Glen Oro and Ottawa are behind us and we leave for Bromont in about an hour.
Glen Oro was good. He was a bit spooked in the dressage ring (as usual) and didn’t do as good a dressage as the week before but no big arguments, just spooking and being silly every chance he gets….sigh. He was 8th.
Ottawa much the same. He decided the flowers at the side of the dressage ring were worth a good ‘go’. The non-shying parts of the dressage test are quite beautiful, now and then the whole test is beautiful….. bigger sigh! At the Ottawa horse park they have a STUPID TENT in the middle of the stadium for the judges to sit in. Solo is not the first horse I have had who didn’t like the STUPID TENT!!!! Can you begin to feel the pain? He was so busy looking at the tent he never saw the jump till he had gone past it, this left him in sixth place at the end of the day. At both Glen Oro and Ottawa he did a wonderful clear cross country inside the time and his show jumping is a thing of beauty when there’s nothing to shy at….. so it’s back to dressage, dressage, dressage.
He is not going to enjoy his trip to Quebec today. He doesn’t like shipping on his own. He used to be a bit of a sensitive shipper but now he travels all over the place and eats and drinks on the trailer without any fuss or problem. However, he doesn’t even load that well if he is first on. He likes a buddy, he is not herd bound in any way, but he is happy and relaxed with a buddy, and opinionated and irritable without. It’s certainly not the first competition he has traveled to on his own, and as he climbs the levels, it will not be the last. I don’t think any of the horses are particularly keen on shipping alone.
As a run up to his first FEI event, (he is doing the CCI* at Bromont this week), he has been working harder than usual. With Solo the more you do the happier he is. Days off are not his thing, he would be happy to work twice a day seven days a week and the more he gets to go off the property and ‘do things’ the happier he is. As I have said before, he is a ham and loves an audience. If it ever clicks in with him that the audience wants to see a good dressage test and not how athletic he can be when he shies and spooks, he will be unbeatable. He has been to an event for the last three weekends in a row. Not our usual timetable for our horses but Solo is a law unto himself. He thrives on outings and gets less excited and more rideable when he is competing regularly. He is certainly enjoying the work and the shows and looks well muscled and happy.
“After Bromont” is a grey cloudy area that is as yet unexplored. He needs to do lots more prelim before he is ready to upgrade. He needs to be a LOT more obedient in the dressage to make it worthwhile. As it stands, every show is a surprise. We never know how he is going to be, good, bad, awful….. He is capable of pulling off a fabulous dressage but always blows the sevens and eights by throwing in a handful of fours on the sheet. Selena and I were talking about taking him to a dressage show for practice if it is possible to find one on a weekend we are not already competing. With so many horses to compete, it’s hard to fit in any straight show jumping or dressage outings. He will have a week off whether he wants it or not and then back to work and by then we will have decided on his next party.
I just saw him walk past my window on his way to the trailer, well, he looks the part! Fingers crossed that he decides to settle down and get his act together this week. I will put up some photos shortly, I have been ‘groom’ at the last couple of shows and my duties have not left me time to get the camera out. I will make sure I get some good ones at Bromont.
OK, I am literally going to send this, pack my computer and off we go to Bromont…. YIPPEE!
