Dressage preparation pays off

So what have I been up to this month, well I finally managed to take Tom Tom out to compete in the novice 27 at Ilex farm!  It has been a while since we have been able to compete but all the hard work and training finally paid off and he was amazing. Firstly, Tom Tom is super chilled out and he takes competitions in his stride, but as soon as he put one hoof off the lorry his big ears lit up like there was no tomorrow! The sun was shining and the atmosphere was calm and collected meaning that we could both properly focus on the test. We had only practiced the test a handful of times, but each time we continued to improve! My name was called and the test begun, Tom was cool as a cucumber and even though he decided to throw in a fancy flying change across the diagonal (personally I think that deserved a bonus point), we managed to come first in our section and second highest overall individual! I was over the mood and we still have so much to give, but to be fair the test it’s self wasn’t a huge ask for Tom but what it did do is help improve our accuracy during a dressage test.

Tom Tom has continued to improve in his dressage and is proving to be quite the dressage diva! We have spent a lot of time with our dressage trainer Sonia Baines this summer; he has just undergone dressage boot camp for 5 days so has come back very much competition ready, now we are just finding which competition will be next! A lot of our training has been based on improving Toms uphill paces and working on an advanced outside, really practicing to push him through his paces and pick his entire body up. Even though Tom is using immense amounts of energy he is still having a bag of his Fulmart feeds haylage everyday along with the conditioning cubes and it really does help to make a difference, Tom is never fizzy from the haylage, he always has enough energy to keep going though!

Next we are aiming to start doing some affiliated dressage as this is our main focus for the next couple of months and also to begin competing in BYRDS. Toms dressage is good but we still have a lot to work towards and when hopefully my next blog will be as positive in results as this one has!    

Angel