23.09.07 - Affiliated Dressage - Prelim 4 & 10

Rocky did a reasonable first test today, though as usual he switched off as soon as he got into the arena.  Still we did an accurate test and came 4th in our open section with 62.27% (the winner only got 64% so we weren't far behind).  In our second class I managed to get Rocky more forwards and we got 65.00% and won the open section of Prelim 10 which was a great end to our season.

06.09.07 - Affiliated Dressage - Novice 22

Entered late for this competition, after some persuasion from my trainer, so we didn't have high expectations.  Unfortunately, the lowest class was Novice 22, so we entered that, even though in my opinion Rocky's outline isn't good enough for him to be competitive yet in Novice affiliated classes.  Rocky went quite well, though I felt both him and I were capable of much more but we got 56.55% and came 3rd which I was pleased with as I thought it was a fair mark and the judge gave him a nice comment saying he was charming horse who needed to work more rounded and that I needed to work on my position (my hands move too much!).  Overall, we were pleased (particularly as we got a higher marker than one of my trainer's horses!) and we're now looking forward to our next affiliated show where we're going to go back to Prelim and try to get over 60% again in both tests.

02.09.07 - Unaffiliated Showjumping

This weekend we did our first proper showjumping competition in several years (recently we've only jumped in clear round classes as we've been concentrating on our dressage).  In the first class (70-75cms), we got 4faults and so weren't placed at all.  Then in the second class (80cms) we also got 4faults, but as only one person went clear, all the 4faulters had to jump off for 2nd place.  Unfortunately we hit the same fence as in the first round, but were the quickest over the course out of everyone by over 2seconds and so finished fastest of the 4faulters in 4th place.

26.08.07 - Affiliated Dressage - Prelim 16 & 17

Today was our debut in affiliated dressage.  Rocky went absolutely fabulously in both of his prelim classes (16 & 17) and won both of the open sections with our highest ever percentages of 68% and 66.6% respectively.  This has now given us the confidence to try a few more affiliated competitions before I go back to University in October.

25.03.07 - Unaffiliated Dressage - Novice 21 & 24