Dressage Gala
Last Sunday there was a Dressage Gala at NagsR'Us. Now you might think, because I thought till very recently, that dressage is a prissy thing to amuse rich people who have nothing better to do than make horses do silly things with their feet. I can see now it’s all about control of the horse – the basic paces done as and when the rider decrees, in the neatest, most controlled way possible – the basics, in fact of all riding. Anyone more knowledgeable who reads this is welcome to add a comment putting me right :)
The riders were mostly taking Prelim 7 and Prelim 10 which are two of the easier tests. It was interesting for us as most of the participants were either stable girls or young girls who take lessons with J, though quite a few adults also took part.
We were there as helpers, which amply befits the status of the newest, most hopeless pony-owning-wannabes at NagsR’us. Humble scurrying at people’s beck and call is something I do rather better than pony-lungeing, I’ve discovered.
The huge top school was laid out much as the one you’d have seen at the Olympics, with potted plants on stands. These ferocious plastic carnations caused much panic among the horses, who shied and side-stepped nervously when they were ridden into the top school. There is a naughty pony at the school, George, who bucked and careered round the arena before his owner, aged about 10, got him under control and serenely cruised through the dressage test. It was exciting to see rosettes being handed out, especially if they went to small riders on not-very-special ponies instead of the upper class visitors who turned up in horseboxes bigger than your average bungalow with lordly 17H warmbloods with three names, and a smaller, matching pony for Hugo-the-heir. On the whole though, people were not nearly so competitive and bitchy as they are, say, in the ballet world. (There were no blogs when I was a ballet-mum. Pity).
Now this was at last ‘fun’, the fun the endless mucking-out and spills and bucket-scrubbing leads to.... Eventually.
We’re a long way away from that though.
The riders were mostly taking Prelim 7 and Prelim 10 which are two of the easier tests. It was interesting for us as most of the participants were either stable girls or young girls who take lessons with J, though quite a few adults also took part.
We were there as helpers, which amply befits the status of the newest, most hopeless pony-owning-wannabes at NagsR’us. Humble scurrying at people’s beck and call is something I do rather better than pony-lungeing, I’ve discovered.
The huge top school was laid out much as the one you’d have seen at the Olympics, with potted plants on stands. These ferocious plastic carnations caused much panic among the horses, who shied and side-stepped nervously when they were ridden into the top school. There is a naughty pony at the school, George, who bucked and careered round the arena before his owner, aged about 10, got him under control and serenely cruised through the dressage test. It was exciting to see rosettes being handed out, especially if they went to small riders on not-very-special ponies instead of the upper class visitors who turned up in horseboxes bigger than your average bungalow with lordly 17H warmbloods with three names, and a smaller, matching pony for Hugo-the-heir. On the whole though, people were not nearly so competitive and bitchy as they are, say, in the ballet world. (There were no blogs when I was a ballet-mum. Pity).
Now this was at last ‘fun’, the fun the endless mucking-out and spills and bucket-scrubbing leads to.... Eventually.
We’re a long way away from that though.
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