Lyndsey - Petplan Equine Ambassador
Petplan Equine Ambassador, Lyndsey Ryder, shares her story of competing at the Petplan Equine Area Festival at Brook Farm.
It's safe to say this year, so far, has been testing! I have pushed myself mentally and physically to the limit, riding following an injury is not easy but we worked hard to push through the barriers! I'm lucky that my horse, Max, although he can be tricky and rather flamboyant at times, generally is a good boy. Despite a few issues we managed to qualify for two Petplan Equine Area Festivals in the Elementary bronze section. I qualified twice as I knew it was going to be tough for us as our local Area Festival would be busy. I knew we would have a fight on our hands to get a place at the Finals so I wanted to give us two chances to qualify.
In the weeks leading up to the Area Festivals, we had been working on the movements required in the test. Elementary 53 requires lots of transitions from pace to pace and also within the paces. It also requires leg yields. Max likes to lead with his shoulder and trail the quarters a little in the leg yield (not an uncommon training issue) so we set about keeping him parallel in the leg yields without losing the forwardness. I started by riding a centre line in walk and leg yielding to the 3/4 line then ride straight for a few strides, then continuing the leg yield to the track. Once we could control the movement on both reins in walk, we progressed to trot. I was mindful of the angle of the leg yield; if we lost the positioning I just popped in a few forward/ straight steps and asked for leg yield again. Once we had mastered that, we tried the leg yield in a bigger trot, with a little more ‘umph’.
The test also requires lengthening in trot and canter; lengthen trot is not something Max finds easy because he has a round, more knee action type trot, he struggles with lengthening. His reaction is to step higher rather than step under. I made a decision ages ago not to stress him about this but to work on improving his understanding and his ability to be more gymnastic in his paces and this takes time. So although it is a work in progress, there is improvement. Lengthening in canter is not so much of an issue for us, but I do need to watch that his quarters stay under him and not let them drift in (like a banana going down the arena) so we had been practicing canter shoulder in, getting his hind legs quicker and underneath him.
Another area in the test which required work was being able to lengthen the canter, bring him back to collected canter and then you ride a half 10m circle and back to the track in counter canter. The counter canter wasn't really an issue for us but the week before the Area Festival he kept dropping me when I collected the canter after the lengthened canter! So Tahley came up into the arena and watched what was going wrong. Basically I wasn't using enough leg, collected canter isn't about riding a slower canter, it's more about more bounce, energy and power, all of which require more leg. So once we worked on that, we solved the problem. It's easy to get hung up on the test but I have to remember Max doesn't understand ‘this one is important’ or ‘let's practice every day until the competition’. For him it's just another day in the school. I'm always conscious that the Area Festivals are my goal, not really Max’s goals. So it's important to mix in fun things for him, after all a partnership works when both of you are happy and Max being happy is very important to me.
The week before the Area Festival, I made sure he had some nice hacks and time to relax in the paddock.
At the beginning of July, Brook Farm were hosting an Area Festival. I wasn’t competing until the Sunday, so on the Saturday I went to support my friend Jodie who was competing in the Novice bronze. Her horse Ronnie used to be an eventer and this is his first year competing at an Area Festival. Jodie looked nervous but focused and Ronnie looked great in the warm up. Her turn came the ride her test, she rode a great test and finished with a square halt. She managed to finish in 10th place in a class of 22 so she is through to the next round yippee! I am so pleased for her!
Sunday came and it was our turn. Max was washed and plaited in the morning and we hit the road about 1:00pm. On the drive there Tahley and I chatted about the warm up plan, pointers for the test etc and sung (rather loudly) to Justin Bieber; weirdly singing along calms my nerves. Once we arrived and checked in, it was time to climb on board. For once I didn't feel nervous; I was more focused on getting the job done and getting our place in the next round!
Once the tack was check by the steward was done, I felt Max tense up. It’s like he could feel the atmosphere was different and just tightened up. I knew at that moment I was going to have to do something to try and relax him and work through it. I just gave him a canter round to get him forward, open his back up and then worked on transitions as well as adding a little bit of lateral work… then we got the ‘ Lyndsey your next to go’ call. I knew he still wasn't completely with me but we headed off to the test arena.
The test went well; tension did creep in but we hit all the markers and without any major issues. I left the arena with a smile and very proud of my pony; we have come such a long way together this year and to just be there is a massive achievement. I was proud of him, proud of myself, proud of us as team.
Watching the scores go up, with 23 starters I knew it was going to be tough! With only ten places available to get to the Final and everyone wants one. My score went up, 64% I'm not going to lie I was disappointed, but when you have three judges it is harder and like I said tension had crept in. I watched the scores go up which seemed to take forever! I was gutted to finish 11th as only the top ten go through so I thought my next trip would have to be to Keysoe to try again. Then something amazing happened, as in the rules if someone in the top ten has already qualified, then their qualification gets passed down to the next highest competitor! THAT’S ME! So although that's not really how I wanted to qualify, we are through to the Petplan Equine Area Festival Finals!
I know the competition from other riders at the Finals will be really tough but that will not stop us giving it our all! I plan on organising some arena hire at the Area Festival Finals venue, booking some lessons there to really work on getting Max relaxed and working nicely there. This will give us as much preparation as possible, so we can give the next round a good go. Until then we can continue having fun and training hard ready for September.