Building on everything riders will have worked towards over the summer, the Back To School Squares is one of our trickier tests, demanding greater accuracy for transitions and some challenging tests of turns and straightness with the use of our pole square surrounding X. We absolutely love a bit of polework to spice up the schooling here at Demi Dressage, and every year this is a great set of tests to highlight to other young riders what fun polework can be.
I’m always a little sad when we get to the Back To School Squares, because it’s the last in our summer series of monthly dressage, and signifies a change of pace for us as we head into the darker months of the year.
More positively, the end of the summer is also the time where we reflect back on how those riders who have competed regularly with us have developed over the past few months. ‘Progress’ is a tricky thing to define (a further blog post with my thoughts on the topic is in the offing…) but as most followers will know by now I do like to give out plenty of rosettes, and so we carefully consider our regular riders’ progress in order to award a handful of ‘Most Improved Rider’ Specials each year. This year, we chose four young riders, as follows:
Ivy and Tangle (Yellow)
Emily and Chester (Yellow Plus)
Freya and Eric (Blue)
India and Fliss (Red)
It’s always fun to give out Specials for ‘extra’ reasons too – sometimes they are publicised in advance, like our Best Unicorn Specials last month. Sometimes, there’s things that stand out or are particularly relevant to a certain test, such as Specials for well-ridden corners setting up a good shallow loop in our Somewhere Over The Rainbow tests.
This month, we had four particularly outstanding ‘Free Walks’ in the higher level tests, and I felt that was particularly noteworthy as the tests included poles. Poles/jumps as we all know can gee some ponies up! It’s a bit of a ‘thing’ of mine that good flatwork is the basis of all other disciplines including good polework/jumping, so I felt it very appropriate to award these four ‘Best Walk Specials’ for riders who all achieved an amazing 8.0 or 8.5 in their free walks! (Don’t forget, the free walk marks have a co-efficient of 2, so this is a really important movement to score well on!) Well done to Immy and Wilbur, and Emily and Chester in the Yellow-Plus class, and Freya and Eric, and Isaac and Robbie in the blue class.
As always, results are published on the Demi Dressage Facebook page in the order they come in, but are published here in class order for ease of reference.
"BACK TO SCHOOL SQUARES" RESULTS- GREEN
Next up, we have our starter-level Green class, and it's good to see a few newcomers again this month Our walk-only Green test is split into two classes - lead rein and off lead, to suit all ages.
GREEN:
1st - Isla and Gypsy - 73.3%
2nd - Philippa and Shortcake - 70.7%
3rd - Allegra and Hunney - 67.7%
4th - Hattie and Miss Moneypenny- 66.3%
GREEN (Lead Rein):
1st - Edith and Shortcake - 70.7%
2nd - Joe and Shady - 65.3%
3rd - Sienna and Lady - 64%
4th - Caitlin and Hugo - 63.7%
5th - Steph and Spice - 62%
We celebrate our veteran ponies this month, and it's delightful to see how many of you are competing on older ponies. The Highest Placed Veteran in the Green class goes to Joe and Shady.
"BACK TO SCHOOL SQUARES" RESULTS - YELLOW
Our Yellows are another very popular test and provide the perfect introduction to dressage, performed mainly in walk with simple trot movements. Yellow tests can be ridden on or off the lead rein, or in our special 'assisted' section.
This month for the first time in Demi Dressage history we have NO Yellow Lead Rein entries..! :o
YELLOW:
1st - Ruby and Gypsy - 74.5%
2nd - Layla and Make Your Own Luck - 72.1%
3rd - Sophie and Joey - 71.6%
4th - Ivy and Tangle - 68.9%
5th - Elis and Rocky - 68.4%
6th - Quinn and Peppa - 66.8%
=7th - Holly and Pride - 66.1%
=7th - Ellen and Shady - 66.1%
YELLOW (Assisted):
1st - Benjamin and Millie - 65.3%
2nd - Lily Mae and Major - 65%
3rd - Alyss and Skye - 64.4%
The Highest Placed Veteran in the Yellow class goes to Layla and Make Your Own Luck. And in the Yellow Assisted class, all veteran ponies in this section, Benjamin and Millie.
BACK TO SCHOOL SQUARES RESULTS - YELLOW-PLUS
Yellow-Plus is our most popular class, and the biggest 'equivalent' we have to BD tests, being broadly parallel to a BD Intro - just a bit more child-friendly!
YELLOW-PLUS:
1st - Eva and Diva - 73.5%
2nd - Immy and Wilbur - 72.3%
3rd - Emily and Chester - 71.8%
4th - Louisa and Toffee - 69%
5th - Jack and Tia - 68.3%
=6th - Jessica and Tia - 67.3%
=6th - Florence and Peppa - 67.3%
The Highest Placed Veteran in the Yellow-Plus class goes to Louisa and Toffee.
BACK TO SCHOOL SQUARES RESULTS - BLUE
From Greens, we're darting back up to Blue - this is our 'Demi Dressage special', an 'introduction to canter' class Canter movements in Blue tests are straightforward/on the track, allowing young riders to get to grips with third gear in a test situation without any stress!
BLUE:
1st - Freya and Eric - 74.1%
2nd - Isaac and Robbie - 73.3%
3rd - Alix and Little Elfin - 70.7%
4th - Lennon and Oreo - 65%
5th - Lucy and Autumn - 63.9%
The Highest Placed Veteran in the Blue class goes to Freya and Eric.
BACK TO SCHOOL SQUARES RESULTS - RED
Here we have our Red class, our toughest level, and boy is this test a challenging one! Kudos to all who take on the Canter Challenge of The Red Square!
RED:
1st - India and Fliss - 72.7%
2nd - Jed and Songbird - 69.2%
3rd - Mathis and Wonder - 65.8%
4th - Ffion and Rocky the Rockstar - 64.2%
The Highest Placed Veteran in the Red class goes to Ffion and Rocky the Rockstar - who at 'only' 17 is certainly one of the younger veterans competing this month!
There was also a Special for the oldest pony competing this month, and that goes to Holly and Pride – Pride is a wonderful 27 years old <3
Our next event steps away from the dressage, and is our very inviting September Photo and Video Show! Whilst many of our dressage regulars enter, and do very well, this is also an ideal event for Demi Dressage newbies – with a range of classes to suit even the most hesitant of competitors, and no need either for a marked out arena. We do hope lots of you will join in! The full schedule of classes can be found on the Photo Show page of the website, and the closing date for entries is Friday 30th September.
Dressage returns for the October half term, with the "Spooky Eyes" Dressage running alongside our Autumn Prix Caprilli - tests for both can be downloaded from the Current Event page.
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