Winning weekend!

What a brilliant weekend. I'd absolutely love to spend every weekend like that. I can dream eh?

I spent all of Friday getting her ready. I had a little ride in the morning just working on getting the right canter lead. She was tired and it was a bit shakey but she was a very good girl. God I love that pony. Anyway, after that I gave her a mini bath to get rid of the stains on her bum and neck. The weather wasn't too bad and the sun even came out at times. It took forever though! Once that was done I began the mammoth task of plaiting her. She was a very good girl and very patient. I wrapped her up in her lycra bodysuit and fleece to keep her clean overnight.

Saturday morning I got an early train to the farm and found her with a poo stain on her bum. I now know it was the rug that put it there, seeing as one appeared in exactly the same place on Sunday morning! Anyway, washed it off, got tacked up and set off with Donna and Pam to Hargate. I'm still quite nervous hacking but little Safmonkey was great. It took about 45mins to get there and it was a great looking yard. Very jealous of all the facilities they have there! All the kids milling about would piss me off though. Anyway had a warm-up and she was going nicely. Wasn't bothered about kids flying around jumping or scary looking WH fences in the warm up arena.

We went in for our walk trot test and she went in very nicely. We actually got a 7 for our trot down the centre line! The rest of the test went nicely. She was dropping down into an outline a lot but not consistantly. I mucked up the half 10m circles and she was falling out through her outside shoulder quite a lot but for her first ever dressage test I was very pleased with her. Her walk needs to be more forward going and obviously get her to work consistantly in an outline but she showed definite promise.

We went in for our prelim test and again she behaved very well. She needed to be more forward going and we need to work on our canter transitions to make sure she doesn't hollow and that she canters as soon as I ask rather than running into it.

I was thrilled with our placings! We came 3rd in both!! The first test was out of 12 and the second out of 6 but I was expecting to come 6th because the other tests I saw looked very good. Our placings mean we've qualified for UK Riders Challenge 2010 regional finals!!! We'll definitely be giving those a go! Hopefully by then (June) she'll be working consistantly in an outline and her canter will have improved. Very happy with her on Saturday!


Sunday morning and I was greeted with another poo stain. She hesitated a bit when loading, not helped by bloody kids being stood around the box saying her name. I told them to move and they didn't. I was hoping she'd spack out and kick them but hey ho, no such luck. I got the box man to poke her in the bum with my lunge whip and she walked straight on. She travelled fine and we got there in good time. She was such a good girl in the lead rein class. The kid rode like a prat and didn't remember to salute at the end so came last. Not arsed, Saf was an angel. My first class was straight after that. We came last at the last show! I was determined to do better this time. It was a different judge which I was a bit miffed about because I wanted to show the other judge she was wrong when she said it'd take her ages to learn to soften. Today's judge was very nice though. There was a bit of drama as we were all cantering round as a spooky horse got scared by something and set another one off, sending it one way and its rider the other. She got her arm tangled in her reins and got dragged a couple of metres. Poor thing. The horse then legged it around the arena a couple of times so we all had to stand and wait while that sorted itself out. She went nicely in out individual show. Struck off on the wrong canter lead once but sorted it out. We came 3rd in that so I was very pleased :) We also got a rosette for being the highest placed member in that class. Yey!!

Next was ridden showing. It was a tough class but she did well and came 5th. Ridden coloured was a very tough class too with some beautiful horses. We got 4th in that one so I was all smiles :) All in all, a very good day. She's so easy to take to places. Not stressful at all. She spent her down time sunbathing by the box!

Brilliant weekend!! Six rosettes to show for all her hard work. She's had a well deserved day off today. Jumping lesson tomorrow :)