Contessa - Stable View - Jan ‘22

Hello there, Club Contessa. Well, after a long layoff, Contessa was finally out in the competition ring yesterday. We intentionally put her in a quite an easy class. We rode her in the open training just because I knew she'd be fresh and excited. And also it's early in the year and the jumps would be small and we're just easing our way back into the competition circuit. And she was brilliant. She was very, very excited and nervous. Actually looks better than it feels. When I was riding Contessa around the dressage, she was a ball of energy and I was trying to sort of do everything I can to steadier and slower, keep her quiet. Like I said before, I'm so glad we did the training test. It's a very simplistic wart trot, canter test. And she was pretty fired up. She's been going really, really well. I did all of our fitness, our long, slow canter work up in Pennsylvania, just because we had the synthetic track up there all through October, November and December, and we could build her up the cantering five miles twice a week up there. So the good news is we've sort of done that massive bit of base fitness up in Pennsylvania, which means we can actually ease off a little bit the fitness work in the next month or two while we're here in Aiken and just basically get her back in the swing of things. Now, this is a very, very long, extended walk or free walk, and I was sitting as quiet as I could. If you notice in the background, you see actually a little bit of snow behind the the boards there. So it was very, very cold. It snowed the night before and Contessa couldn't wait to get to the end of that free walk diagonal. And I had to be really, really careful and cautious. Just ask for a trot transition here and obviously she would be thinking canter. Next weekend we're going to take her to the Bruce's Field Dressage Show. Again, the mission would be a bit similar to Stableview event. This weekend is more just to get her out and about. And obviously she's got amazing quality movement jump, but she does get very, very hot and nervous at the show. So I think the more we can sort of get her out to these little competitions, the better and better she'll get, especially when we start needing it to go really well in a month or so when we get it back to the advanced level next. So it's next weekend is going to be the dressage show. The weekend after that's going to Be a show jumping show and then the weekend after that's going to be an intermediate horse trial at Pinetop. So I'm hoping by the time we get to Pinetop she will sort of be used to being out and about and not so feisty. This is a medium trot and she loved this part. Just opened my hands a bit and gave her a squeeze and ripped across there. Unfortunately, with that walk, that was a little bit of a jiggy jog. I think our score dropped a bit, but I think we finished on a 30. But really this weekend wasn't about the result. It was more just getting through it unscathed. I used the cross country a bit like a schooling round. The show jumping course was just easy for her. It was a walk in the park. Obviously she's used to jumping about five holes higher than this. So again, this was just a nice easy round. Actually started jumping her in a. In a Rubber Pelham something. Peter Wilde recommended. It just, you know, she gets a little bit strong in her mouth and I feel like it just sort of creates a little bit of leverage but without sort of fighting her jaw too much. So in the cross country she was great. She was. She was quite excited and forward. She gave me a great ride. Cross country she was a bit strong and keen the whole way around. So again it's probably a good decision just running her in the easy class where the jumps were small and we could sort of slow her down between the fences. She's in great health at the moment, trotting up really well and feet look really good. We got the blacksmith and the vet out the other day to do the balance films. So I think we've left no stone unturned to get her back to the top. I'd love to be going four star on her in about six weeks time. So we'll give her a couple of easy days and then maybe a jump later in the week and then we'll prime her up for the Bruce's Field Dressage Show. I think we'll put her in the third level, just practicing the flying changes and stuff that she'll have to get ready for, hopefully in. In the events to.