North Island Seconadary Schools Dressage

Was Great. Joanne came and watched Cruises tests. Thankfully she also brought a saddle (Wintec Isabell) that fitted him (Turns out his dressage saddle wasn't fitting him, though it wasn't cause of his back problem, it wasn't helping either)

our first test was 2.2 (in the sand arena) - Totally screwed it up. Cruise was very tense and excited, I partially bullshitted my way through it - I had to lengthen and leg yield. but Cruise struggled with leg yield due to his back still being not 100% .

I thought I had come dead last for sure in this test.

Cruises Prelim 1.4 (grass arena), test went a lot better. he was much calmer and did everything perfectly. in fact the only thing we got marked down on was his bend on one rein (Purely due to his back) so once his backs done hes gonna be on fire!
Results surprised me a bit - I came 9th in 2.2 out of 25 (I was impressed!) and i managed a 2nd place in 1.4! I was stoked. First thing Ive won on Cruise. So this has now convinced me to do dressage winter series =] Though first of all i need to save up for a Isabell saddle.

Cruise is Broken

Well its been a while since I've updated this. So a weeks ago (early march) Our school team had a quick entry into Waikato Secondary Schools Showjumping.
in short - It was a complete disaster. Cruise broke entirely. Wouldn't jump, studded himself, was so tense and freaked out etc etc.
So he was taken home immediately and the Vet came out. We suspected he had tied up. but took bloods and they came back clear.

So we turned to a chiropractor. We took Cruise to see Joanne Andrew who is a spinal therapist
and turns out his back was definitely causing him pain, enough for him to just breakdown.
So Cruise stayed a week in Matamata and in that time he had two treatments.
We had a dressage competition not long after his treatment but thankfully he was going to be okay during it.