In The Saddle column: Delving into the world of dressage

I’m a bit of a dafty like that – setting something in my head then determined to do it despite no real skills.

Well, this time I wanted to beat my personal best in dressage. I’d taken my mare, April, when she was young too.

I must admit I got pretty fixated on this. Almost obsessed you could say.

In my mind’s eye that would prove I had come a long way from where I was back then as a rider with April. That would in turn give me confidence in myself as a rider.

Many of you might remember me buying April. My first column was based on what to look out for when buying a horse. It was set around my search for my next horse after an enforced break for horses following a divorce.

Back then it was a one-off article but I was asked to write more, hence the start if a long-standing column and many of you following my journey with young April all those years ago.

April entered my life as a five and a half year old, who had been trained in jousting and backed by the wonderful equestrians Ken and Charlotte Feast (with whom I’m still in touch over a decade later with Charlotte being a huge support in my life today with young Sully).

Prior to April I’d had a five year old cob, my first horse and first love, Roly, then I’d moved up to a wonderful 5 year old shire cross thoroughbred, Georgie, who I had to sell through divorce.

I’ve been used to fairly young novice horses but they have all been really good. Not hugely sharp or tricky (although I did have to up my game with April in our early years together!).

I got it into my head that I needed to do the same competitions with Sully that I had done with April at exactly same age. There’s no rhyme nor reason, just something I wanted to do personally. Anyhow, one of those things was do compete in a low level introductory test in dressage.

I wanted to take him somewhere quiet, friendly and local. Since I’d already been to Stonelodge with him a few months earlier I knew this place would be perfect.

You might remember me chatting about our first time there in a ridden showing class. The aim was to take him somewhere quiet before I took him out to the big British Appaloosa Society breed show for our first year as ridden competitors.

Stonelodge caters for particularly novice or nervous horses or riders (or both) and I would say it’s most definitely where their skills lie. It’s truly welcoming and I’ve found the owner, Michael Young, very knowledgeable and gives off an air of comfort when you are about to walk into the ring.

Michael has a great sense of humour too. I like that. If you can’t laugh at yourself with others then horses are not the thing for you. You can never take yourself too seriously because if you do you will eat dirt in front of everyone. Trust me. I’ve seen it happen.

The dressage was a stressless dressage event. This means it’s perfect for young horses like mine and novice riders wanting to dip their toe in dressage.

You don’t need all the gear and can ride in whatever bit suits your horse. They offer the reading out of tests too at a small extra fee; perfect for those of us who have a complete lobotomy as soon as we enter at A.

I took Sully into the warm up ring, but he was a bit of a silly boy, acting up and not liking certain parts of the arena. He had already been to the Nationals and the Northern breed shows of British Appaloosa Society and ridden lovely for such a baby, but here he was full of his own self importance and it put me instantly nervous and on a back foot with him, doubting myself immediately (my go-to default mechanism I’m learning!).

It’s amazing how once you’ve had a few falls off a youngster your mind instantly retraces back to those falls and the fear sets in. It’s ridiculous.

Your brain is hugely powerful. It’s about the only thing my brain is powerful in and for someone with such a useless memory it seems to have no problem recalling every frightening experience I’ve ever had.

Never do you hold tighter than when you think you are about to come off. Trust me. I’m an expert in this. I have thighs of steel for this exact moment. Of course, fear only makes it worse for your horse. They know instantly…they can feel the change. They just know. Some horses look after you, some panic too and some just take the mickey.

I didn’t fall off in the warm up which I consider a huge bonus, but if I’m honest I didn’t fancy going into the ring to do the test either.

If Sully had been ridden by a more experienced rider (and let’s face it that could be almost anyone!) he would have been worked through effectively. However, unfortunately Sully has little old me on his back and so he’s probably not exactly where he could be in life. My horse really does have potential. Don’t judge him by how I ride him. My trainer, Harriette, makes him look like Valegro in about three seconds of getting on him.

Does Sully care? No. He just wants to mess about in the field with his mates and eat grass. That’s his idea of fun. He’s not interested in where he sits in his development at competitions. My horse couldn’t give a damn…like most horses I’d say. It’s only us humans that put this pressure on ourselves and, of course, the pressure only adds to our stress. I’ve no idea why we do this hobby. We must be crackers.

Going back to the dressage, Michael could see my nerves and offered to walk round the ring with me in the competition. At the age I am I should be embarrassed but probably because of the age that I am I really didn’t care. I was determined to do the test and if that meant Michael walking in with me then so be it. That’s what I was going to do.

Michael walked with me to help settle Sully and I, but then I pushed Sully into trot and we were off. Michael left the ring and Clare continued to read the test. I remember her saying ‘you’re almost half way through…smile!’ in-between the instructions. Yes, she did make me smile.

Clare Paterson was the single, best test reader ever. She made me laugh on the inside (on the outside I was focussing on breathing and riding). Her offers of encouragement during the test will never be forgotten. I have a new found love for that woman. She rocks.

So we didn’t get placed, but I wasn’t there to bring home rosettes. It was all about getting him out, getting my confidence up handling him in an excitable stage and staying alive.

Sometimes you have glitches with horses. Some days are good and some days you wonder what you seriously question what you are doing. That’s horses for you.

I have a lot of the ‘what am I doing?’ days with Sully, but on the whole we have a lot of more fun. I absolutely love this little guy and without a shadow of a doubt he will be the making of me, and hopefully of him with me. If that makes any kind of sense.

I could not have achieved that day without my my daughter helping; my husband kicking me out of the car when nerves set in on arrival; without Michael walking me into the ring to calm both Sully and I down and without Clare’s continued support during the reading of the test. The day was a success because of these brilliant people. Thank you.

So what did I achieve? Well, I ended up being super proud of myself because I’d got through my fear and competition nerves. We also had a very reasonable score pulling in 63.04% for our first attempt together. Not bad to say I didn’t want to go in the ring.

Not only was I alive and kicking…it beat my original score on my horse April. I thought I’d taken her to our first test age 6, but when I compared the score sheets (yes I’m that much of a geek) it was actually on her 7th birthday! She wasn’t aged 5 at all.

So this truly was a personal best of mine, on my young 5 year old Appaloosa horse and, by god, did it give me a boost. I apologise now to family and friends who relived the dressage test in real-time following the competition.

This year I aim to do more dressage. Nothing fancy. Just starting out with some more introductory tests…seeing how we get on to then look at a prelim at some point in the future.

I also want to get him learning to jump. He’s just started in November last year. I’ve got a week with my trainer in February as part ot my birthday and Christmas present. Harriette Rushton is an absolute legend with bringing on young horses and show jumping is her fortes. Harriette goes far and wide competing her own equines to a very high level.

I would love to do a really small, clear round with Sully this year. Think matchsticks on the floor kinda-level. I have competed April at 80cm so I’m more than capable. I’ve just got to get my confidence up with Sully and believe in myself, but once we do there will be no stopping us. He really is a smashing little boy.

Thank you for following us. Stay safe and please feel free to follow us on Twitter @inthesaddleblog or on Facebook ‘In The Saddle - Anita Marsh’. I don’t profess to know what I’m doing but I will make you laugh at my debacles. It’s like a Carry On Riding film at my house.

PS Sarah Hall thank you for your amazing photos from dressage. I love them. You made me look fabulous!