She's learning so fast I can hardly keep up with her. This weekend really showed me how much Rose has adopted the "calm" mindset. I've been working so hard to create a calm, happy, low-pressure environment for her every time I work with her that it's caught on. I saw the wonderful results at this past weekend!
Rose was able to handle herself. She could understand when she had to pay attention and when she could doze off. She's realized now that she doesn't have to be on alert whenever a human is around, waiting for them to ask her to do something. It was really nice to see her acting like an old pro - making friends with her temporary neighbours, standing calmly while I braided her mane, making no big deal about any of the new things she experienced during the weekend. She basically acted like she has been an event horse for years instead of months.
As usual, the first phase was dressage on Friday. Rose and I didn't ride until 3pm because we were a low level (Pre-Entry) and there were quite a few horses in this event.
As I said above, calmness was our main goal. And it worked out so well! Rose has a long way to go in the dressage department, but this test shows what a calm horse vs. a nervous/clueless horse (see the video from our last dressage test) looks like - even though she hasn't actually improved in skill a lot since the last event.
We've taken two lessons with Derek Huget, and they've made a huge difference! I think what really helped is when he told me to ride like I'm doing a dressage test all the time. This is because a lot of riders always say that the movements come up so fast in a dressage test. So I've been changing direction and turning and transitioning a lot more so that Rose and I are thinking on our toes and are ready for any movement when it comes up in a test. He also taught me a lot about inside bend in our two lessons so far, and it's helped a lot with steadying Rose in my hand. Anyways, here's our nice, calm, fluent dressage test that earned us a 4th place!
She still rocked though! Seeing as she had never seen the cross country course at Campbell Valley, she did really well! She jumped everything, and she even went through the murky water jump after a bit of coaxing. That moment on course when she saw the water, put on the brakes, but then kept going when I asked, was a very big moment for me. It meant that she trusted my decision over her instinct - trusting me completely that what I was asking of her wouldn't harm her in any way. She walked through the water jump and I was glowing!
We finished the course 12 seconds too slow, but I don't regret the way we rode it. Taking the extra time meant making sure Rose was calm and ready for the obstacles in front of her. She completed the course confident with herself and her newfound abilities. Good girl!
Note: I didn't talk very much to Rose in this video as I was sick and my stomach was in pain throughout this ride. I was pretty focused on that.
I kept saying, "she just needs to wake up" to my mum when she would ask how Rose was feeling.
But then. We got to the stadium course, and boy did she wake up. I'm pretty sure this was because it was right beside the cross country course that Rose had experienced the day before. So that's what she thought she would be doing again when she entered the arena. In this video, you can see Rose's crazy side. Glad to know she had one.
It was a wonderful weekend and solidified in my mind that Rose is ready to move up to Entry level (2'9") at our next event, Island 22 Horse Trials at the end of August!