The sporting life

[glenatron]

Tomorrow evening will be the first dressage competition for Team Iris. I'm pretty confident it will go well, given all the things we have in our favour:

• I have had to borrow a bridle because I always take the nosebands off mine because they look silly with western gear and then I lose them.
• Turns out the bridle I have borrowed is actually black, with a brown noseband. Black bridle with a brown noseband and reins to go with a black saddle is a look, right?
• The saddle is old and treeless and well past its best but it at least falls within the rules, pretty much.
• I don't own a stock tie or white gloves, so we're about to go out to buy some.
• My black long boots are the cheapest possible rubber ones.
• Until Saturday I thought it was a different test, so I haven't had much time to memorise it. I think I've got a handle on it though.
• The only problem with my memorisation is that I keep ending up at the wrong end of the school by the end of the test and I can't quite work out why I am there. Other than that it's going fine.
• Our corners in canter aren't very good, but mostly we can now make a transition on the right rein without a buck.

Fortunately dressage is a notoriously open and friendly sport, so I'm sure it will be fine and nobody will be judging us for our dire apparel or terrible performance.

Current forecast: Hilarious fiasco.

Comments

[makoiyi.livejournal.com]

I am sure you two will do just fine *G*. It's experience after all. I expect Sari to take lots of wonderful photos.

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

Precisely! Where we are now, I don't feel at all bad about not doing well because we're not really ready for it. If I left it a year so we were properly ready I would feel much worse if we didn't do well, so this is just giving us a heads up. Also if we do horribly badly it will mean we have a low bar to try and improve on next time...

[joycemocha.livejournal.com]

Plus you need to get exposure and experience on her in a low-key situation. Make showing fun and all that. Mocha likes showing because I've done my best to make it a pleasant and interesting experience for her--so she thinks it's all about interesting stuff going on around her that she can look at (but she is one of those horses who likes to observe everything going on around her). I would just consider this to be schooling, not competition. It's good experience for a horse even if you're not pointing them to a show career--gets them used to lots of other horses doing weird stuff, lots of new sights and sounds, gives you a huge opportunity for teaching how to deal with new situations in a calm manner.

(But then I'm all about indulging equine curiosity at these things)

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

Exactly - I know we can handle life in a big arena with other horses charging about because that was what we did riding with Martin, but I don't know how we will handle this arena. Iris is pretty nosy too, I've started to realise that if she is allowed to look at things while we go past, she very rarely offers any other reaction.