Christy Shuall Dressage Coaching

16/10/2024

Hurray! Final qualifying score gained for Music Winter Regionals on Sunday at Little Mill 🎉🎉🎉. I can’t say it felt like our best test to date with lots of little mistakes, which I am guilty of focusing on far too much! But actually it didn’t look anywhere near like it felt 😂😜, so we finished on 69.17% (needed 68% to qualify). I need to focus on the good more in future whilst riding a test, whereas honestly I’m going round thinking, ‘damn that’s half a mark gone, oh god and another’ 🫣- it would be good to be able to take my judges hat off whilst I ride I think !!!!

09/09/2024

What a wet weekend ! I honestly wasn’t sure if we would go Sunday to Little Mill BD due to the floods Friday night by us! They were epic, and so feel for those that had their homes flooded 💔But the rain slowed enough so the roads were driveable again, but I can’t say it stopped 😂🫣. Just about dried out now, but it was worth getting soaked as we got our remaining qualifying points for winter regionals 😀. And Zorro got his first 9 for his final centre line 🙌. Full credit to him to stay straight in the rain ! ☔️ chuffed to bits with him ❤️

27/08/2024

21/08/2024

Today’s training exercise. Zorro is having a fairly easy time of it over August, mainly just hacking, but we had a little play today in the ménage just to mainly work on me and my straightness. It’s something I struggle with following various injuries. So set myself a task of simple changes with no stirrups and limited my hand use by holding a whip across the two hands to form a bridge so as to keep my hands from doing it all! It’s an exercise I like to do with lots of my clients as it really does focus the brain on what else needs to work instead of your hands! And of course the no stirrups adds an extra challenge (although note that I avoided trotting with this exercise 🤣🫣). The simple changes aren’t perfect, but this was more about me today and the change of bend coming from my legs and seat than getting Zorro perfect 😄

07/06/2024

Summer regional qualification completed Wednesday at Beacons 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉
Thank you Simon Rees for the photo ❤️

15/05/2024

Lovely morning at Lower Stocklands BD with the main man Zorro 😁. Two red frillies and two qualifying scores for regionals 🎉🎉🎉. He really is such a dude - not totally up to fitness due to having another abscess after Nationals, and again a totally new venue to him (I have yet to take him to the same place twice 🤣🤣🤣🫣🫣🫣), and still nothing fazes him 👌🏼.

15/04/2024

Professional photos of the weekend and a few others 🤗. Zorro the absolute star that he is! Thank you to all the people who helped get us there, it really was touch and go as to whether we would get there or not. Main thanks have to go to my amazing kids who looked after their dad who was just out of hospital with double pneumonia while I was away, and to Emma Thompson Warren for coming with me! And thanks to all the many others that helped, you know who you are 🤗, but if I name you all this post will turn into some sort of weird Oscar style speech which is just a bit embarrassing 🤣🤣🤣.
So most importantly which of this photos should I frame ? Someone please help me decide ?!🫣

25/02/2024

Little boy Zorro gained two qualifying tickets to the BD Nationals at Novice Silver and Novice Silver Freestyle at Little Mill regionals this weekend❤️🤩
So lovely to be out again at a big show, been a while 🤣. Thanks to Little Mill for running a super friendly event, and lovely to catch up with people Erica Drozd. Thank you Emma Thompson Warren and Bryley Llewelyn for grooming and support, and Sharon Latchford for doing the stables, especially welcome as I spent most of the weekend coughing and sneezing 🙈🤣
Photo deluge to come once photos of all days released ❤️