Dales do the double

I've been buddying up with Eric (aka Akehurst Strongbow, my Dales relative who lives down the road) to do a lot of circle practice. On Thursday last week we went to Breach Lane Equestrian Centre to give Eric a sneak preview of where we were going to be competing. I like the fact I'm only 5 1/2 years old but I've been showing Eric, whose 13 years old, the ropes on how to travel and do circle work. We had a fun practice on Thursday, made even better by being allowed to loose all my tack afterwards and have a roll in the arena.  After a good old scratch I surprised everybody watching (except Mum) with my exuberance and energy showing off how high I could do handstands and generally run around and have some fun. Alison, Trish and Jo who were watching knew I had done a gruelling showjumping and cross country lesson late the Wednesday afternoon and were surprised after an hours circle practice that I still had the energy to charge around. Ladies I'm one fit Dales pony, which I think sometimes Mum regrets (but really she wouldn't have me any other way). 

Eric however showed his age and when he was allowed a roll and playtime, he just stood there asking when was it time to go home!

With practice time over Mum got up early on Sunday to make me look like a girl, honestly I have never been so embarrassed in my life, just have a look at what she did to my tail!

Though I have to say I did get a lot of admiring glances when my tail was unveiled at the competition, so maybe it wasn't so bad. I think Mum and I cut quite the picture, looking very professional. 

Mind you Eric and Jo looked very smart too, pictures to follow - Mums off travelling with work at the moment so I don't have access to the video camera that has all the pictures of Eric on. 

Mind you I'm not too sure I'm happy about Mum sharing her attention with Eric and Jo. After we had been unloaded she just walked off and left me tied to the trailer.  Seriously she just disappeared with Eric and Jo, ok she did give me some hay, but she's not supposed to leave ME!  I was very cross.  In fact I got so cross she had left me I started jumping up and down, that didn't bring her back. So in the end as last resort I brought out the old faithful double barrel shotguns and kicked the next door trailer several times, I managed a waist high dent. OMG that was a mistake, how to loose all your brownie points in one go. Mum was mortally embarrassed when she did finally turn up, the man who was standing next to the trailer was NOT happy either!  I was untied, dragged around to the other side of the trailer, where I was no longer within kicking distance of anything and then promptly left again, with Mum muttering that I needed to learn to stand still and it's not all about me. Really, what a way to treat your pony, I thought I was your world Mum?  More rearing and digging did nothing to bring her back, I could see her watching from the far side of the car park.  She was stood strategically so she could watch me from a distance and still watch Eric and Jo. In the end I gave up. 

Eric did a great job in his first walk trot dressage test with Jo and brought home a fabulous green 4th rosette. With two hours to kill Mum decided she couldn't stand the stress of having me tied to the trailer for that long, so tacked me up and we all (including Benji dog, Eric and Jo) went for a gentle hack for an hour along the quiet lanes, boring. 

Finally it was my time to strut my stuff.  I have no idea why but Mum was feeling a bit stressed, I mean what's a few dents in someone elses trailer, which made me a little anxious, so I can't say we did our best test ever. This is us just before we went in.....

Prelim 12 was OK I put in a flying change to make sure we ended up on the correct canter lead and we scraped together a score of 66.4% which was good enough for 2nd. My classes had been combined so I was competing against myself with the Prelim 14, having helped Mum out with the flying change before I thought I had better leave her in control for this test.  Big mistake, I did a fabulous counter canter, evidently worthy of any Elementary Dressage Test  (yes you guessed it on what should have been a right canter lead) all around the school and Mum didn't correct me at all, has she not learnt anything, must I do everything for her. Needless to say with two 2's on our score sheet we didn't get placed. 

I have to say I was pleased to get home and see Zippy, who was also pleased to see me because it meant we could both go out and have some grass. I now have got two days chilling out with Aunty Katy while Mum goes to see Sarah's skinny cob (aka coloured Arab) and then onto some boring meetings. Need to work out how to win back some brownie points, I hope Mum comes back in a better mood!