Millie's turn to shine and Monty Update

I rode Archie and Millie in the Prelim class at the Affiliated dressage for more practise. Ben should have done a test as well and went beautifully the day before, but unfortunately aggrivated a tiny sore on his mouth so I decided it was not worth making it any worse so he got of lightly. Archie first warmed up calmly while everything was nice and quiet. In the arena he produced a similar test to the week before when he won apart from two bad mistakes breaking in the walk and getting the wrong canter lead which were both caused by complete lack of concentration when he became mesmerised by a new horse in the warm up!

Millie on the other hand came out rather argumentative, but with plenty of energy which was very welcome. I decided to really ride every movement and she felt great throughout the trot work with much improved stride length and rhythm; being able to carry a whip makes a huge difference for her. She did lose a bit of her engagement in the canter work which she does find harder, but I was generally pleased. Sorry, nobody was around to take her photo this time.

I wasn't really sure which horse would get the better score, but Millie came out on top coming 2nd with 64%. Acheiving straight 7's for her trot work and 6's for everything else I was very pleased as the judge has marked quite harshly. Archie was understandably punished for his mistakes and scored just over 60% with the judge also commentating that he did occassionally come to low in his frame which is an ongoing battle with him. I text Fiona who was at work and she was ectastic that Millie had managed a rossette and prize money at her first attempt at affiliated and she told me it left her smiling all day!

Monty the ex-racehorse has now been here 3 weeks for his re-training and is being a star. He has settled down really well and is now not bothered working with horses in the arena next to him. He has fantastic potential on the flat but does like to lean on the left rein and slip out through his shoulder so I have spent a lot of time teaching him to turn his shoulders from my outside leg. Jumping wise we have been doing a lot of work over poles and from trot, progressing to a grid with 3 fences on a one stride distance. He has proved to be totally unfazed by fillers and is quickly learning to work out how to just pop the fence rather than launch at it with a huge leap! Photo's below courtesy of Dee, Monty's owner who was a little unsure with my camera!