Stormy123456
Well-Known Member
So on Sunday we set off to the Fernie Teamchase with both Ballet and Spanner, one entered into the Intermediate and one in the Novice. Novice is ‘bogey’ time, but Intermediate is as fast as you can go. 
We had walked the course for the Intermediate the day before, and thought that it was big, but fairly inviting, apart from the usual MASSIVE drop fence, which was taller than me (And I'm 5'11"..) and the two hedges on a ridiculous angle with a stride between them. We were all a bit confused about what to do with this fence, as in front of the first element there was a sign saying 'Intermediate: Please circle between these hedges if you don't plan to be competitive' - Obviously for safety reasons.
We left it and said we'd see how they were going, although I knew Ballet would be better to go straight through them.
I had a quick glance at the Novice, and got an idea of where the course ran, and then met my Novice team members, who had kindly allowed me to join them having never met them before! I warmed Spanner up away from everyone else, and then took her into the collecting ring and popped a warm up jump before joining the rest of the 'More Cunning Stunts'.
We set off fairly quickly, with Spanner and I in 2nd place, and she was flying, pinging everything. Well, what can I say – she was fab! She kept up in 2nd most of the way around, even though the other horses were much bigger than her, with much bigger strides and were really going quite fast. Having jumped about half of the course, and the lead horse slowed up before the water as it had done with every other fence, as though it was balancing itself, but then decided it didn’t like the look of the water and stopped. Which left us careering into its hindquarters, doing our best to avoid a crash – our very quick gallop to halt transition made me lose my stirrups, and I gave her a nudge hoping to make her go forward before the other two did the same gallop to halt transition behind us. And Spanner put one foot after the other over the log and down the step into the water and we carried on. She jumped superbly – I really could not have asked for better from her.
We got back to the trailer where Ballet was doing her best efforts to re-join Spanner, rearing whilst tied to the back of the trailer (with a horse friend we borrowed for a few minutes!). Obviously far too attached to Spanner!
My photos with Spanner: We are the little chestnut mare. And please note her saddle tends to push my leg back an unflattering amount. I don't have the problem on any other horse!
http://www.everybodysmile.biz/hoofp...e_es102.php?Cat=Novice-41 MORE CUNNING STUNTS
This video was taken by Burty, and shows the whole team Spanner and I are the little liver chestnut mare in 2nd most of the way around.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVcNVbCgqKg&feature=share
Next up was theIntermediate, after a Pimms
and an ice cream as it was actually a lovely day with some really good friends, and we warmed up well had one jump in our order and walked over to the starter. I’d put Ballet in the Waterford in a last effort to apply some brakes, but seeing as I’ve never had them when we’ve been teamchasing before, I wasn’t expecting them to magically appear that afternoon. We were riding under the name of ‘The Trollied Dollies’.
Flag went down and Ballet and I lead from the very start, with Rider 2 sat comfortably behind us. We set off at a very fast pace, and took all the numbers 4, 5 and 6, which were all big hedges on some impressive angles (I am very proud of my old mare – she never ceases to amaze me).
Hedge 3:
After this was a good fast gallop to a big hedge at 7, and a right angle to a very, very large hedge at 8. When stood behind this hedge it must be around 6 foot. No joke..
Ballet is known for taking a fence on, and surprised me by taking off a stride away, hence the surprised left behind look!
Professional Photos taken of us: We are the darker big bay, first to jump every jump. They took photos of the massive drop hedge, the water, the horrible angled hedges, and a post and rail fence.
http://www.everybodysmile.biz/hoofp....php?Cat=Intermediate-09 THE TROLLIED DOLLIES
I love the next one in the sequence of that jump for some reason.
At this point myself and Rider 2 had become very far infront of Rider 3 and 4, and upon advancing on the pen (where you have to have 12 hooves on the ground in a very small amount of space between 2 jumps), we had to stop and walk a few circles before we could continue without being penalised. We got through it ok, and carried on, but found the front two horses getting a long way infront of the other two again.
Then left handed over a hedge, and straight on over the next hedgerow.
Straight on over yet another hedge:
Then over a palisade, up a steep slope to a log on a funny angle:
Then to the water, where I had managed to get quite far ahead of 2nd rider, so took my time and jumped down the Open part as I saw the photographer Click next a fair few times, I was lucky enough to have a lot of photos taken
Then left handed to a hedge:
Then a really good long gallop up a hill to a hedge at the top, and then over a tiger trap, a set of rails with a horrible ditch before.
Then the most vile pair of hedges on a truly horrible angle with the stride between them. I knew I hadn’t enough control to do a small enough circle to get back to the 2nd hedge, so I decided to do it straight. Well I well and truly ballsed up the line. I got 1 and a half strides, and I honestly believe my little horse should have ditched me there and then. By some miracle she picked up and got us over the 2nd part. We landed very steeply, and the photos do reflect my ‘miss’.
Rider 2 also did the hedges on the angle, but both rider 3 and 4 (quite sensibly!) did a circle and got a really lovely photo over them. Two more hedges and we finished quickly, Rider 3 and 4 came in a bit later, but we had a really good round.
I had such a brilliant day, both my horses excelled themselves. Spanner was brilliant, and I could not have asked more of a 6 year old, but Ballet at 18 is truly incredible – I’ve never sat on a horse with so much power, and I know I have a horse in a million. Teamchasing really is a sport which should be better acknowledged so much fun, and one of the best horse sports to watch!
All images posted on here, as opposed to the links are courtesy of Russ Cross.
Tea and Biscuits if you got this far!
We had walked the course for the Intermediate the day before, and thought that it was big, but fairly inviting, apart from the usual MASSIVE drop fence, which was taller than me (And I'm 5'11"..) and the two hedges on a ridiculous angle with a stride between them. We were all a bit confused about what to do with this fence, as in front of the first element there was a sign saying 'Intermediate: Please circle between these hedges if you don't plan to be competitive' - Obviously for safety reasons.
We left it and said we'd see how they were going, although I knew Ballet would be better to go straight through them. I had a quick glance at the Novice, and got an idea of where the course ran, and then met my Novice team members, who had kindly allowed me to join them having never met them before! I warmed Spanner up away from everyone else, and then took her into the collecting ring and popped a warm up jump before joining the rest of the 'More Cunning Stunts'.
We set off fairly quickly, with Spanner and I in 2nd place, and she was flying, pinging everything. Well, what can I say – she was fab!
She kept up in 2nd most of the way around, even though the other horses were much bigger than her, with much bigger strides and were really going quite fast. Having jumped about half of the course, and the lead horse slowed up before the water as it had done with every other fence, as though it was balancing itself, but then decided it didn’t like the look of the water and stopped. Which left us careering into its hindquarters, doing our best to avoid a crash – our very quick gallop to halt transition made me lose my stirrups, and I gave her a nudge hoping to make her go forward before the other two did the same gallop to halt transition behind us. And Spanner put one foot after the other over the log and down the step into the water and we carried on. She jumped superbly – I really could not have asked for better from her. We got back to the trailer where Ballet was doing her best efforts to re-join Spanner, rearing whilst tied to the back of the trailer (with a horse friend we borrowed for a few minutes!). Obviously far too attached to Spanner!
My photos with Spanner: We are the little chestnut mare. And please note her saddle tends to push my leg back an unflattering amount. I don't have the problem on any other horse!
http://www.everybodysmile.biz/hoofp...e_es102.php?Cat=Novice-41 MORE CUNNING STUNTS
This video was taken by Burty, and shows the whole team
Spanner and I are the little liver chestnut mare in 2nd most of the way around.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVcNVbCgqKg&feature=share
Next up was theIntermediate, after a Pimms
and an ice cream as it was actually a lovely day with some really good friends, and we warmed up well had one jump in our order and walked over to the starter. I’d put Ballet in the Waterford in a last effort to apply some brakes, but seeing as I’ve never had them when we’ve been teamchasing before, I wasn’t expecting them to magically appear that afternoon. We were riding under the name of ‘The Trollied Dollies’. Flag went down and Ballet and I lead from the very start, with Rider 2 sat comfortably behind us. We set off at a very fast pace, and took all the numbers 4, 5 and 6, which were all big hedges on some impressive angles (I am very proud of my old mare – she never ceases to amaze me).
Hedge 3:
After this was a good fast gallop to a big hedge at 7, and a right angle to a very, very large hedge at 8. When stood behind this hedge it must be around 6 foot. No joke..
Ballet is known for taking a fence on, and surprised me by taking off a stride away, hence the surprised left behind look!
Professional Photos taken of us: We are the darker big bay, first to jump every jump. They took photos of the massive drop hedge, the water, the horrible angled hedges, and a post and rail fence.
http://www.everybodysmile.biz/hoofp....php?Cat=Intermediate-09 THE TROLLIED DOLLIES
I love the next one in the sequence of that jump for some reason.
At this point myself and Rider 2 had become very far infront of Rider 3 and 4, and upon advancing on the pen (where you have to have 12 hooves on the ground in a very small amount of space between 2 jumps), we had to stop and walk a few circles before we could continue without being penalised. We got through it ok, and carried on, but found the front two horses getting a long way infront of the other two again.
Then left handed over a hedge, and straight on over the next hedgerow.
Straight on over yet another hedge:
Then over a palisade, up a steep slope to a log on a funny angle:
Then to the water, where I had managed to get quite far ahead of 2nd rider, so took my time and jumped down the Open part as I saw the photographer
Click next a fair few times, I was lucky enough to have a lot of photos taken Then left handed to a hedge:
Then a really good long gallop up a hill to a hedge at the top, and then over a tiger trap, a set of rails with a horrible ditch before.
Then the most vile pair of hedges on a truly horrible angle with the stride between them. I knew I hadn’t enough control to do a small enough circle to get back to the 2nd hedge, so I decided to do it straight.
Well I well and truly ballsed up the line. I got 1 and a half strides, and I honestly believe my little horse should have ditched me there and then. By some miracle she picked up and got us over the 2nd part. We landed very steeply, and the photos do reflect my ‘miss’. Rider 2 also did the hedges on the angle, but both rider 3 and 4 (quite sensibly!) did a circle and got a really lovely photo over them. Two more hedges and we finished quickly, Rider 3 and 4 came in a bit later, but we had a really good round.
I had such a brilliant day, both my horses excelled themselves. Spanner was brilliant, and I could not have asked more of a 6 year old, but Ballet at 18 is truly incredible – I’ve never sat on a horse with so much power, and I know I have a horse in a million. Teamchasing really is a sport which should be better acknowledged so much fun, and one of the best horse sports to watch!
All images posted on here, as opposed to the links are courtesy of Russ Cross.
Tea and Biscuits if you got this far!
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