I’ve made my debut for this year’s competing season. Kajsa and I together with Dennis and Bobbo went to Gripen Equestrian Association to get a sense of the shape the horses are in at the moment and see if the winter training has given the results that we’ve hoped for. We went a day in advance to be able to do a rehearsal with both horses in the main arena. Dennis was a bit wild and unconcentrated while Bobbo, who is two years older, behaved better and experienced and took it all in stride. On Saturday the competition began with Dennis making his debut in the FEI 7-year old program. It’s judged by two judges, one who assesses the technical performance and the other assesses the gaits. Dennis was a lot more relaxed and present after our training the day before. His trot was nice but unfortunately I had misread what size the circles should be. 8m was the correct one and I rode it in 10m. It was so unnecessary and I gave away unnecessary points for no reason. Otherwise there was a nice rhythm and a nice trot program overall. The walk got a little tense and the canter a little wobbly but I’m really happy with our development and with a little more practice and experience we will be able to perform even better. We got a 68.39% on the technical and 79.2% on gaits which is a total of 73.79% and he’s now a first time qualifier for Falsterbo Horse show.
Bobbo was very eager in the warm up, but when I got in the arena he listened to me and followed me very well. He really is a great competition buddy. It was a debut for him too but in Intermediare 1. He attended an Intermediare 1-freestyle last year when he won the Dressage Power Future Stars but never the “fixed” program. We performed a nice program with three minor misses but there were also a lot of highlights. We scored almost 73% and Bobbo won.
There were several riders from Enköpings Ridklubb who showed off at Gripen. Emma Byström won the MSV B1 with my old partner Maya. Annika Reuterdahl won the MSV C and came 4th in MSV B1 with Maike. Lydia Karlsson placed 3rd in MSV C. Lydia’s little sister Elsa also competed at Gripen but her horse had misunderstood the task and must have thought he was at the Swedish Rodeo Championships. But I was very impressed by Elsa who kept her cool and sat around to pilot him through the entire program. It’s so much fun with the community that we have, I believe that a strong community and a good atmosphere creates a safe environment and success. My mother Gunilla was in Norway and competed with Vectra and came in 2nd place in the GP-freestyle. What a successful weekend for Enköpings Ridklubb.
Walpurgis Eve was celebrated shortly and intensely with champagne and pizza in the stables after a long day of competing which was a great way to end the day.
Our young horses are in full swing and are being trained for new tasks. 3 year old Gino Ginelli has come home after joining team Evelina Johannisson. He’s a quick and sensitive young boy so they’ve had their hands full. With a great deal of patience, calm and leadership from Evelina and her team, they’ve done a great job and Gino is now ridden all three gaits. He has rested for a month with us at home in Bred and has just started training again. It will be exciting to see his developments.
The dynamic duo Sture and Shaggan have turned 4 years old and are being trained according to the scaled training program to possibly attend a viewing later in the fall.
3 year old Cinder, owned by Agneta Lauren, has been broken in by Camilla Axelsson and was shown at the 3 year’s testing down in Flyinge. She received great reviews and has just arrived for summer rest at Jill Borgström’s in Enköping where she has grown up. She will rest all summer to come to us for continued training this fall. She’s also an exciting horse that I look forward to getting to know better.
The next competition for Dennis and Bobbo will be during week 20 at the lovely Brolöten. Then we’ll see if Bella can come along as well. She twisted her front leg in the walking machine a week ago and is now recovering.
Spring is FINALLY around the corner and now we are enjoying the light after a very long winter.
