We have all arrived home safe and sound from a great time away at the NSW State Dressage Championships in Tamworth. World Star and Oscar B were great and after a long time out of the competition arena and I am thrilled with them both. World Star was VERY fresh due to his lack of competition practise this year. He hasn’t been out since Oct 2010 due to a bad virus which saw him have many visits to Randwick Equine hospital, so it was nice to see him feeling well again.

World Star was first up in the Prix St George on Thursday. World Star was good although quite tense and fresh and after a few leaps, bounds and squeals in the warm up arena, we went for a safe hold it together test. We ended up 3rd on 67.1% just 0.8% behind the winner. I was so pleased with him as he is still lacking a lot of strength from all his time off.

On Friday the skies opened and again Tamworth was under water. Luckily we were indoors for the Intermediate I but the warm up was restricted to a small covered round yard so not ideal for a big fresh horse!!

As we entered the indoor arena for our test World Star leapt and squealed his head off, nearly taking out the judge at C!!! Unfortunately, not such a good idea. Luckily he settled down enough for us to start the test. There were some really lovely moments; the halfpass was even better than last year and the canter pirouettes are getting stronger also.

However, as we turned up the centreline for our canter halfpass, World Star had other ideas and with a leap and toss of the head he stopped dead. After coaxing him forward we leapt and bucked around a little circle to trying to get him settled down. It worked and we continued the test unfortunately the damage was done and not only did we receive an error of course for our little circle but because we technically started the canter halfpass by turning onto the centreline, we only received a score for a first attempt. So 2’s and 3’s on a doubled movement is a score killer. We ended up 11th on 62.2%. The little hiccup cost us 6% and 68% would of easily won. It will be exciting heading into Nationals next month though and on a positive note we made it into the Freestyle on Saturday night.

This was only World Stars third ever freestyle and the atmosphere got to him. He was quite tense and scared during the test although we held it together this time with no leaps but we missed our 3 time changes. We ended up 4th on 68.25% with the winner on 69%; it was again really close and World Star is defiantly going to give them a run for their money at Nationals.

Oscar B felt great this show; such a different horse to 6 months ago at CDI and I’m really excited that we can now keep building on this for the upcoming events. The Grand Prix on Friday was in the afternoon and the rain had finally stopped. The outside arenas were dry enough for us to warm up out side without getting too covered in mud. Oscar was really on the job and feeling great. The test was great apart from a big whoops in the canter zig, zag where we did the final canter halfpass in counter canter therefore missing the final change at G!!! Rider error!!! I’m kicking myself as it was again a doubled movement!! We ended up 4th on 63.8% with two of the five judges having us 1st!!! I am so happy with Oscar.

Onto the freestyle on Saturday night. We now have new music and a new test so this was unchartered water as we hadn’t ever ridden this freestyle in a competition. Oscar felt fabulous warming up, he was in front of my leg and on the job. Into the test and the whole test flowed and Oscar was listening to all my aids, sure the piaffe can be still more on the spot and the canter pirouettes smaller and the halfpass a little more active but these are all things we will be working on over the next 7 weeks leading into Nationals. We ended up 3rd with 68%!!!! Our highest score yet in the Grand Prix Freestyle. Woo hoo!!!

Sunday we had the Grand Prix Special which we had never ridden and only memorised it that morning at breakfast so I was happy I didn’t go the wrong way. Poor Oscar was so over it by Sunday and really wasn’t impressed at being ridden again after the freestyle the night before. Thus we totally bombed it!! He wouldn’t piaffe at all and proceeded to run backwards, sideways any which way to get around doing it!! We pushed on but this happened in all 3 piaffe movements. Then we missed all the changes as he just wasn’t listening at all. I am taking it as a learning experience and just glad to have the first special now under our belt and we can work on it a lot more before Nationals. Unfortunately it does make it hard when the only time we get the ride the Grand Prix Special is at Championships or CDI’s which are few and far between.

I am so thrilled with my boys and loving having them both back competing and feeling fantastic. World Star and Oscar are now enjoying some rest and relaxation out in the sunshine in their paddocks, before we knuckle down into our National preparations.

Finally a massive thankyou to my marvellous support team who suffered through some trying conditions but as always made sure the boys were in perfect condition throughout the entire week.