And there's more

Lucinda and Lindo wowed us with their freestyle dressage to music test and came home with a 1st place rosette! Well done you!

Dressage to music

Saddle Club dressage took a slightly different turn last night with a few of us having a go at Novice Freestyle to Music (apart from Miss Diane who showed us how to do a fab Advanced Medium test). Geoffrey pranced around to the music quite nicely and earnt us a very respectable (and unexpected) 2nd place. But the best is to come...(watch this space).

Brian and Claude's first dressage test

So Brian thought he'd give the WSC dressage a go tonight, you know, just have a pootle around and see how it goes.

He only went and flippin' won it!

Well done Brian and Claude!

Park Farm pictures

Pictures from Geoffrey and Maggie's day out.

Stressed out ponies...

She's making me do dressage AGAIN, but it's okay, I've learnt the Amazing New Dressage Test...

Mum, did you learn the test?

The Amazing New Dressage Test

I think Geoffrey's been reading up on this one...

For Horses Unsuitable for BD or Classical!

1. A. Enter at ordinary serpentine.
X. Sprawl. Salute.

2. C. Stop dead. Stare in horror at judge and shy to left.
Continue at ordinary working gallop.

3. E. Stagger left 20 or 15 or 22 meters in diameter circleor pear shape or five pointed star. Avoid excessive crossing of legs.

4. K. Begin to halt.
Z. Keep trying.
F. You can do it.
B. Pull rein. Give up. Continue at out of hand gallop.

5. H. Regain right stirrup.
Continue at ordinary trot, bouncing.

6. MKT Change rein. Free Walk loose reins. Remove horse from judge's luncheon table. Ask judge for leg up.
Jump back into ring.

7. Z. Turn down centre Line.
Halt. Grin. Scratch. Burst into tears.
Leave area at free walk on long reins, loose language.

Theo's big night

Last night Theo and David competed in the Wellington Advanced Medium to music championship. After 3 months of very hard work, they managed to pull a very respectable 65.05% out of the bag, loads of big smiles all round.
There were loads of photos and video taken of the well polished pair that will be making its way onto the blog so everyone can see what a fantastic job Diane did of preparing both Theo and David.

Geoffrey and Maggie's dressage report

We all headed off to Park Farm Show last weekend and had a great day. Geoffrey decided to add his own style to his dressage tests and finished it off really nicely cantering down the centre line to salute the judge (it should have been medium walk - ahem). No fancy ribbons for us but lots of important lessons learned, like don't hold your breath during the test, purple really isn't my colour.

Maggie Mae did a great dressage test narrowly missing out on a 6th place fancy ribbon. There was much jumping involved and a showing class to finish off the day. Important lesson learned here - showing is boring, don't try it kids.

Advanced Medium Dressage - freestyle to music

The qualifier for the Area Festival took place on Monday and Wellie was well represented. Just for those folks over the pond, here's David and Theo's test.

Enjoy!

The show must go on!

Sadly we had to withdraw from our dressage competition this weekend but in true blitz spirit we ran our own version at Wellie with Geoffrey, Lindo and Maggie Mae all taking part, so our hard work and practice didn't go to waste!

Thanks to everyone for making it a special day for us: Caroline (judge), Jane (writer), Ben (steward), Brian (camerman), Schoie (trainer), Sue and Caroline (audience, stewards) and Steve for supplying the Pims afterwards!

Pictures and video of the highlights to follow...