{"id":99,"date":"2017-01-16T16:25:48","date_gmt":"2017-01-16T16:25:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/forelockandload.local\/?p=99"},"modified":"2024-03-13T13:01:15","modified_gmt":"2024-03-13T13:01:15","slug":"striding-into-2017-1st-stride-being-bd-regionals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.citrus-lime.com\/flld\/striding-into-2017-1st-stride-being-bd-regionals\/","title":{"rendered":"Striding into 2017 \u2013 1st stride being BD Regionals"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

2016 will be a year to remember \u2013 for the good and the bad.\u00a0 Making a career move that I thought was a dream role to realise it was far from it, to then make the life changing move from employment and city life to being self-employed and a business owner and working in the equestrian world.\u00a0 On the riding front we managed to get over some HUGE hurdles.\u00a0 Jumping for the first time in over a year and later having a first jumping lesson in over 2 years!\u00a0 For us getting back over a fence was a really big deal and it just felt so right, the timing and everything just fell into place.\u00a0 But with the dressage\u2026 Theo has just gone from strength to strength, with 5 wins from 10 and always being in the top placings he\u2019s certainly cemented himself as a dressage pony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But what does 2017 have in store?  First stop is the British Dressage Regional Championships for the Novice Freestyle.  Sadly because of the schedules in this area we don\u2019t have a warm up so will effectively going in cold, at a venue we\u2019ve only been to once and with a floorplan and music we\u2019ve only been able to put into practice twice in the last seven months.  So how are we preparing ourselves for what will be, unless we qualify for Nationals that is, our last Novice appearance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re working on the incremental developments \u2013 yes we\u2019ve been to a few sports psychology sessions!  We\u2019ve reflected on our previous performances, we\u2019ve analysed the videos and we\u2019ve formulated a game plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our weaknesses are consistently straightness and our medium trot, with canter being our biggest strength.  So our home training plan consists of lots of focus on straightness.  Having eyes on the ground to point out when we are slightly quarters in is really helping and working out that my hips are slightly out of alignment and need work has been key.  With the straightness in both him and me comes the medium \u2013 et voila!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However it isn\u2019t quite that simple.  We could gain an extra half or whole mark in our transitions but making them crisper and more uphill, in our walks by using my seat and not my legs and in our artistry marks by making sure we are bang on the music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

So the plan?? The plan is making a plan, having a mental game plan, working on improving those small incremental goals so that we have an overall gain.  We\u2019re focusing on the small, manageable wins, and hoping and praying that it turns into an overall win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Physical planning and preparation is also key \u2013 working on a nutrition plan with Baileys and Protexin Equine Premium<\/a> to make sure that he\u2019s in the best possible condition to produce his best work, both in his fitness programme and in his competitive work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what I\u2019m really saying is we\u2019ve built ourselves a support TEAM.  A team of supporters, not just supporters like Forelock & Load<\/a> (who are amazing and giving us a round of applause) but supporters like horse and human physio, sports psychologist, trainer to work us on the fundamentals, a performance coach to make the slight changes that can make all the difference, advisers on feeding and supplements and most importantly those supporters that are going to come and hold our hand when it matters.  Because we realised that that best way of getting to where we want to be, is together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sarah Skillin<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

2016 will be a year to remember \u2013 for the good and the bad.\u00a0 Making a career move that I thought was a dream role to realise it was far from it, to then make the life changing move from employment and city life to being self-employed and a business owner and working in the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":98,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-99","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-equestrian"},"featured_image_src":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Kirstie","author_link":"https:\/\/blog.citrus-lime.com\/flld\/author\/kirstie\/"},"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.citrus-lime.com\/flld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.citrus-lime.com\/flld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.citrus-lime.com\/flld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.citrus-lime.com\/flld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/98"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.citrus-lime.com\/flld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.citrus-lime.com\/flld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2201257,"href":"https:\/\/blog.citrus-lime.com\/flld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99\/revisions\/2201257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.citrus-lime.com\/flld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.citrus-lime.com\/flld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.citrus-lime.com\/flld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}