few silly marks for inaccuracy, which was a shame.
However, this was Scottie’s first time out away from home in about 7 months and he has always had a bit of an issue with indoor schools. So it just shows that we need to get him out to a lot more indoor arenas so he can get over it. The fact that he was also able to score good marks like an 8 mid test between meltdowns is fantastic. He always used to be a horse that once worried would worry for a long time and completely lose the plot. But despite being tense throughout, he was able to let go for moments to do some lovely work.
“Good looking horse who today unfortunately was showing a lot of tension over the back and through the body.”
Prelim 7 Collectives:
Rhythm: 7 (14)
Suppleness: 5.5 (11)
Contact: 5 (10)
Rider’s Position: 7 (14)
Rider’s Results: 6 (12)
Prelim 14 Collectives:
Rhythm: 6.5 (13)
Suppleness: 6 (12)
Contact: 5 (10)
Rider’s Position: 7 (14)
Rider’s Results: 6 (12)
Last Updated on 14/01/2022
