It's been another busy month or so for us in Tauranga! First up - another lesson with Jody to brush up on what we worked on last time. We've been working hard on our homework and pleased to see it's making a difference. Mel and I had a great lesson and took away another lot of homework for the next month to keep progressing. It's feeling really good - thanks so much for all your help and guidance Jody - our SuperCoach! :)
We had the Tauranga Dressage Ribbon Day on the 23rd August which was a really successful day for us. All the hard work is paying off and he felt awesome - I actually think it felt like the best Champs test we've ever ridden and the judge agreed with a 73% score yahoo!! Techy was listening, responsive, active and we had some good halts sprinkled through. Love my cow pony!! :) Thanks heaps to my fab crew for the day for getting Tech clean, warmed up and me on and off - you guys are awesome!!!! It was a great early start to our season - now to keep it going!
Here's our Champs Test:
The following week was pretty special for our family - we became official kiwis! Yep - we've lived in NZ for 11 years now but we were on permanent resident visas - now it's official we have NZ citizenship yay!! Looking forward to getting my black passport yahoo!
The beginning of September brought the inaugural Para Equestrian Festival at Tauranga RDA. It was a great weekend aimed at potential new para riders, giving them all the information they need to start riding as a para equestrian. On the Saturday, some of us local riders were invited to demo-ride. One of the things I was asked to demonstrate was getting on Tech away from home and our big, robust mounting block that's custom made to the size I need. When we're away from home, most of the time I can use the custom setup on the back of my float to get on Tech, using the legs to bring the float ramp up level and my metal step as the extra height on top. But there are times when we can't park the float close enough to the arenas, and in these cases I have to get on using a standard 3-step plastic mounting block. This proves quite difficult, because I can't lift my legs up high enough to get up the steps, and I don't have the strength or balance to lift my body up either once my leg is up on the step. So my crew have to juggle balancing me, lifting my foot up onto each step and pulling me up onto each step to get to the top. Then once I'm balanced on the top step, one person lifts my right leg up and over the saddle while another person supports my upper body so I don't fall backwards off the block, then they have to lift/push me up into the saddle while the person on the other side pulls my leg over and into the stirrup. All the while Tech has to stand stock still while I'm being man-handled and flopping all over the place to get on. It's quite a mission but I'm pleased to say my fab crew have it pretty well worked out between them! Check out the photos for a step by step view of the tricky process!
Once I was safely in the saddle and all strapped in, Tech and I rode our new freestyle for the first time away from home, and I think Tech enjoyed the audience because he went really well hehe! It was great to meet all the new riders and their families, and we're looking forward to seeing them out at our shows this season. It's really exciting being involved in growing our sport and helping new riders come on board - the future of Para Equestrian sport is looking very exciting!
That brings us to this weekend just gone, which saw Team Tech head to Taupo early Saturday morning for the Para Camp. This was a great day full of catch ups, lessons and a pot luck dinner with lots of informative discussion about growing our sport and what's happening this season. I had a fantastic lesson with Jayne Craike on Saturday afternoon - so much so that I didn't want to stop and ended up riding for nearly half an hour oops! Bit naughty of me considering I had a big day on Sunday - the Rotorua Dressage Spring Series Show...
Fast forward to Sunday where we had a big day of firsts... It was my first time riding two tests on one day. We rode our team test in the morning then our freestyle in the afternoon. It's fair to say I was already a wee bit broken after riding for too long the day before, and as soon as I got in the saddle Sunday morning I felt like I usually do at the end of my ride oops! Oh well - suck it up and carry on I told myself! We rode an ok test although it felt a wee bit flat, but I know that's because I was tired so we can fix that. I still wanted to ride my freestyle to try and tame our demon (the last few times we've competed our freestyle test at Taupo we've had huge issues), and even though I was already tired, I thought "we're here, let's just do it!" So we did... Again - a bit flat activity wise but it felt really good riding our new freestyle at a show for the first time. Lots of learnings and best of all - it was the FIRST TIME we got through a musical test at Taupo without any freak outs (yay!!). I can't tell you how pleased I am with that!! My whole crew around the arena let out a big "yay!" when we finished and we were all thinking the same - it was such a great feeling! The feeling in my legs when I got off wasn't quite so great haha!! I've never had them shaking so much after I get off! Lesson learned - I can't do two tests in one day. We tried it, but now we know it doesn't work so that's fine.
Here's our freestyle test from Sunday:
Then after the awful experience of Tech's non-floating for 3 hours last time we were at Taupo, Tech loaded like a dream on Sunday - in fact, it's the FIRST time Techy has actually trotted up the ramp onto the float to go home! Yee haa!!! :)
So all in all it was a fantastic weekend! Thanks so much to everyone who made it possible and put in lots of hard work to make it such a success - Kate, Vicky and Jayne for all your time on Saturday, and Dressage Rotorua for a fab show on Sunday. And thanks sooo much to my fab team for getting me and my cow pony through it all so fantastically. Love you guys! Now bring on the season yahoo!!