No idea what to expect, and was very pleased that apart from getting a little strong in the trot (gets strong into the contact and stiffens through his back) he was exceptionally well behaved warming up for dressage. Unfortunately all his schooling went out the window, but that was to be expected with all that was going on. At home he has become very consistent in the contact, lovely and soft, and his transitions improving all the time.
However, he didnt seem at all concerned about the dressage arena, didnt really spook at the piping, although didnt want to go tooo close.
He did everything asked. It was a little confusing for him to be asked for a canter transition in the corner and it didnt happen until we had commenced our 20m circle when he clicked and went, "oh now I know what you want".
Obviously not too great a score, but very pleased with his behaviour, and to know that next time in an arena I can really 'ride' him, rather than sitting tentatively and 'babying' him.
Test L1 = 54.2%
Comments:
Shows some nice movements when allowed to move forward freely.
Tries hard but lack harmony
Onto the SHOW JUMPING...
Cute wee course, with enough fillers to make it interesting for him. He barely looked at the fillers and jumped a lovely wee round with just one rail when we got it completely wrong. Started off trotting round, but when he cantered I just allowed him to keep going, and he got better and better as we went around.
Again, his behaviour was exceptional for an off the tracker.
I feel that he now has a solid base and we can start carefully asking for more height.
CROSS COUNTRY
Again very well behaved warming up...of course got a little strong into the contact, but lots for a young lad to cope with and he was super.
I was really excited to see how he went, and it was a super little course with plenty of variety, although FAR too short. In actual fact he finished without even having sweated under the saddle - in spite of my large weight on him.
Was of course very looky and distracted by the people, trees, things etc...but was super over the jumps. He did get one stop, but only because he was spooking around a barrel immediately in front of the second jump and ended up side on to the jump...I felt I would rather re approach and let him see what he was doing and he happily popped over it.
He was VERY slow to get his feet wet in the water, but after that happily cantered around, popping over the jumps, although mud patches brought about a sudden braking! ... he also felt that the white wall was a bit scary to be cantering into, but never even backed off when trotting.
And flew the last jump beautifully.
Am hoping to take him out at pre training in a couple of weeks, and see how he copes.
