Our first show of the season, the Tauranga Dressage Ribbon Day, went pretty well. Tech was quite 'lazy' though so our activity marks weren't the best, but we were calm and accurate and I was pleased with the comments from the judges, with some great feedback to work on as always. I didn't think too much about him being so lethargic and hard to get forward and active until we arrived back at the paddock.We put him into his paddock and went to make his feed up, and in that short time he'd led down and was pretty much fast asleep! Very unlike him... he picked up when he heard us heading towards the paddock with his feed bucket but took a sniff of it and walked off into the corner for another snooze not really interested. This in itself isn't too unusual for Tech, as he isn't a particularly 'piggy' eater and often doesn't eat all of his feed or has a munch on some grass before coming back to his bucket, so I tried not to worry too much. But the next day he was the same and even refused his favourite treats - Big Red's Stable Snacks - which was pretty major for him so I called the vet out. They took bloods and were quite happy that it wasn't colic (thank goodness!) and we just had to keep an eye on him until blood results were back. It turns out Tech had a minor virus/infection but they couldn't pinpoint exactly what, so Mum and I kept a close eye on him and I gave him some time off until he was back to his usual self again. This is one of the reasons why I love my cow pony so much - even though (in hindsight!) he was obviously not feeling great at the show, he still put in as much effort as he could, looked after me during my ride and was very obliging. Bless him! Sorry I didn't realise you were sick Techy!

So after a bit of a break we picked up our training again and got ready for our lesson with Manu in October. I really look forward to our lessons (really wish I could afford a few more when Manu is here each trip!) and this one was no exception. My friend (and owner of the awesome clothing company Ridir Clothing) Porscha came to ride Tech for the first part of our lesson for me, and Tech gave her a bit of a workout to say the least! He was very tense and could see something in the distance that he wasn't happy with, so gave Porscha and Manu a very good 'scared, spooky Tech' show with some sideways jumps and some jig jogging thrown into the mix. Porscha did an awesome job of settling him down so he was manageable for me, and into the saddle I went. It wasn't our best work, but I managed to get some good bend work out of him and also worked on straightening up our leg yielding. He did however throw in a few 'emergency stops' when he caught sight of the 'scary monster' he was so worried about, which threw me forward and gave my abs (and Mum & Porscha!) a workout getting me back up into the sitting position again! (Cue my Savvy Touch Cooling Gel again to soothe my aching abs and my sunburn too as it was a scorching hot day!) I was reallly pleased with our progress though so came away with big smiles again. Thanks heaps Manu! :)

The following weekend was very exciting - we were demo riding with Manu for the Saturday Para Dressage demonstration at Equidays! It was such an amazing experience riding in that kind of atmosphere and with everything else going on around us. I was pretty nervous as Tech was a bit worried about the speaker announcements that kept coming on throughout our ride, but Lucy had done an awesome job in her demo with him yesterday and in the arena familiarisation that morning,  so he was slowly getting used to everything going on around us. We rode in the big sand arena just outside the main pavillion, and I had my trusty crew with me keeping me safe 'just in case' - thanks heaps Lucy and Thea! We worked on and demonstrated a lot of the work we did in my lesson the previous week, and we even managed to get two really good leg yields in front of the crowd - SOOO proud of my cow pony! (And I had a huge smile on my face while we were doing it too!) You can watch some snippets of our ride in between the interview with Nicola and Jo on Destination Central:

It was the most fantastic experience and even though it rained for most of our ride and we all got soaked, I absolutely loved it and was on an adrenaline high for the next few days! Thanks heaps to my amazing crew, Para Equestrian and to Manu for the awesome weekend!

The next week was spent frantically washing and drying all of mine and Tech's gear ready for our next big show - the Bay of Plenty Dressage Champs the following weekend.We headed off early on the Saturday morning and my first test was Saturday afternoon. I was a bit stiff from driving down that morning but I forgot about that as soon as I sat in the saddle and my mind was on the job of riding well. We were riding in the sand arena and didn't have time for an arena familiarisation so it was a first for me to be riding in an arena Tech had never been in before. But I need not have worried as Tech was a little star and we scored 67.5% which I was very pleased with! He felt relaxed, quite forward and was listening to me every step of the way. We were both so focused on the job at hand that neither of us noticed the horse next to us having a bit of a freak out at the music and speakers in the arena next to them - I only noticed it when I watched the video back afterwards! Here's a video of our test:

So it was a great start to the weekend! We followed up with a 66.7% for our Championship Test on the Saturday, and a 66.8% for our Freestyle Test on Sunday which I was really pleased with considering Tech was still very wary of the speakers and I didn't feel confident to let Becky to unclip the leadrope until the judge rang the bell for me to go into the arena! Lots of learning for us again and a big confidence boost for me to be able to cope with (and have control of!) Tech with his big walk and 'rocket pants' on! Thanks heaps to my fab crew for the weekend - Becky and Paige - and to everyone who came and spotted for me during my tests too - couldn't do it without you all!

The last couple of weeks have been spent working on everything we learned in those busy three weeks so we can hopefully put it all into practice at our next show this weekend - the Tauranga Dressage Ribbon Day on Sunday. Then we head to Taupo the following weekend for the North Island Championships - a busy time for us but very exciting!

I also want to take this opportunity to thank JLT Insurance for coming on board for another year and taking care of Tech's insurance. It's so great to know that Tech's insurance needs are in very safe hands!

All I need now is for this crazy windy/rainy weather to give us a break so we can get some final practice in and get Tech clean and presentable for the show this weekend. As much as I love Tech to bits - I really hate his white (aka green most of the time!) knees and hocks!!