Alex Hua Tian’s Badminton blog: dressage over and done

It was so nice to see some blue sky and sunshine at Badminton Horse Trials yesterday morning. If only I could say that today!

Maggie’s dressage test was in the afternoon, so I gave her a quiet school in the indoor school like I did with Jeans the day before. Jeans had a nice hack around the park which, after all the hard work of the last few days, he enjoyed a lot!

Maggie is very much the opposite to Jeans and so I was hoping that the afternoon atmosphere might just pick her up somewhat and give me a fighting chance of having her forward and flashy. But it seems she doesn’t care who’s watching or how many.

She warmed up beautifully; forward and on the aids. However after we cantered and halted on the centre line, she decided enough was enough and she did not want to carry on. Honestly, if I didn’t stop driving her forward with all my energy, she would have ground to a halt. Anyway, we managed to get everything done and correctly where it was needed so we came away with a generous 51pen.

After giving Jeans a quick jump ready for Sunday’s cross-country, I tagged along with Clayton and Cinda [Fredericks] as they walked the course. The rain was relentless and by the time we got to the lake, my jeans were completely and totally soaked through. Though now I am confident where I’m going and what I will be hopefully doing on cross-country day.

Badminton final scores

Wish me luck

Alex

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