Macclesfield Riding Club 02.03.08

The day started off great - I went skiing! Dolsey decided she had had quite enough of being bathed thank-you very much, and smartly trotted off down the yard with me in tow.
After my yard owner kindly caught hold of Dolsey and stopped her from taking me skiing down the fields, I decided that perhaps it wasn't a good idea to keep a stroppy cob inside all day no matter how clean I wanted to keep her. And so I decided to put her out in the paddock which is very grassy and not at all muddy. Another skiing lesson from Dolsey later, and I had her wrapped up from head to toe so that there was no possibility of any mud touching and part of her. I then went to the paddock with her and let her graze on the lunge - when I noticed that her snuggy hood was a bit too close to her eyes and so went to fix it. Dolsey had other ideas. She saw me coming and must have thought I was playing a brilliant game whereby somebody chases you saying 'please dont fall over the lunge rein', whilst she bucks, squeals and motorbikes around a wet paddock. What fun.
A red face later I decided that enough was enough. I wasnt going to take any more messing from my pony and that she would come inside and behave like any other horse would. Dolsey was not amused by this and trudged as slowly as possible back to her stable, occasionally giving me a powerful evil look. I attempted to see what the damage was in terms of mud on her, whilst she danced around pretending that she was still galloping around the paddock. It was at this time when I thought that I would probably have to give her something to calm down, and so she was given some So-Kalm which seemed to work well for her. I thought coloured cobs were meant to be sane?
Some time later and she was loaded (walked in without fuss) at the show (no trembling with anticipation, in fact she fell asleep in the box!) and ready to go into the ring. I thought that she might have lost some of her usual sparkle with her being newly calm, but no, she was a total speed demon as usual, but less tense. The class was absolutely huge and took ages to judge but it was worth it as we came 3rd. She did a fab trot and a good gallop with no tense bucks or rounding of the back. Definitely going to buy some more of that calmer!