Result

It's only fair that I report back on my first ever dressage competition that I did yesterday. I suspect that 0.3% of you readers are actually interested in this - it being an odd sort of hobby to do at the weekend.

The cold was particularly biting and bone aching, the sort that whipped your lips into blood-red chappedness in an instant, the sort that had you uncontrollably chattering and shivering, the sort that goes so deep that even my internal organs were screaming for a duvet. Goddamn it was cold. So if us humans were chilly and jumping up and down on the spot to keep warm, I guess it was reasonable that the horses felt the same and acted in a similar way.

For those of you not in the know, dressage is a controlled and beautiful discipline where the horse and rider act in unison to perform a number of movements in an arena - the test being judged on its fluency, straightness, suppleness and rhythm. It looks so darn easy, trotting in circles and straight lines. Let me tell you its not, and its doubly not when the horse is cold and fly-bucks around the warm up arena. I did well to stay on but you don't get judged for that.

(I came 7th with 60% if anyone is interested)