Outdoor Practice

Piper's only two dressage competitions, which were many years ago, were both at Merrist Wood College near Guildford in the UK. Merrist Wood sports one of the largest indoor arenas in the UK, at 30 x 90 metres in size. This comfortably holds two 20 x 40 metre dressage arenas, allowing for two lower level classes to be run indoors concurrently. Since Piper was stabled at Merrist Wood, it was "home turf". He was comfortable there.

So, in two and a half weeks, Piper will be competing outdoors for the first time. So, accordingly, this week, we had our first outdoor session in our own 20 x 60 metre arena. This is in view of the road, in view of traffic travelling up and down the driveway, and in view of two pastures. So, there is usually something for a lookie-loo kind of horse to get distracted by.

Fortunately, Piper was interested in getting raises, pats, and mints, and was on his best most attentive behaviour. This is not the same level of dedicated work mode as Jeddien, but it will do.

Now to do lots more of the same. Like it says on the shampoo bottles... Rinse. Repeat.