Dressage to me is like magical voodoo.
One moment I can think I am on the right track and believe that things are going well and then less than 5 minutes later one little score can totally knock the confidence you had been building in your own judgement and skill.
Last Sunday I took D for another dressage outing (his 2nd competition in the BD affiliated section) 2x prelim tests again, but this time in his new nifty dressage saddle! This was the first time he had gone from stable to lorry under the cover of early morning darkness and I wasn’t sure how hyped up he would be as a result of zero morning turnout, but thankfully he was relaxed and calm from yard to venue – Big thumbs up for competition horse attitude 🙂
He warmed in nicely and after the grand total of approx 2hrs in his new saddle I felt almost 100% comfortable and balanced in it. We went in to do our first test and once we had halted and saluted he got major pats and praise because it had felt to me like his most forward, attentive and supple test to date. Super pleased with him I went back out into the warm up to prepare for his second test.
His second test wasn’t quite as good because we were sabotaged in the F-A corner by a deadly rubbish bin! Unfortunately that particular test seemed to include a lot of movements starting and finishing in that very corner and as a result I estimate we lost approx 5-7 marks for spooking! The judge’s final comment even said ‘shame about the bin’ 🙂 Still, despite ‘bin-gate’ he managed 63% which gained us 3rd place! Very pleased as this is an improvement on last time at BD where he got 2x 4ths.
So….here is the magical voodoo bit…. his first test…. the better test imho he scored 59%! He hasn’t had a mark in the 50’s since his early dressage outings, in fact his last 5 scores have all been in the 60’s and having felt that to be the better test I was very baffled with the result. When the sheet arrived it was almost all 6’s with repeated comments that the judge felt he wasn’t forwards enough, and strangest of all was the note ‘muddled halt’. He did such a perfect soft square transition to halt that it was one of the first comments I made to my mum when I exited the arena?!
I guess with any sporting performance that is judged on personal opinion you are exposed to the possibility that the judge on the day may score your performance with a much higher or lower mark than the average. Opinion varies after all. I think it should be turned into a positive though, and I am more determined than ever now to improve his scores even further so that he is consistently hitting high 60’s with the ultimate aim to break the 70% barrier this winter! Game on!