What an amazing day! :db:

Took Dino out to the dressage clinic today we certainly achieved all we set out to. He’s not been in a different arena since we bought him, seen dressage boards once at home and never seen mirrors so the main aim for today was to have a nice relaxed time and we certainly managed that! The format was three people to a group, short group lesson over aspects of the test that might be tricky (it was intro B so nothing very complex) and then a mini-competition between all three of us. Rosettes to third place and score sheets of course! All very chilled.

I decided to plait his mane as I needed the practice. Didn’t do a great job but if you’ve a physics sort of a mind if I told you how fast I was plaiting you could work out how often he stretched down to take a bit of his hay! *Almost* looks intentional:

He was a bit on his toes and had a good look at stuff when we got in the arena at first, but chilled really quickly. Bit too chilled actually, by the time we got to the test he was half-dead! The thing he was most terrified of was the rosette at the end :rofl: He had a bit of a meltdown about having a flapping thing on his face! There is video – I’m nagging terribly (again) as he just felt so behind the leg but actually he doesn’t look as bad as he felt. I wasn’t nervous though, at all once we got going. And I didn’t forget the test!

Video is here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/silkyraven/17190461025/ [it really was that windy!]

We got 64.8% which I think is a bit generous but it was good fun and now I know that he’ll have a look at stuff but not get het up I think we’ll keep the warm up short when we’re out proper and try to make sure he doesn’t run out of steam. Hopefully we’ll be back cantering soon so we can improve his overall fitness.

But anyway, we got a scoresheet and came 2nd out of the three!

This is a lovely photo :wub:

He looks like a proper dressage horse!! :wub: :wub: :wub: :wub:

I put him straight out in the field when we got home. He waited for the treat he always gets when turned out, but instead of nagging me for more whilst I’m tying up his head collar off he was straight down the field to his mates!! I was going to bring him in an hour later but my friend Sally took pity on his and said he should have more chill time and offered to bring him in for me later so got a nice amount of chill time in the end.

Our next adventure will most likely be the yard dressage competition which the yard manager reminded me is usually the last week or so in May. She’s waiting to hear from the judge when she’s available, but that will be a full dress competition, just at home. And then we’re out to the ‘real thing’ on 6 June at Patchett’s! 😮 I’m actually secretly quite looking forward to it :whistle:

What a glorious day!! :db:

Super happy with the baby pony today, he made a fantastic safety pony on a hack out with Claire on her daughter’s horse Jester. Jester is a special snowflake and easily upset by Things and has a habit of spinning or running backwards. He’s also the better part of 16.2HH, all legs with an obscenely long stride! So we pottered off after him, Dino striding out really well and got to catch up with him every so often as he tried to come running past us backwards as something in the road had spooked him. Poor wee lamb. We set Dino off in front in the end and he was brilliant! Stonking trot up the hill, really powering through, head down, stretching across his back. Really hope that’s a sign he’s feeling better! :db: But then he waited quietly for traffic whilst Jester had a melt-down, went striding past a generator and a water pump that was clearing some water from a blocked drain and was all round brilliant ‘safe hack’ for the morning :wub: He spent quite a lot of time staring in confusion at the things Jester was getting het up about, like ‘but that’s doesn’t eat ponies?’ and developing a good instinct for taking over the lead without being asked when we got unexpected Jester-bum to the face. :laugh:

More good things today: the yard owner has agreed that, assuming a test turn out goes well, Dino can go out with the ‘riding school ponies’ (I use the term loosely, there’s like 3 of them) overnight in one of the small fields in the summer. This is a huge relief. He can’t go out in the big field for any substantial length of time; there’s too much grass and we can’t risk lami with him but the school field has been grazed on and off over the winter, and is about a tenth of a size so there is grass, but not too much. He’s going out them during the day next Monday as a test to see if they all get on but he’s so laid back that should be fine. So relived we have a solution that gets him out overnight. :db:

So, this weekend is our clinic & compete! We can still do this as it’s intro so walk & trot only anyway. I’m sort of looking forward to it – I’m keen to see how Dino is in a completely new arena. They have mirrors and stuff he’s never met before and my good friend Claire is taking us so she’ll hopefully we able to video the test part.

Biting the bullet big time though….I think I’m taking Dino out for his first proper competition on Saturday 6th June 😮 😮 😮 It’s unaffiliated dressage at Patchett’s which is a big yard nearby where they do unaff dressage every month. I went with Claudia when she was competing the other week so see how it all worked and it didn’t look too terrifying. So. Yeah. I think we’re doing it. 😮 😮 Intro will be the first class of the day so at least it will be over quickly!!!

Had a lesson on Dino last night and he felt ok, a bit more forward but nowhere near where he was. I think we’re steadily improving though.

Well. That was a more eventful hack than planned…

David came out again today.He thinks there is improvement but Dino still isn’t right. He’s still holding his left pelvis high but it’s a lot freer than last week. Verdict is one month of only walk and trot, mostly to the right (so as we have been doing!), no lateral work just basic turns and circles but hacking is great to just get him moving. He’ll check him again in a month unless it starts getting worse instead of better. Overall improvement is good though. 🙂

Hooray! Let’s go for a hack then! We have a nice walk and trot round the bridlepath and quiet roads and then I get all adventurous and think ‘why don’t we do the short loop up onto the main road and back down the quiet lane?’.The lane is closed at the bottom at the moment so there’s no through traffic but we can still back to the yard. This means there’s a sign at the top of the road that says ‘Road Closed Ahead’. Turns out in Finchley, if you are driving behind a horse and rider who are signalling to turn left into a side road and the horse suddenly leaps to the right, into the middle of the road because temporary road signs eat horses don’t you know, the correct thing to do is overtake the horse. On the left. This was a bit of a surprise to everyone really and did not lead to me expressing my opinion on the matter in a calm and collected manner. :-X

We did get down the lane after the car had passed, and then down the lane there was a man on a roof doing a Thing that made Noise and after we managed to get past that (I had to ask to man to stop making the noise!) Dino decided he was DONE WITH THIS NOW and proceeded to trot home ignoring all attempts to get him to walk. Nope, clearly too dangerous out here thanks Mother, we’re going home. Right now. 😮

In better news though, the lump on his jaw is now small enough we can get a noseband on! Not sure we’ll leave it all the time as there’s no reason to but I was musing about dressage tests where technically one is required. Rode him out in it today and it didn’t bother him (although perhaps not a fair test given how eventful the ride was!)

He looks weird with a noseband. We’ve not been able to do that in years! :wub: :db:

Lovely day today! We’re still not quite right. I took some video for David (osteopath) on Monday (which you can see here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/silkyraven/17052745892/). I hate it as Dino was very very sluggish and as soon as his impulsion drops I go back to kicking my heels back and nagging 🙁 BUT David thinks his hips are moving more freely and don’t appear ‘frozen’ on the left side as it was last week. Not sure if the sluggish is about the hips hurting a bit or having spent four days doing nothing but right rein circles in the school, could be either frankly!

So David will be out again Saturday to try and free him up some more. Meanwhile we have permission to add some light hacking up the bridlepath to our right rein circles so as it’s such a gorgeous morning today we had a bit of a potter about in our new boots! 😀

M has finished fitting his Renegades now :db:

He strode out beautifully along the path! Might have been relief not be in the school as much as anything else, but I do think he felt more comfortable in his feet so there’s clearly some slight amount of soreness there too.

Such a lovely day :wub:

So Dino has a sore lower spine & sacroiliac joint 🙁 David’s first words when I walked him out for him was ‘blimey, he’s a bit wonky isn’t he?’. Not really what you want to hear…!

We’re to do some very specific work in walk and trot with him; right rein circles and serpentines until Monday and then get in touch with David to see where to do depending on how he is, but likely no cantering, poles, jumping or lateral work for a while whilst we try and straighten him out. Poor baby. Wasn’t very keen on the loosening work on his spine today. When David was pulling his tail to loosen off the spine he was kept turning his head round and nuzzling him like ‘oi! stop that!’ and then stood staring at me with pleading eyes to make it stop. He was moving better when it was done though, hopefully gentle work over the weekend will start him back on the right path!

Poor chap.