Summer Dressage

16 June 2024

So I decided to give the dressage a go on a little school horse called Wilma. I had not ridden her before bur decided this would not be a problem. I had been to the centre a few times previously and although I was unable to have regular lessons there I was trying to go every few weeks when they had availability.

Wilma was a sweet coloured and I had entered for the Intro along with the prelim test. We started to warm up and it was pretty clear that Wilma preferred a more conservative approach to life and thought conservation of energy was very important. I managed a couple of short canters in the warm up but just didn’t seem to be able to persuade her to offer any more.

We did the prelim which I was pleased as I felt we had done an accurate test albeit a little steady. I only had a short period of time between the first test and second and with how out of breath I was decided need to conserve as much energy as I could. I was undecided whether to withdraw from the prelim as I could not really manage to get her going very well and knew the canters were going to be a problem. I decided to try and give it my best, the first half of the test was accurate but unfortunately I was unable to achieve the canters required. I tried to persuade her and even backed it up with my whip but she was not having it. At this point I was seriously fatiguing and felt my position was all over in an attempt to get her to go. I decided at that point it was unfair on her expecting her to go when I was now so unbalanced so a few moves from the and I held my hand up and retired.

The judge left me some lovely remarks even on the prelim but I knew had made he right decision to retire. I was just a little cross with myself for not having more energy and better fitness. I did however get a nice 3rd in the intro.