As a long-term owner of ex-racehorses, I am a member of the Retraining of Racehorses association, often known as RoR. To be eligible for RoR status, your horses must have a Wetherby's passport with a registered name. This allows you to compete in dedicated RoR leagues in many disciplines. Mister Mister, who I purchased back in August 2022, has turned his hoof to a variety of things during his retraining, and I decided this year to enter an unaffiliated RoR dressage league at preliminary level. The league started in April and finished in September, with the Championships in October.
During this league, Mister (as we call him) has just gone from strength to strength and over the year we have obtained four first places, two second places and one third place. We are very excited to be attending the awards ceremony on 2 December this year to find out where we placed in the league overall.
Unaffiliated shows are such a great way to introduce horses to dressage without the high costs of affiliated events, and often without the strict rules too. For horses who are fresh off the track, dressage is usually a calm and controlled environment to introduce them back into the competition world, with most horses prone to getting fizzy when jumping or in a busy showring. Often at unaffiliated shows the judge will also let you carry on completing your test if you have a little “drama”, whereas at affiliated events you would be eliminated or forced to retire.
Mister has been a testament to this process, starting at a very unbalanced and unsteady Intro level and finishing the year dipping into Novice level with a very respectable 64+%. Even if dressage is your worst nightmare, it can be such a great starting point if you wish to get out competing.
Hopefully, I will be able to share some great news after the Championship Awards on 2 December!
Once again I threw Arlo in at the deep end, affiliating him purely for the Arena UK second round show, and once again he pulled it out the bag. How lucky am I to have such a wonderful little horse? We haven’t really competed this year. I don’t really compete over the winter, and also my horsebox was away for repairs up until the beginning of June, so I had no transport even if I’d wanted to.
With the dry ground we don’t seem to be having much luck with shoes, as little madam managed to pull both her front shoes off within 12 hours the other day! We entered the arena with two shoes on for a schooling session and left it with one missing (took about an hour to find it). Then that afternoon, as I went to put some hoof ointment on, I looked down and had to double take, thinking I was looking at the wrong hoof. But, no, the other shoe was missing too.
After having a long wait and some lunch at the onsite café, it was time to get ready for the Joan Wolfe Overall Supreme Shetland Pony Championship. I got changed out of my usual showing outfit into black trousers and a maroon top with white spots, as you are expected to be a bit more “bling” in the evening.
We were all set to go for our next outing, and were super excited. That was until I heard the dreaded clunk of a loose shoe! I checked it over, praying it wasn’t too loose, but, nope, it was going to need a refit.