Fun with Fendi: Emma's 2022 Dressage Debut
Hello fellow Cavaliers!
Welcome to my first blog as an official member of team AC. I'll start by introducing myself as the human half of @Emma_Eventing_Fendi_. My sassy chestnut mare, Fendi, and I have been trying to establish ourselves on the eventing scene for the last couple of years... with many ups and downs along the way!
Fendi is my first horse & neither of us had seen a cross country course before tackling our first one together, so I'm not sure which of us was greener. That being said, we have both learned on the job and are now confidently popping around BE90's.
After finally getting our own transport last year, it was time to up the ante with winter training & competitions. Dressage has been our nemesis phase of late; Fendi has beautiful floaty paces but tends to get a little, let's say, overwhelmed in the boards! Apparently, flying changes & canter half passes aren't required at BE90 level?! Who knew!
Queue many lessons and strategising...
This weekend we were lucky enough to have a gap in the bad weather, so we trundled off to Netherton for some unaffiliated dressage. I just had the one prelim test to learn, so we spent the week prior dissecting bits of the test and improving them as well as we could. The day came, and Fendi fell asleep whilst I plaited her up- she loves it! My lovely non-horsey boyfriend offered to groom for me, so we loaded her up and off we went.
Obviously, there is no course to walk (yay), so we arrived and casually got ready; I could get used to this relaxing dressage malarky! We spent last season trying out different tactics and tweaking our warm-up, so I knew what I needed to go in and do. We worked hard to get in that optimum zone, which is that very fine margin in-between lazy sloth and chestnut dragon mode.. easy enough, right?!
In a flash, the test was over. I didn't feel great after it, but to be honest, I never do; those judges don't give anything away, do they? But we had no mistakes, so I at least knew I had ridden an accurate test, and my little redhead kept her cool the entire time. Already a win!
After watching our video, I could see she nailed all the parts we'd been struggling with through the week and done a peach of a halt which is unheard of for us!
After we'd taken approximately 500 photos for the Gram and got Fendi back into her cosy rug, we went to get my test sheet. I scanned through the pile on the table but it wasn't there, which could only mean one thing... we had placed!
I started scanning up the list from 6th place and was delighted to I had to continue up the table because wait for it, we were at the top!!! We'd won our class on 67.88%. First place! I squealed with excitement because I just couldn't believe it. Craig spent the entire drive home telling me how our test was the best one he'd watched all day, and, of course, he knew we were going to place all along... yeah right!
We arrived back at the yard, and there were lots more cuddles & treats for Fendi. So this weekend proved to me that hard work pays off, and we will be continuing to graft away with the British eventing season so very near in our sights.
Hurry up, Spring, I can almost see you!
Emma & Fendi x
