Dressage Day – Tales from a Bad Eventer

We had passed the jog and next came 2 days of dressage.

There was a lot of planning put into when to ride, when to warm up, how much to do….

At a regular horse trial you just don’t have that much time on your hands, so this was a new experience.

With 2 days of dressage there was plenty of time ~~to go completely insane~~ to plan.

Dressage being the subjective part of the game…….

you want quiet but expressive, relaxed but responsive, obedient but brilliant. You know, ALL the things!

And then you are trying to balance all these “wants” on top of the fittest horse you’ve ever ridden.

It turned out I had the next to last ride of the day. I checked out the arena the day before & saw that I would be staring directly into the sunset as I entered the ring.

It occurred to me that at least I wouldn’t be jumping anything into the sun. And then I thought, “I sure HOPE we aren’t jumping anything into the sun!” Hopping out of the arena would be one quick ending to our first CCI1*.

So BadEventer, in true BadEventer fashion, started listing priorities:

1. Keep the horse between me & the ground.

2. Keep the furry side up & the metal side down.

3. Stay in the arena.

4. Remember my test.

I decided anything after those 4 was icing.

I found out the fearless leader is not one of “those” people who believe you shouldn’t wear a shadbelly at the 1* level. See Hidden Rules for more on that subject.

So with the OK to break out the tails – I decided I better test it out for the pre-ride.