It's been another busy couple of months at Team Tech!
Tech had a couple of weeks at bootcamp with Jody at the beginning of October while I was away with the family, and I couldn't wait to get back in the saddle once I was back. Mum, Lucy and I headed over to Raglan to Jody's place and I had the best ride ever! Tech felt amazing and thanks to Jody's hard work with my boy over the two weeks, I rode my first ever shoulder in and travers! Tech felt really forward and much more supple, and I just didn't want to get off hehe! But Mum was being strict with me, knowing that I had another lesson with Jody the next day and also had to drive back to Tauranga after, so I succombed to being sensible for once, and got off after about 20 mins hehe! After a fun night in a cabin at the Raglan campground, we went for coffee in the morning then headed back to Jody's for my next lesson which was another huge success. Thanks so much for all your hard work with my boy while I was away Jody! xx
Next we had a girls trip to Equidays to watch some fab demos and Grand Prix dressage, a little bit of shopping and catching up with my fabulous sponsors which was great. Then we were full steam ahead preparing for Bay of Plenty Champs on Labour weekend. We headed down on the Friday afternoon and got Tech settled and prepared for our first test on Saturday - our freestyle. It's the first time I've ridden my freestyle test first at a show, and with Tech still a bit nervous with speakers, I was a bit wary. Saturday morning rolled around and the rain was pouring down, so we all got very wet! But the show must go on! Tech started out full throttle in the warm up, jig jogging around our warm up box on the end of the leadrope with me on board, and I thought we might be showing the judges how much I can't cope with trot haha! But once we got into the arena and did our quickest halt ever (Tech really didn't want to stand still!), I managed to settle him after our first couple of circles, get back into time with my music and we nailed the changes for the rest of our test yay! Really pleased with our free walk too using our new techniques that Jody installed for us. Couldn't have asked for more really considering the shaky start!
We headed back to the yard (undercover thank goodness!) all very pleased with our efforts in the disgusting weather, settled Tech in then headed to the hot pools to warm up! Sunday thankfully brought bright blue skies and warmth which was much more pleasant to ride in! However I'm not quite sure what happened to our centrelines today - they were the worst I've ever ridden! I was so annoyed with myself after our first centreline, but had to think "ok, forget it - it's just one move - concentrate on the next one!'. Our activity was certainly better in this test but my accuracy let us down and Tech lost his shape a little. But it's all good experience and hopefully something to learn from!
We finished the weekend with smiles and lots more experience under our belts, with lots of feedback to work on to refine and bump up our scores for the rest of the season. Thanks so much to the show organisers, and my fantastic team for looking after Tech and I so wonderfully the whole weekend. Team Tech rocks!! :)
After another week of training at home, we had a lesson with Julie Malcolm which was awesome! I've wanted a lesson with Julie for a while and it was worth the wait :) We worked on my position and how I can use the parts of my body that I can control more effectively. It turns out my hips can actually be quite effective, and Tech and I were riding really small 6m circles with hardly any rein and mostly body and hip action! Go Techy! It made a bit difference to our bend through our circles so we'll be working hard on that to make it the new normal now :) Thanks Julie for a fab afternoon!
Back at home the next week I was pretty glad my cow pony has such wide dimensions! I came very close to falling off one night as Techy half tripped and half spooked at the same time as he leapt sideways. I seriously thought I was hitting the deck, and Mel was on her starting blocks to come catch me, but whether it was on purpose or not, Tech's left hip did a funky flick up and righted me enough to keep me on board! Never a dull moment at Team Tech! I managed to carry on around the arena and into a shoulder in afterwards like nothing happened hehe!! There was a time a year or two ago when I would have fallen off or fallen forward onto Tech's neck, and then wouldn't have been confident to carry on either. Small things like this remind me just how far Tech and I have come with the support of my fab crew and coaches :) Thanks heaps to my fantastic team as always!
We had a top-up delivery of Top Stock Detox and Calmer minerals, Big Reds Stable Snacks and Savvy Touch products in October, and JLT Insurance are on board for another year sponsoring Tech's insurance costs too. Thanks so much to my awesome sponsor team! We couldn't do any of this without your support.
And that brings us up to last weekend - Tauranga Dressage's summer show. Although the weather wasn't particularly summer-like! I was super proud of my cow pony in some very testing conditions - it windy as hell (to the point where I was battling the full force of the wind gusts to stay upright in the saddle!), and a loose horse behind the hedge spooked Tech in the middle of my test giving my crew a heart attack hehe! But we got through unscathed with a 65% and a red ribbon yay! :) Thanks so much to my FANTASTIC crew for all their hard work scrubbing and plaiting Tech, warming up and looking after us both so fabulously. Love you guys!!! And huge thanks to Tauranga Dressage for another fab show day!
That's about it for now. We've got a saddle fitting check from River Oaks Equestrian next week, as well as a Savvy Touch session for Tech so I'm sure he'll be feeling better than ever at the weekend! Roll on summer yahoo!