Sydney Dressage Inc. - 23rd June 2013
/It really feels like winter at the moment, cold wet grey days. This wet weather has given Flowervale Florenz a great opportunity to overcome his fear of water and those dreaded puddles monsters!!
As we drove off the SIEC very early the skies were grey and ominous, we were hoping that being on early we would be all finished and home before the predicted heavy rains set in.
Considering the amount of rain we have had in the past month the arenas at SIEC rode really well, even though they were wet, they weren't too heavy and slippery.
Flowervale Florenz warmed up really well coping with the rivers that were laying down each side of the warm up arenas.
Our first test was in Arena 2B he had never been up in those arenas so I wasn’t sure what to expect. After a reluctance to enter the big main area around the arenas I was worried we were going to have a repeat of few weeks ago when the puddles were too much and I couldn’t get Flowervale Florenz near the competition arena! This time he was trying really hard to be brave! Bless him. The car horn sounded and in through the gates we went. Woohoo!!!!! I was cheering on the inside. We got through the test with some tension and ducking and weaving of puddles in the corners but he kept on going. There were some really amazing moments where his talent for the future really showed. He is still only a baby at this dressage caper, this was only his 5th ever dressage test. We ended up winning this test with 67.8% I was over the moon with this result. The judge at C really saw his potential giving us 71.5%!!
With the skies growing darker by the minute I was sure the rain wasn’t far away. So as there was a scratching in our second test, I decided to keep the ball rolling and continue straight on with our second test.
We made it into the arena again no problems!! Although this arena had more water around the edges so was really scary. So we managed through the test with mistakes just due to Flowervale Florenz being very inattentive. But hey we were there for puddle practise and I was so proud of him for trying to be brave.
We are now looking forward to a quiet July to work on our higher level work. Then back to competing in August at Hawkesbury Dressage and Sydney Dressage.
See you all out there.
