Dressage Dreams For Lucy

Hello there!

My name is Lucy and I feel incredibly lucky to be writing for this fantastic blog. Countryside and Equestrian – what more does a girl need?!

I am a converted show jumper who is now training towards big Dressage Dreams with my fantastic trainer, Chelsea. I own one horse, Golden Fitz, more affectionately known as ”Fuzz”. He is a 17hh, Chestnut Thoroughbred with more character and attitude than a room full of teenage girls. I’ve been riding him for three years, however, he has been in my family for 5 years now.

So, April was a roller coaster for us to say the least! As with anything in the equine world, rises and falls are part of daily life.

Fluctuating between cloud nine and rock bottom is completely normal when you ride and own horses and this month has not deviated from that description at all.

We began the month with our regular training sessions. As Fuzz was a racehorse he is naturally quite a ”downhill” horse and we’ve always struggled with him getting to deep when working. Chelsea and I set about trying to ‘lift’ his body and encourage him to become more upright and work on the vertical which would in turn improve our straightness. I felt the pressure slightly as we were due to be filming our E-Dressage (online Dressage) tests by the end of the month and I wanted ours to be a good one, naturally!

I have also been training another of my rides, PolarSkye or ‘Kali’ for short. He is a 16.1hh, Polish Warmblood Gelding who is, quite honestly, the opposite of Fuzz. He is a very upright chap with a much, much shorter stride. He has been a tricky ride for me to take on as he is not even close to anything I am used to, however, I would never turn down an opportunity and he’s a really lovely horse who has already taught me a lot!

When test riding came around I have to admit I was rather nervous! Even though I just had to ride through them at home I regarded this as my first ”proper” Dressage competition. The boys certainly did not disappoint! The results came in and there were numerous squeals of excitement as Fuzz pulled a suprising third with Kali pulling a respectable 6th. I was enormously proud of both boys as they  have both had their fair share of problems (that’s a story for another day!).

So although we haven’t been busting all the moves this month, we’ve certainly learnt a lot about keeping a level head when it’s needed. Channeling nervous energy into focus is one of the most important attributes of a competition rider. Not allowing pressure, stress and the outside world creep in when you ride down that center line. I’m hoping this is something that I will improve on as I ride more tests and become more confident in myself and my four legged friends!

Until next month!

Lucy x