Dressage Debut for the Diva!

Although it didn't quite go to plan!!

Despite my (out of character!) planning and preperation, having everything polished, plaited and packed ready for prompt departure at exactly the planned time, I managed to forget my girth! And whilst Mally is a good girl, I didn't think bareback dressage was a good plan for her first competition!

So a call was made to the ever suffering other half, who arrived in a cloud of dust and burning rubber 20 minutes later! However by this point I was running late, so despatched the Chaffeur and Groom (long-suffering Parents!) to let the steward know I was on my way. They returned to inform me I had been given the wrong time and was due in the ring at that very second!

Luckily after much running around from the lovely steward, they managed to squeeze me in at the original time I was given, so Mally's first outing was back on track!

She warmed up rather quietly after falling asleep waiting for the girth to be delievered, but wasn't fazed by the other horses, the spooky warm up or anything else any other horse would have found daunting! She soon started to wake up and had a few bucks and leaps in protest at not being allowed to canter like the grown up ponies!

When our time arrived, I suddenly realised I was asking a baby pony to leave the sunny warm up ring full of ponies, to go into a dark, empty barn full of potentially horse eating white board, flowers, white markers and mirrors, not to mention the terrifying judges sat behind a table at C...

Mally being Mally, she did it without a second's pause, had a bit of a look about, admired herself in the mirror and settled down to doing a bit of work!

She did a nice test, with the only issues stemming from her age and lack of experience. She works better when I allow her to stretch, but fearing an explosion I rode with the handbrake on, so we had lots of unsettled in the contact moments.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCHHVYx53dM&feature=feedu


All in all I was chuffed with her, not only in the test, but her attitude throughout, she stood quietly on and off the trailer, didn't bat an eyelid about anything and loaded like a dream!
So it was the icing on the cake when I collected my sheet and discovered she had come 3rd out of 5 with 67%!!!!!!!!!!!!