Baby Boomer Dreams - Dandy's Story - Dressage The Ride

Part 1

Did I practice those 20 meter circles before I went into the ring. Heck no, Tom said not to worry. Just ride a circle, you'll be fine. Through my brain ran the following debate "A circle........any circle, I'm a perfectionist here. They called for a 20 meter circle and that's what I'm supposed to ride so that is what I want to ride. Not just any old circle, it's supposed to be 20 meters. How am I going to figure out how big a 20 meter circle is before I head into the ring? " Over and over in my head it played. I was plagued by that 20 meter circle, haunted even.

Did I learn it before I went into the ring? Absolutely not! Tom couldn't be bothered with it and I sure couldn't do it without his help. It never dawned on me that maybe looking around I might see others working on 20 meter circles and frankly I don't know if they were. I was too busy focused on me and more horse to have a clue what was happening around me.

They called me up to be on deck and I still had no clue about those stinking 20 meter circles. To say I was a wreck as I went into the arena would be a gross understatement. I had made half a dozen trips to the bathroom. Had washed my armpits at least twice and put cold towels on my face. I was never so unprepared for anything in my life. Even my first child I felt better equipped to handle than this darn dressage test and I didn't know how to fold a diaper when I had that first kid!

Despite my lack of confidence, Dandy and I rode into the arena anyway. Stopping just outside the entry through the rails, we waited for Tom to begin reading the test. His voice boomed out "working trot to X" and we were off. Dandy moved off easily and sat down on his butt at the halt. So far so good.

I tried to salute like I knew what I was doing but I felt really foolish. I'm pretty sure I was awkward and unconvincing but that's ok, I didn't fall off my horse. At this point, I'm thinking that's a good thing.

At least one good thing about the way I ride, once I start I focus on the moment. I don't worry about what's ahead or what just happened. I ride with my mind on my horse. Even as concerned as I was about this ride, I was still able to ride just that way.

Tom's voice boomed again "Proceed to C Working Trot" and I pushed Dandy forward feeling confident at least in the trot. But then Dandy spotted the judge's table. The horse knew that thing was out of place. He worked in this arena every day, after all. That "thing" did NOT belong and Dandy was convinced it was going to eat him. There was no way he was getting near it. I'm sure every warmblood owner on the grounds heard the horse snorting as he pushed through my leg avoiding that table.

"Track Left to E " followed me with Tom's voice. At least the Arabian horse took a left turn through my leg so we was headed where we needed to be. We were moving away from the dreaded table. My horse quit snorting about half way through the corner and was beginning to relax. The trot felt pretty good considering the circumstances. There might be hope we didn't look totally ridiculous.

Then I heard the dreaded "Circle left 20 meters" and I put my horse into what was supposed to be a circle. The whole time my mind was racing about how big that circle should be. I looked around trying to get some kind of visual frame reference that might be right and adjusted our line of travel. It wasn't good. My first circle was definitely not round. Up until then, I don't know that I had ever ridden such a lopsided circle but it only got worse from there.

The left canter lead was ok. The horse popped up more than usual in the transition but considering what a wreck I was over that darn trotting circle, I'm amazed the horse even got the correct lead. Moving on into the circle at the canter wasn't good because Dandy felt threatened by that table up there with the judges as soon as it came into his view. At the canter that table definitely seemed closer to him. He shied a couple of strides and another lopsided circle was behind us.

The transition down into the working trot went better than expected. It was actually pretty darn nice for as early in his training as it was. But trotting around the corner into that darn table again was just NOT good. You'd think the more times we saw that thing the better it would be but that just wasn't the case. Dandy wasn't buying that table belonged anywhere near him.

Our breakdown to the walk at C may have been closer to X than C. There was no way Dandy wasn't going to get any closer to that table than he had. His bulging ribcage pushing through my leg was so frustrating. What he needed was about twenty passes back and forth across the front of that thing to get over his fear but that wasn't in the test.

AND the horse couldn't just shy at the table. No, he had to snort loudly each time he got anywhere close. It echoed through that metal roofed arena like it was the Grand Canyon. If I hadn't been so uptight over my lack of preparation, I might have laughed at his antics.

We made a weird line from the centerline to find H due to that table shy. Then turned across to do the free walk. The horse was NOT going to drop his head down and stretch when he still could see that pesky table out of the corner of his eye. More snorting and somewhere now I heard giggling, the ultimate humiliation.Those warmblood riders were sure getting their laughs. I wasn't amused. I was mortified. Poor Dandy could care less he was too busy worrying about trolls.

From there on out the ride went about the same. The only exception was each circle got uglier and uglier. I was trying to find a way to use the letters as visual aids but it just didn't work when I had no frame of reference to start. Dandy was actually soft except for any proximity to the trolls sitting there with the judge.

My very last circle was the all time worst. I think it looked more like a big boulder with broken off chunks. That's about as close to round as it got. I knew I had really blown it. But I don't know that at this point I really cared. I was glad to see that working trot coming up. The sooner I could get through that silly salute and get my butt out of the arena, the happier I would be.

The horse had done really well considering how green he was. The stuff with the troll was understandable for a young horse. And remembering his big terror back in that arena, I was grateful the horse had just bulged his shoulder or ribcage and swerved away instead of breaking gait and running off or dumping me. His trots were fluid and he got both leads correct. What more could I ask?

Looking back at that ride, it was a toss up which one of us screwed up the worst. The horse couldn't cope with the table and I couldn't cope with the 20 meter part of the circles. I figured we were even. But as for Tom, I wasn't ever going to let him do this to me again.

In case you're wondering. I did ride another test. It went about the same. Dandy didn't shy quite as badly and my circles were somewhat better but still not round.

If anyone is interested I scores a 48 on the first test and a 55 on the second. I overheard seasoned riders saying that this was a new judge and she was really, really tough. Most of them hadn't scored any higher. And I learned later I had the highest individual component scores of the day on the far end of the arena away from the table. Of course my circles for both trot, canter, were low but the rest was really good.

I remember her comments "Your circles are not round." DUH!!! Then she said something about beautiful a mover my horse was at both the trot and canter. But the most important comment of all. This horse shows great potential for dressage. Keep up the good work.

Just for the record to this day I do not know how big a 20 meter circle is!

To be continued.........

After the Ride

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