Lancelot's First Elementary

Two weekends ago, Lancey had his dressage debut with me.

It was quite the experience for the little guy, and I was pretty nervous going into it. Firstly - I'd entered him in Elementary 5 and 6, for better or worse, and I knew that it was a big ask. What's more, we were going to a venue where neither of us had ever shown before, and we were traveling with Vlinder so Lancey would have to ride in a box he didn't know with a horse he didn't know. He also spent the night before the show at the Friesian farm, and he's never had to overnight anywhere except his breeder's.

Still, he's a good lil dude. He traveled and overnighted absolutely great, enjoying his sleepover with all his big, black buddies. It was very strange to arrive at the Friesian farm on the morning of the show and see a little white head looking over the door at me. He'd even had a nice sleep in the straw, so that clears up any worries I'd had about how he'd be at overnight shows.

(Thunder and Arwen are both horrible at overnight shows, so thank you, Mr. Lancey).

He was a little sticky to load, but not too worried, and traveled like a little pro as always. When we arrived I hopped straight onto Vlinder and left her groom with Lancey, who ate his hay and ignored the rest of the world completely.

I was totally exhausted when I got off Vlinder - she was good, but gave it everything I had - and it was so pleasant to get to work plaiting my own horse and not get pulled all over the showgrounds. Don't get me wrong - I adore Arwen and we had a really, really wonderful time competing together - but it's so nice to have a sweet quiet little gelding who just nibbled on his hay while I sorted out his hair with his lead hanging over my arm.

We walked over to the warmup to find it fairly busy and full of relatively stressed people frantically practicing their simple changes. (I very quickly became one of them; Elementary is dang stressful, y'all).

I had changed my approach to the mental side of this competition. I knew going in that Vlinder was going to get her grading points pretty much regardless of what I was doing up there, and I wasn't worried about getting a certain score on Lancey - we were going for the experience. So it seemed like a good opportunity to tweak my approach a bit, even if it was taking a little risk. I have heard such great things about visualisation and for the last few shows on Thunder I was using it a LOT, especially the night before the show if I couldn't sleep and on the way to the show. For some reason, if I woke up in the night and rode my tests perfectly in my head, it would always go well, chill me out, and I'd go straight back to sleep. But if I tried to visualise on the way to the show, I always, without fail, forgot my tests and panicked. It ended up making me even more panicked once I was riding the actual tests.

I think I was overthinking my attempt not to overthink, which would just be typical.

my face though

So this time, when I woke up in the middle of the night before the show, I ran through all my tests in my head like I always do. But the morning of the show, I skipped it. I ride my tests at home foot perfectly without visualizing or doing anything different - I just ride them, and a dang sight better than I ride at shows, too. So that was my tactic: stop overthinking and just ride like I always ride.

The other new piece of kit I have in my anti-show-nerves toolbox is box breathing (inhale for a count of four, hold for four, exhale for four, wait for four, repeat). I synced my breathing with Lancey's strides as we walked around the warmup, and it didn't take long for that tingly nervous feeling to leave my hands, and my brain actually began to work. Amazing how oxygen will do that.

Lancey himself was super in the warmup. He couldn't care less about the other horses zooming around; he was a little looky at his surroundings, but went on with his job very nicely even though he'd never been to this venue before. To be fair, he's always a bit looky. It doesn't mean a thing.

We ran through our test movements and he was just fine. After a few minutes, I checked the time. It was nearly my ride time, but we were number 18 and number 17 was still in the warmup. I assumed that number 17 would be riding before me, but actually, they had only entered test 6 - I'd entered both. Something I definitely could have like... looked up on the ride times, but apparently my organization skills - which keep 10 kids together through 20+ classes on a SANESA day - had completely failed me. So I sat around happily waiting for number 17 to go, and when my ride time came and went, decided to head over to the arena anyway.

We were standing on the outside of the arena and I was shrugging on my jacket when suddenly the bell went. I looked up, and there was no one near the show arena except me. Normally I think riders have to be allowed to go around the outside of the arena at least once before the bell goes, but I was late anyway, so I decided to just roll with it and off we went down the centreline.

why yes that is a dirty patch on his bum

He did a nice little halt and then saw the judge's box at C and hesitated. I could have spurred him through it, but knowing Lancey, that would have resulted in tension through the rest of the test, so I let him stop and petted his neck and talked to him until I felt him take a deep breath. Then we carried on, and he didn't look at it once. I think if we'd gone around the outside before the test, he wouldn't have cared about it at all.

Of course, because I was busy sorting out his spook when K read the next part of the test, I then got promptly lost. The judge must have thought I was certifiably insane. No big deal, though; we went back around and started again, with an exasperated K yelling everything extra loudly (sorry K).

Overall, I felt like the first test went pretty well. I asked him for too much angle in one of the shoulder-ins, and he got a little stuck behind in the turns on the haunches, but that's something we have yet to iron out at home so I wasn't too bothered about that. His canter work was extremely obedient - I think he took a trot step or two going down into one of the simple changes, but they felt pretty good, and the counter-canter felt balanced and together.

I was really happy with him when we came out of the test. Despite the mistakes in the beginning, he had been identical to the way he always is at home, and best of all, I had ridden the way I ride at home. I didn't once get that wobbly, disembodied feeling that always means I've stopped breathing in the middle of the test. In fact, I felt normal and natural in the saddle and I breathed like a human being throughout. I don't think I've ever felt so good coming out of a dressage test. He really is the best boy 💜

The second test was in the next arena, which had a little shed/judge's box thingy near P which was full of jump uprights and things. It didn't seem particularly spooky just looking at it, but a lot of horses had been very nervous about it - Vlinder even had a little look at it and she's not even remotely spooky. Lancey is the BEST boy but Arabs gonna Arab so I had some concerns.

He looked at the judge's box at C, but again, I just stroked his neck and talked to him and he went right on past. The judge rang the bell before I could get to P but I decided to use my 45 seconds for good and spent some time letting him look at the spooky box. Still, he didn't take a deep breath, but my time was running out so I just walked him past and headed down the centreline.

He didn't look at the judge's box even once, and we started our test very happily and obediently. He was behaving pretty much exactly as he does at home - until we reached the last part of the test. It involves a half-circle E-B in counter canter, a simple change over P, a canter-to-walk at K, and then the walk tour: turn right at V, turn on the haunches right between L and P, turn on the haunches left between L and V, trot at L, centerline at A, halt at X.

It's a lot of movements packed into one small part of the arena, which would be no problem except that that happened to be the spooky part of the arena. Lancey was OK going past the spooky box, but when we did the counter-canter half circle, a bunch of ducks came running across the field right behind the box. His canter gave a big stutter, and he trotted sideways down into the simple change. We picked up the canter again but he was quite discombobulated and I didn't get him put together quickly enough for the walk transition. Of course, when we turned across the arena towards P, we were heading directly towards the box. He kept it together, but the turns on the haunches were a joggy, wobbly mess (and they're honestly kind of a mess in general).

When we finished that test, I had already mentally discarded the score. He hadn't been naughty or difficult, but tense enough to mess up all those movements in the end, and I chalked it up to experience. The little guy just needs to get out and about and see more things for that to go away; he stayed rideable, he stayed listening, it was just a bit of greenness.

I was unsurprised by my score of 51% for the second test; that whole last section was a slew of 3s and 4s for breaking and hurrying and doing all those fun things. But I was honestly pretty shocked when my score came in for test 5. It was 55%. I wasn't expecting miracles - I was hoping for a 60% - but it was a lot lower than I'd been expecting. We did have those two mistakes in the beginning, but overall we did just get a whole lot of 5s.

I was honestly a bit disappointed by that score, but I think it all comes down to the fact that he doesn't always let my aids go through him, and when I'm being a little conservative then I'm not consistent enough about really asking for those aids to go through. He doesn't quite carry himself right yet, but because he's such an obedient and willing little horse - and has three lovely gaits - he can do the movements of the level cleanly, just not well enough to get a better mark. Comparing the photos from the show to the photos from our last lesson, I think I let the gait quality slip in favour of the movements over the last week or two.

Still, scores or no, I was really, really happy with my first dressage show on Lancey just because of how relaxed I was feeling even though he was spooky. I don't know if I've ever trusted a horse like I trust him, barring old Skye when I was just a kid. It was genuinely fun and relaxing even though we weren't doing it perfectly. He gave me a feeling I've never had in the dressage arena before - a really, really good feeling.

I'll chat with my coach about what we do with him competitively going forward. I think I might show him at Novice for a few shows, mostly because shows are expensive and it'll be easier to get our grading points at Novice, which is mostly an obedience test (Lancey's got that covered). I can always skip Elementary entirely and ride him at EM once he goes up a grade, which is honestly a very attractive option (down with the simple changes!).

Either way, I was really happy with how this show went, and with this wonderful little horse. I'm going to have a lot of fun showing Lancey in the years to come, God willing - and I'm grateful for every minute I get to spend on his back.

God is good!