Yep, we scored some of the best marks of our season, and got a PB for our team test to boot! So proud of my Techy Boy and my fab crew!
We traveled down to Rotorua on Friday night, which was a bit of a novelty having such a short trip to a competition - it took us just over an hour to get there. (I'm sure Tech was wondering if there was more traveling to come having had such a quick trip in the float for once hehe!) We raced the fading light to get Tech settled and get the tents up, and working like a well oiled machine, we were soon sat in Camp Thorne waiting for dinner to cook with a glass of wine in hand - great start to the weekend!
Our first test was mid-morning Saturday and I have to say, I was a bit of a nervous wreck! It's the first time we've been to the Rotorua A&P Showgrounds, and I tend to get really nervous riding in a new place or away from home. So add that to my usual competition nerves and my stomach was doing somersaults! But I knew I had to keep a lid on my nerves so I didn't transfer them to Tech (he's so in tune with how I feel and what I'm thinking!). Lucy warmed Tech up beautifully for me and showed him all the sights and sounds around the arena - the speakers, the alpaca in the paddock nextdoor, the tractor towing a trailer full of tourists down the hill and the tourists stood at the fence taking photos of all the riders competing over this side of the fence! He felt great during my quick warm up and soon we were in business riding down the centre line towards the judge. He felt really nice and forward, and I felt quite happy with my test, apart from a couple of my shapes which weren't quite perfect. But I was quite proud of how well (I felt!) we had done in the new environment. It seems the judges saw what I felt too, and we scored 71% for our test which I was really happy with. Go Techy!
On Sunday we rode our team test. Lucy and I decided Tech didn't need quite as much warm up as the day before, because he was really calm and settled, and he's usually a bit 'lazier' the second day of a competition. We wanted to leave some fuel in the tank to keep his activity up during my test, and it seemed like that was a good decision! He certainly felt a lot less forward during our test and I had to work much harder to keep up the pace. However I nailed the accuracy and we got some very nice halts (yay!), and we still managed a 70% so again - I was very pleased with our efforts! All we need to do now is get both accuracy and activity together in the same test now! ;)
We had a fantastic weekend away and I would like to say a huge Thank You to Rotorua Dressage Group for hosting Para classes at their Champs show. It was great to be in amongst it all and the ribbons are gorgeous! Thanks so much to all involved for running an awesome show.
Huge thanks to my fab crew for the weekend too - Lucy, Lani, Sarah and my cousin Dale who is over from the UK. He's only been around horses once before but I think I've given him the horsey bug - we even had him trained to feed his apple cores to Tech instead of throwing them away haha! Thank you guys so much - I couldn't do it without you both at home and away so thanks for being so fabulous!
I've had a little break this week while Lani has been lunging and riding Tech for me, and we have lots of feedback from the judges from both HOY and Rotorua Champs to work on over winter.
We've got a lesson with Manu next month so we'll keep on with our training until the weather and ground force us to take a break - hopefully that won't be for a while as I have lots of plans for your winter training Techy Boy - watch this space!