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.

[re-vised.livejournal.com]

Good luck! I'm hoping we'll get to see some photos! :D

Try drawing the pattern out in the sand, keeping track of what gait/movement you're doing in your head. I found that really helped me learn my dressage tests for some reason.

[puddleshark.livejournal.com]

heh! Do I sense nerves?

Hope it goes well!

[quietann.livejournal.com]

/giggles

I am sensing nerves, too.

In the US, there are a lot of snobby "dressage queens" but there are also a lot of beginners, as well as people who remember what it was like to starting out, on a green horse. They are usually nice :)

[joycemocha.livejournal.com]

Good luck! I use a separate noseband with western snaffle.

The predominance of bosals and bosalitos is probably why you don't see many nosebands on Western tack. Plus horses going in the curb are expected to not need a noseband.

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

To be honest if you're not riding over tough jumps I think the only reason to really have one is aesthetic and I certainly prefer not to see much beyond a caveson, though it's relatively hard to even buy a simple caveson bridle these days because people like to tie their horses' mouths shut.

In my favour I will at least not be doing any of that...

[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...

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

I think I've mostly memorised it now- there is a lot of trotting right around the arena early in the test so it's easy to underestimate where that ends you up. Also in my mental picture I had the whole thing upside down so all the letters were reversed.

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

Kind of slightly, but also just the feeling that we're doing something that we're probably not totally prepared for ( have been working consistently on canter for approximately a week ) and will probably go quite entertainingly.

If Iris keeps her brain in her head and we get around something that looks a little like a dressage test then she'll be a winner in my eyes.

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

It's true enough - I have literally no idea what kind of people will be there. It's a pretty big arena and may bring in a few people as it's one of the few places one can compete during the winter, so who knows how it will work out...

[joycemocha.livejournal.com]

Yeah. The only real purpose I can see for nosebands is to keep from pulling a ring snaffle through the mouth (could have used one with my first Shetland as a kid....). Well, and avoiding opening the mouth for resistance (ergo, cranking it down). I'm not a big fan of attached nosebands, myself. Luckily it's pretty easy to find nosebandless headstalls around here.

My separate cavason noseband is hard to find because it only comes in small, medium and large sizes--you can't adjust it tighter than is needed to fit it over the nose and lips. Perfect.

That said, there are some horses who do seem to go better in various gimmicky nosebands--the biggest one I think of is a roman-nosed Appaloosa who did much better in a grackle-type noseband. But she was a short-necked, fine-coated, wispy-maned athletic tank of a jumping fool of a mare, who much preferred to take a long, strong distance if you weren't right on top of her. Truffi was one of the few horses I've seen who would jump obstacles for fun in turnout. But she was also wound pretty darn tight. Not a beginner ride at all. Too hot.

[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)

[quietann.livejournal.com]

Is it an indoor arena?

We have them all over the place around here (and I am willing to pay extra for a place with an indoor). In warmer parts of the US a lot of people have "Cover-all" arenas, which have a top and partial sides but are more open so a breeze can pass through.

Horses who've never been in one before can get a little spooked. And then there are things like snow sliding off the roof in early spring -- guaranteed to cause spooks! A friend was riding outdoors just next to an indoor a few years ago. Snow slid off the roof and her horse teleported sideways about 15 meters!

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

I think there is a use for some types of noseband ( maybe a grackle? ) to reduce the chance of the horse breaking their jaw if they land face-first from a jump, so they have a place in eventing and on the hunting field, but I don't see any use for them in dressage and reading a big old article about them (http://www.eurodressage.com/equestrian/2012/02/08/noseband-special-part-ii-purpose-noseband) on eurodressage was like an amazing and surprising cavalcade of people with no understanding of why a horse doesn't accept the bit.

[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.

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

It is an indoor, which is relatively rare here. Iris has experience of them, though, so hopefully it won't be too bothersome for her...

[ellie-equus.livejournal.com]

Good luck! Look forward to hearing about it :)

[gnapp.livejournal.com]

I've stood at a competion, watching my competitors ride, wondering why they weren't told they were riding all wrong, and then realized who actually did have it all wrong. :-) Also, I've been told never to wear white gloves unless I really know what I'm doing with my hands; the hands get so much more visible in white, and despite what some people might think, white isn't required (here, at least).

I'm sure you'll do fine. And the advantage of dressage is, unless you're really having a bad day, nothing can really go horribly wrong. As long as you two enjoy yourselves, I Think you have won. (My goal, first time I took Igloo out, was to not jump the dressage fences. This was made easier by it being an indoor arena with three walls, and a fence only at one end. But still! :-)

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

My first ever dressage test with Zorro, we were in a little arena in a village riding club field marked out by bits of white pipe around the outside.

Zorro attacked the pipe.

[re-vised.livejournal.com]

Good! I'm glad you figured it out, because it will ease the jitters!

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

Thank you! After talking it up this far, my main hope is that it isn't too boring...

[re-vised.livejournal.com]

Indoor arenas are rare there? Wow. That kind of blows my mind because they are so popular here.

[flax.livejournal.com]

Yes! I really dislike a lot of Capital D- Dressage People, even though they are theoretically my people, but I've also met some terribly nice ones when I was hanging around at shows volunteering or whatever. They can be really lovely!

[flax.livejournal.com]

Yeah, word! I have literally never been at a barn without one, even if it was small. I can't imagine.

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

You're probably looking at one in somewhere between twenty and thirty here, even though we often have a lot of rain.

I guess the big difference is that we don't have much space, so land is at a massive premium and planning permission to build a massive barn is hard to obtain.

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

I know some pretty nice ones, and I'm not that worried either way really, I am quite entertained by the last-minuteish nature of the endeavour...

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

As far as I can tell white or cream gloves are the rules here on account of British Dressage. Perhaps for exactly that reason.

[puddleshark.livejournal.com]

I used to write sometimes for Prelim dressage judges, and this is the sort of thing that made their day.

[re-vised.livejournal.com]

I've been at a couple barns without one, including right now (and it suuuuucks). Most of them were in southern Virginia, where it was 60* in January and never snowed.

[siberian-angel.livejournal.com]

I don't think it'll be quite a fiasco. ;)
I was a competitive rider for years and I've also done some dressage, but my heart belonged to jumping and cross country...