On Sunday Fiona and I made the journey down to Keysoe, the College Equestrian Centre. The facilities there were stunning, they were honestly my dream equestrian centre, it had a massive out door school, enough for three dressage arena's that were being judged. There was a stunning indoor school, the great thing about this was you could sit eating (having our breakfast) and watch through the windows while the riders warmed their horses up. There was also a really nice equestrian shop that Fiona bought a stunning waistcoat from for the summer season. They also had a cross country course set up that I could see from a distance but I didn't see up close. The college goes on both sides of the road, it is truly massive, there show stables also looked amazing.
When we got there we had our breakfast as we had arrived earlier and we were not going to have a lunch break so we needed something that was going to last all day. Once we had eaten Fiona explained to me what my job was going to be. The great thing about the tests that we were marking was there were two judges, one was marking how the rider rode the movements the second one (which we were doing) was judging the position of the rider. We had a list of things that we had to tick off if they were doing that or underline if it was something that they needed to work on. Then there was space for Fiona to make a comment and then obviously the space for the Score out of 10.
We soon started and we saw some completely stunning horses. It amazed me how gorgeous some of the horses were. One of my favourite horse and riders was a little girl that rode a palomino horse, everything that she did was so natural and talented she made it look so easy and she got the highest mark out of all the riders that we judged for the day! The horse was always in an outline and you could see how secure her seat was, it was like poetry in motion it was amazing, she just had that natural talent that every rider wishes they had. The class that we were looking at had 40-45 riders in it, and was the biggest class of the day! By the end of the day my hand was hurting but I had an amazing time and would love to do it again.
I learnt so much from scribing for Fiona because it made me look at the position more carefully and then also made me think about my position more carefully. It quickly made me realise how important it is to have a strong and secure position, and how that even the slightest change will effect my riding and also stop me from getting a nice outline! But I will have to wait until Saturday to see how much it does effect my riding.
I also saw a horse that Fiona and I loved! It was a Skewbald but the brown bard was like an angel delight mousy colour, I can't think how to describe it but it was stunning! It's movement was also extremely fluid, everything just seemed to flow and it seemed to have a really really nice but powerful canter! If I could have taken him home with me I would have! He was a bit taller than Gatsby but I only saw him from a difference so I'm not sure entirely what breed he was.
When we had finished the judging we took the last couple of score sheets down and handed them in. Then we also got offered a bottle of either red or white wine. Fiona and I both had white, and mine's in the fridge at home for everyone to have with the meal at the weekend. On the drive back we had a good laugh and chat, we talked about what kind of horse I would want when it came to the right time for me to buy one and also what I would like to be able to do when I get my own horse. It gave me a lot to think about and I also think that some amazing opportunities are going to be coming soon, I love every chance that I get given in the horse world and can not wait to find out more about what's to come in the future!
Until Next Time
A Girl With A Dream
