This months long reining test was a huge improvement on last month. Not only was Scottie calmer and a bit more forward, but I think we were more accurate too. After watching the test back a couple of times I was confident we had earned 2-3% higher this month. I hoped this would allow us to creep slightly up the leader board out of last place.
I was over the moon last week when the results came in! Not only had we scored 7% higher this month with a score of 69.4%. We also won the class by nearly a whole1%. There were 6 in the class with all the scores being fairly close. So I was super proud to have won.
The comments from the judge were lovely. My favourite was “such a willing horse that tries hard.” But the comments were really constructive too. I know that straightness and accuracy is where we struggle the most. The judge didn’t just highlight that we needed to work on these areas, but also suggested tweaks to my positioning what could help this.
We’ve had a couple of practices since the feedback and I am feeling a bit happier with my accuracy. So maybe we can find another 1% to hit our first ever 70%! It is the same test again this month, I am really hoping they write a new one soon as while I like being able to compare each month to the same test, it would be nice to have a few new movements to be working on. I have seen a few more companies offering long reining tests now, but I do really like Dressage Riders Online, so I would like to stick with them if I can.
After seeing there was a presentation mark in the collectives last month, I opted for full on mustard matchy matchy this month. This paid off with 2 extra marks! So I will be sticking with the matchy theme I think. But I might shake it up this month. The options are; red, plum and peacock. Any suggestions on which to go with next?
You can watch our test here:
Last Updated on 14/01/2022
