Menapausal Dressage: what fun ...!

[Stella2]

Dressage today - it followed a night of 'hot flushes' and a morning of being on planet hormone :rolleyes:

So my head was all over the place (everywhere but where it should be) which led to me arriving late, being tacked-up and 'ready'ish late. I realised going into the warm-up that I only had 4 minutes before my test :eek: Very spooky environment - new to us, so Flora was tense, I was flustered and tense, so Flora was more tense. The 4 minutes were spent with me telling myself to get a grip so that I could help Flora to relax. Then we were called in, got to trot around on each rein and we were doing the test :eek: She had her head up like a giraffe the entire time keeping her eyes on the gallery and kitchen, but she was a very good girl (lots of horses were doing big 'working shys'). I know the test, but I forgot it twice - once was an error of course, the second time the penny dropped before we got to that point :o

I came home with the best horse though. God love her, it really was pretty spooky and mum's head was on another planet, yet she did as well as she could. Amazingly, despite all of the chaos, we did get 59% and came 5th :cool:

It was also helped enormously by ali cat who was with us and who has a real flair for the 'calming influence' - cheers ali :)

[Gill]

Well done Stella!

[skips and soda]

Well done that's really good!

(Sounds vey familiar to me and Skippy running late and eyes out on stalks at everything-we would be the ones casuing havoc with our spooking though!)!! :p:D:o

[Cobgirl]

Oh well done, you must be very proud of yourself and of course, Flora. Hmmmm, hot flushes are always worse when we are tense and uptight. But the rush of adrenaline that sometimes accompanies them is good and will push you through most things! Let's be positive about the Menopause!!

[Roofio]

oh gosh! well done!! :)

[Welsh_Girl]

My Mum called Hot Flushes, "Powersurges!" :D

[Est]

Well done Stella and Flora! :)

[ali cat]

oh yeah-helped enormously by ali cat---who was standing ringside with the test in me hand and never said a word!!!

so busy watching stella that i wasn't looking at the 'read' sheet!!!!


i have to say that course error, whilst unsettling for stel, didn't detract from the fact that lots of other bits were done VERY well indeed, and that flora evidently trusts her mam and is willing to obey even when a little concerned about .....

kitchens/
metal chairs making lots of noise being scraped across the concrete/
kids talking very loud/
somebodys horse bolting off down the road/
completely new venue/
short warm up time....

so you can see that the marks were earned fair and square and thet they deserved a 5th :):):)

well done you two

[cazrider]

well done Stella and flora:D

[Stella2]

oh yeah-helped enormously by ali cat---who was standing ringside with the test in me hand and never said a word!!!

so busy watching stella that i wasn't looking at the 'read' sheet!!!!


i have to say that course error, whilst unsettling for stel, didn't detract from the fact that lots of other bits were done VERY well indeed, and that flora evidently trusts her mam and is willing to obey even when a little concerned about .....

kitchens/
metal chairs making lots of noise being scraped across the concrete/
kids talking very loud/
somebodys horse bolting off down the road/
completely new venue/
short warm up time....

so you can see that the marks were earned fair and square and thet they deserved a 5th :):):)

well done you two :D People do need to know that you were only asked to stand there looking like a reader, to be between us and the gallery so that Flora saw that it wasn't eating you! You weren't prepared for reading the test since the less hormonal version of Stella knows it!

[Tally.]

Yay! well done! Sounds like you did great to me! :D

[WooHoo2]

Oh Well Done both of you!

Nice glass of wine, and big box of choccy's to celebrate this evening?:)

[Lgd]

Oh dear! Time for some Black Cohosh :D

Well done for surviving though - I do not 'do' short warm-ups with any of my lot, my unplanned short warm-up at REC in the summer with Tavia earned me 54% :o and we did more than a 'working shy' when she saw the chairs tipped against the raised flowerbed :rolleyes:

Where were you? Dalton Piercy or Holmside?

[Stella2]

Oh dear! Time for some Black Cohosh :D

Well done for surviving though - I do not 'do' short warm-ups with any of my lot, my unplanned short warm-up at REC in the summer with Tavia earned me 54% :o and we did more than a 'working shy' when she saw the chairs tipped against the raised flowerbed :rolleyes:

Where were you? Dalton Piercy or Holmside? Holmside. We really need 25 minutes warm-up as bend and softness does not yet come naturally to the gorgeous one. Tell me more about black cohosh ... I stopped my HRT because I just felt rough all of the time on it instead of 8 days a month. However, things have progressed and I am now a muppet 3 weeks of the month, so I was thinking about seeing the GP again! On a serious note, menapausal muppetness and dressage are not good bed fellows :rolleyes:

[Lgd]

. Tell me more about black cohosh ... :

http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/BlackCohosh.asp

Jury is still out a bit, but it worked great for Mum when she was really bad with the tropicals.

[Stella2]

http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/BlackCohosh.asp

Jury is still out a bit, but it worked great for Mum when she was really bad with the tropicals.Thanks for the link. Not sure about the cases of liver disease that appear to be linked to it! I'll look into it further.

[immi]

Oh well done - mother nature is not kind sometimes to us maturing ladies - still proves what a fab horse partnership you must have.

[Stella2]

Oh well done - mother nature is not kind sometimes to us maturing ladies - still proves what a fab horse partnership you must have.Thanks, in the end its all about that isn't it? :)

[Kittycat]

Well done to the both of you!

[Sammii]

Well done, least you had a good day. 59%'s great for your first outing! :D

So...no pictures then?

I can't believe after 15 odd replies that i'm the first to ask :p

[Stella2]

Well done, least you had a good day. 59%'s great for your first outing! :D

So...no pictures then?

I can't believe after 15 odd replies that i'm the first to ask :p It wasn't our first outing! :o

Trust me, it wasn't a day for pictures!

I looked again at the test sheet and it was 59.5% Every .5% matters doesn't it? ;)

Thanks to everyone for your nice comments :D

[ali cat]

hi sammii

i had threatened to photo and video the test -- i think thats the real reason stella had me inside the arena clutching a test sheet and pretending to read for her -- so that i wouldn't have a spare hand for the camera!!!

ali

[Stella2]

hi sammii

i had threatened to photo and video the test -- i think thats the real reason stella had me inside the arena clutching a test sheet and pretending to read for her -- so that i wouldn't have a spare hand for the camera!!!

ali Well you are a fiend with that camera, I had to do something :D