Competitions....

February has been a very busy month full of competitions and training.
Affinity Bay competed at the ever efficient Addington Manor Regionals in the Advanced Medium Open and the Advanced Medium Freestyle.
The first test Finn produced some mega trot work. He was feeling very hot which made his trot extensions, shoulder in and half pass very expressive. Unfortunately in the canter the excitement boiled over and we had some rodeo moments in the changes! Surprisingly   even with three big explosions we still scored 66%.
The Freestyle test was later the same day in the indoor International Area. I was pleased that Finn was more relaxed in this test, although he still thought it was necessary to add some extra tempi changes....
His final score was 69% to finish just outside the top 10.
Our last Regionals was at Merrist Wood where we competed in the PSG Freestyle.
I was thrilled with the trot work and the canter. We had correct three and four time changes and I should have been a bit braver by riding smaller canter pirouettes.
We had one very big blip in the walk to trot transition which as a result meant 4's for our shoulder in left. Unfortunatly there was no more music left to improvise another shoulder in left so that was annoying!
I was disappointed with the score but we did have one major mistake and one of the judges gave Finn a 4 for his changes (whereas the other 2 gave him 7's) which didn't help!
We are now looking forward to training with Stephen Clarke and going out to do our first Inter 1 together.

Todd (owner by Jonathan Chapman) and Cooter (owned by Jo Brett) went out to contest their first ever BD prelim tests. Cooter was a star and won both his classes on 68 & 67% and Todd came second on 65 & 67%.
Todd was a little unsettled in his first test which was caused by warming up with a stallion (he definitely felt a bit threatened!) but the second  test showed some more relaxation.
Overall it was a good day out and both horses were impeccably behaved.

I have been busy training for Pony Club and Riding Club, as well as doing some Private clinics in a beautiful brand new indoor school.

This month I was got a little mention in Horse and Hound Online in an article about dealing with competition nerves and how you prepare on show day....

I'm really looking forward to the busy month ahead with a few new rides and an exciting new baby horse who arrived a few weeks ago! Spring....here we come!