When I decided to head off to the 2015 CDI Vilamoura it came a bit out of the blue. After eight months off from competition I had been going through a huge confidence battle, and slowly over the last two months I have been gaining back that confidence until two weeks ago when I woke up and decided not only did I want to compete again, but I was going to love every minute of it.
As I am based near Lisbon, Portugal, I told my Brazilian groom Valdeni Soures Luz that in two weeks I was going to compete at the only CDI hosted in Portugal. He rolled his eyes at me as if to so, “ok Sarah, that will never happen.” Surely enough two weeks later a very surprised Valdeni set off with Batialo and myself to the CDI Vilamoura. The forecast was rain for the entire weekend, but I knew it would be sunny and hot and the weather turned out just lovely.
While it was my first ever CDI, I entered in the CDN classes because I had had a long time off and wanted to use this as a training show, to help myself and my horse get back our confidence in the arena. It was a great choice of CDI because I have now been training and riding in Portugal for five years, so the atmosphere was familiar, knowing already most of the people who there.
Still, as Vilamoura was a CDI it was different to the national shows I am used to. There is a different atmosphere and better horses as riders bring their top mounts instead of the horse they are competing for the first time. Riders know that international judges are there and they want to do the best they can. It is also great to welcome top riders from neighbouring countries, with some very good displays from the Spanish riders in particular.
Facing Competition Reality
I interview many riders about their experience at CDI level for Eurodressage and quite often the response is that "it was awesome, we arrived in great form, horse felt good, warm-up good, good in the test, really happy." I often found myself thinking “wow, that paints me quite a picture!"
I was excited more than nervous for the first ride on the Thursday. Batialo had been lunged on Wednesday and Thursday morning as he got off the truck looking fit and ready for a ten mile sprint. He was straight into his food, water, sugar lumps, or anything that remotely resembled a carrot. He was very exuberant on the first day, and I had my mum's voice inside my head saying “shoulder-in, small circles, transitions, keep him always on you, thinking what you are doing, so he can’t say “Oh wow look at that lovely flag blowing in the breeze, or that dog, human, pole, loud banging noise."
We were able to go up onto the main arena for a look and see, and Batialo spooked at the palm tree. When I walked him up to it to take a closer look, he took a nice big chuck of it and then chewed quite happily on leafy palm for a good ten minutes afterwards.
By Friday he was starting to settle and I was able to work a little more with him going forward and letting him just show off a bit while remaining in control. On Saturday 11 April, after a rather costly communication failure, we didn’t lunge him in the morning and when I began to warm-up for the test Batialo was firing on all 6 cylinders. I very quickly realised our error.
Turns out my very wise groom was saying I should lunge him and I understood that he thought I shouldn’t, so we learnt a new thing about the speed humps of multinational dressage team management. In the test, Batialo was trying to fire on 7 or maybe 8 cylinders, but I am not yet confident riding a test with that level of power, so my aim was to just very calmly ride every step and let Batialo know that in the arena it’s me in charge.
The Lusitano horses are particularly smart and training at home I have to be careful not to ask the same movement twice in the same spot. In training if I come across the diagonal and Batialo starts to begin something that he thinks he is suppose to do, I have to change my mind and do something else, until the point where I can take the diagonal and have Batialo asking me what I want, not guessing what he thinks he knew I wanted. Horses with an ego will also love to show off and as I have recently started teaching Batialo the one tempi changes the first time I took the diagonal at home to practice the two’s he gave me a one-one, and then another one one, and then a one-one-one, saying “but this is my new trick, you sure you don’t want this one?"
As a result of my desire to make sure Batialo was listening we sort of crept around the first test, the national Prix St Georges, like a snail, but I was very happy and knew that once I got the who's in charge part sorted the power part is easy to add. Nuno Oliveira used to say “to never ask for what you cannot come back from." He means don’t ask for what you cannot control and collect using your seat. It is not dressage if you fly off across the arena and then pull the horses head off at the other end.
The important thing to do, particularly if you are using the CDN to learn, is to not just look at the mark on the test, but read what the judges say, take it in, and try to work out very quickly how best to adjust your plan to make it better. My scores were quite interesting, especially since there was a 10% score difference between two judges! The judges said “more forward” and I knew that the next day, now that I felt more confident, I needed to let it “flow more out the front door”.
Getting My Act Together
On the second day, we corrected our learning curve, lunged in the morning to let Batialo have some fun and loosen up, and the minute we started the warm-up he was much more attentive to me and my aids. I have seen many top riders warming up their horses for top level tests, and one thing I have observed with the riders I admire most is that when you have a horse with natural power and exuberance, most of the warm-up is very simple and basic: relaxation and transitions.
I get confused watching riders bang about in the warm-up and fire their horses up, only to enter the arena with a tired and frustrated horse. If you can’t do the test movements by the time you get to the competition, you will not correct that in the 40 minutes before the test starts.
So on the Sunday 12 April 2015 I just did transitions, rising trot stretch, two steps collected, back into rising trot stretch. Transitions, transitions, then forward and relax, and then halting in the middle of the arena and making Batialo wait for me to tell him to move off.
By the very end of Sunday’s Intermediaire I test Batialo was feeling a little bit more tired, but he listened to me the whole test, and what a lovely feeling that is, to ride in and have the horse saying to you “yes what do you want me to do, I’m waiting, I’m waiting, I’m waiting for you to tell me”.
We even got to go to our first ever mounted presentation, and it came as a surprise to many that my horse was completely laid back and happy about it, but no surprise at all for me because when you have a horse with an ego, any attention is extremely welcome.
Batialo’s breeder Anotino Simoes from the Portuguese stud Herdade Das Figueiras rushed over to me after my ride, happy to meet another of his horses, with Batialo's siblings Dragao and Batuta also on show at the competition. Antonio seemed delighted to see Batialo in action for the first time.
What Have I Learnt in Vilamoura
As a first show experience at a CDI event I learnt so much! The very wise Kyra Kyrkland says, “ride a thousand transitions and then a thousand more." I would add ride tests, more tests, get out and see everything, because every time you go somewhere new and there is a new venue, new sounds, new trees to eat, you get a new learning experience.
A horse is very rarely the same at home as he is in the arena. My horse is far more sensitive in the test, and on the first day I lost my balance for a second and the slight shift in weight became a flying change.
I would also add that the riders I admire the most on the horse, not only have a good relationship with their trainer, but also a relationship of mutual respect and gratitude towards their groom, the person who is up at 5 or 6 in the morning, rain, hail, or shine, walking your horse past the thundering flag pole so that you don't have to sit out the surprise.
For my own note-taking I learnt that I need to adjust my warm-up time, that the new bit we were trying was ok at home (because I use the snaffle every second day) but was not good in competition, that communication (particularly multilingual) must be cross-checked, and that competition dressage can be a huge amount of fun for both horse and rider if you have the right attitude.
Vilamoura certainly put on a great atmosphere, and I do very much dream to be back there next year in the Grand Prix. One must always have a dream!
by Sarah Warne - Photos © Rui Pedro Godinho / Sarah Warne
Related Link
Eurodressage "On the Scene" at the 2015 CDI Vilamoura