A rare event report from me (with pics!) plus advice needed

[Paint it Lucky]

Warning: very, very long, please grab a drink or some food in order to sustain you until the end of this post! (In my defence I am a wannabe novelist so can't write anything that isn't long!)

Haven't done a report on here for a while if ever so thought it was about time I did! Took my coloured warmblood over to Tweseldown at the weekend to do their unnaffiliated 90cm ODE. It was basically round the BE intro track under BE rules, if I had more money I would love to affiliate but as I don't this series seems to be the next best thing.

Anyway went to walk the cross country course on friday night, it started off quite straight forward and I was feeling fairly confident. Nice straightforward fences which looked like they would suit being met on a good forward stride, some of them wide but nothing too challenging. Got to number 7 which was a corner, probably the first question of the course, not too difficult so long as you got a good line, you came at it from the right hand side and path naturally swept past it so I noted to make sure I got a good swing outwards so I could come into it straight, was very easy to run past it on left, which is my horses favourite side to run out on!

Next was a sunken road which we've done before so not too worried about, was feeling fairly confident and then turned the corner to be faced with two new fences, first a brush topped roll top, probably about a metre high, quite wide based but also a bit narrow and off a turn, not too bad, until I saw after it was an even bigger brush topped roll top, just three strides away on a curving line to the right. Walked line several times knowing it would be very easy for horse to just run past it to the left if I didn't make the turn. Worried about how big it was (1m10 at lowest point I'd think) and wondered if I should have entered the 80cm class instead!

The scary fence:

The line it was on (seen from landing side)

Got to next fence which was a really wide solid wood table that was definately up to height. Again felt quite queasy.

Don't think this picture does it much justice!

After that you only had to splash in and out of the water twice which I always find slightly confusingly simple compared to the other things you have to jump but there you go. Most other jumps were quite straightforward. Some quite big or inviting a run out but only other slightly worrying one was atwo stride angled double though as this was too seperate jumps I decided that if I was having trouble here at least I could circle between them to get both lines right, if he was going well I would just jump them both on the angle.

Went home and worried about the huge brush and turn at fence 10. I was'nt due to compete until sunday and it was a two day comp so as I had saturday afternoon off work I decided to go and watch some other people riding the intro to see how it jumped. Very glad I did, everyone I saw jumped the difficult fences well. The fence judges did tell me there had been problems at them, but luckily I didn't see any so went home feeling much more confident. (Also took some nice pics, if anyone was riding in the intro on saturday pm (generally early ones) let me know and I may have some of you).

Went home feeling much more confident and got my horse ready. One of my friends asked if she could come with me which was great as I am normally on my own. Got there sunday morning with plenty of time to spare and yet still managed to not give myself as much time as I needed to warm up for dressage! It was very misty so initally we couldn't find the warm up arena as it was hidden in fog! Eventually did and I started to warm up then realised I had left my camera in the car so sent friend back to get it. Whilst she was gone the steward told me I had the wrong hat on as I was wearing my fixed peak one which doesn't have a tag in it (didn't realise you needed hat tagged for dressage), so when poor friend reappeared from trek across the lorry park I had to send her away again to bring back the right hat this time! Horse was a bit jolly to start with which was good, then I think he realised we were doing dressage and became much more lacklustre! Went a bit flat and tense, had to try and get him to stretch down and swing forward, was starting to achieve this when steward said it was time to go in, luckily freind had reappeared with the correct hat by then. Also glad she was there as she reminded me to drop my whip which I would have forgotten and been elimainted for (have done this before!) Could have done with another ten minutes really but went in anyway. Did an ok test but felt I couldn't really push horse as he wasn't fully through yet and I knew he would just hollow on me if I did. He was a little lazy through some transitions but I tried my best to keep it accurate and pleasant looking. Came out feeling a little disappointed but feeling I'd got the best out of him that I could have done at that moment.

Pic to show how foggy it was, horse going quite well for him here:

In his tenser moments he goes more like this, sort of sticks his neck out and doesn't really want to use himself fully:

Nice halt at the end

Anyway next onto the more exciting bits! Showjumping, horse instantly perked up when we got to the warm up, went into camel mode and bouced around, pulling me into all the fences and jumping them all easily out of a forward stride. Decided he didn't need much warming up as didn't want to kill his enthusiasm or risk a mistake so just jumped a few and then went into ring. Horse knew exactly what he was doing and after getting a little deep to fence 1 flew over all the others, taking strides out and generally charging around having a great time! Felt a bit mad but we finished inside the time and clear which meant a very happy me! Also heard dressage score was 37, not our best but roughly what I'd expected (think judges were being generous actually!), now found myself of in my normal position of having done a reasonable dressage and clear SJ, which meant I would have to try and go clear inside the time cross country (I always do try but doing well in the first two puts a bit more pressure on I think, had I done badly in them I could have just jollied around not really caring!) (Sorry no showjumping photos as it was very foggy and friend was struggling to get to grips with my camera.)

 

[Paint it Lucky]

Continued-

Fortunately I needed the pressure as it makes me ride better particularly over bigger fences. Quick change of tack to a stronger bit (had SJ'ed in a snaffle but did not think this would be enough for cross country given his keen mood!) Got to warm up much earlier than needed to to find there was hardly anyone there. Steward said I could go in three horses time so decided this was best rather than waiting around. Got him to jump a largeish log stack in the warmup which I had previously been scared of (was forcing myself to be brave), he flew it easily which made me feel alot more confident. As I had now walked the XC course three times I felt I knew it pretty well and was confident how to ride it and shouldn't manage to forget to jump any fences (have done this before!). Went to start box, got counted down, set off at a keen canter through an additional water jump (large puddle across the track as it was quite wet there), which horse who is sometimes a bit of a pansy over getting wet just charged through. First jump had flowers on it so was a bit worried he might spook at these, rode positively at it and he sailed over. Next few he cleared all of easily, cantering in a great forward rhythm and meeting most on a good stride, not giving me any reason to worry he might run out or past them.

Landing over fence two, friend had not quite got to grips with camera yet!

Fence five was on quite a sharp slippery turn, was just setting him up for this, came round corner when two fence judges ran out infront of me waving flags and shouting stop!

Obviously I pulled up, worried at first that there must be something wrong with my horse. They told me that wasn't it though, someone had had a fall further out on course. Calming down slightly (although obviously worried for the rider, it was at fence 10, the one I'd been dreading, so this ebbed away my earlier confidence quite quickly!) Walked around for a bit and then got off as radio said they might be awhile. Fortunately the rider seemed to be ok and decided to retire. After chatting to the fence judges for awhile I was allowed back on. Gave my horse a quick warm up back to the previous fence and then cantered him round that corner again, hoping we could quickly regain out rhythm. Fortunately fence 5 was quite an easy one and though he met it a little awkwardly after that was a nice open stretch and I was able to ride him on and get back into our stride again. Sailed fence 6 which was a log pile and then galloped up a hill towards the corner that was fence 7. Made sure I slowed him down and went wide to get a good line into it. Horse vaguely considered veering left but I was shouting 'straight!' quite firmly at him as well as holding him to the line so he thought better of it and popped it quite nicely. Down the hill again to the sunken road which he scrambled through (stride is a little long for him so just let him slow down and find his own way). Then we were approaching the dreaded fences 9 and 10, I had my heart in my mouth but was determined that as we had cleared everything else so well I would have to really try to clear these two. Got a good line into 9 which he sailed over, thought he might be hard to turn but actually he turned really easily, locked onto the scary brush that was ten and just sailed over it on the perfect stride, not even making it feel big. Pro photographer was there and got a beautifull photo of us (which I bought), I had my eyes closed (did have them open for most of it honest!) but horse looks beautifull.

Heres a link to pro picks which hopefully works, I'm the first horse on the Sunday 11.30 screen and then again a few rows down. Bought number 54.4.002 but not sure if I'm allowed to post it.
http://www.johnbritterphotography.com/eventpics/tdownun212/8/

I landed giving him lots of praise and then galloped on towards that huge table fence I had also been worrying about (see photo above). Horse made it feel easy. We splashed through the water, didn't feel we had time to establish canter was forced to trot into the wide oxer that was a few strides away, horse jumped it easily and after that everything else felt easy to him.

Have video of this but don't think its' working.

He cleared the angled double without a second thought (had never met one of those in a competition before), sailed the last two and to my amazement and jubilation we were home clear! Doesn't happen very often for us, we normally have one stupid mistake so I was very very pleased. My parents had also come to watch which was unusual so hurried up the hill to tell them, only to be shoe-ed back down again by the commentators! Gave my horse a good walk around and lots of pats then walked him back to and round the lorry park wanting to be extra carefull to ensure he was colled down properly as the ground had been quite wet and clayie in places(though actually alot better than I'd expected). Decided that as we'd gone double clear I may as well wait around to see if we'd come anywhere though didn't hold out much hope after the mediocre dressage.

Mum came back fro the secretaries to say we were lying in third which was quite exciting, though we had 29 time penalties which I was surprised by as thought we had gone quite fast (I am no good at time keeping!) Unfortunately it was still early in the class, and mum being completely non-horsey had'nt really added up everyones scores properly. We ended up coming 14 which I didn't think was too bad. There were quite a lot of people in the section and only one person managed to make the time which was the winner which made me feel slightly better, alot of people had penalties in the teens or twenties so I wasn't too far behind. It had been extremely wet on the friday so ground conditions weren't ideal though in fairness the sand at Tweseldown had drained very well. Had I not got those time penalties we would have been third but this isn't really a good argument as had the ground been better I'm sure everyone else would have been faster too! Anyway I was very pleased with how my horse had gone and will use it as a learning experience, will try to allow myself longer to warm up for dressage next time and also try to be quicker cross country. Had a great day and can't wait until next spring now so we can get going all over again! Was going to ask for some advice but this post is so long I think I will leave it. Well done to anyone who got this far, has taken me nearly an hour to write all this so hope it didn't take you that long to read it!

Think this photo sums up our day quite well, also shows a possible reason I never make the time across country!

 

[FfionWinnie]

Lovely horse and I love your reporting style too. Very well done

 

[Dece11]

Well done on a good day. I was there on sunday but withdrew as I was'nt happy with the ground on the x country and the fact that I couldn't see more than a few feet in front of me due to thick fog !

 

[LeannePip]

what a lovely post to read - well done - looking forward to having a go next year althoug may just do the 80

 

[lex2501]

What a brilliant report, I really enjoyed reading it do thank you for sharing! All the photos are stunning but particularly like the one you bought - great momento from a great day!! Beautiful horse too

 

[Paint it Lucky]

Thanks FfionWinnie and Dece11, LeannePip and lex201

Thought I would add the advice bit too, posted a few weeks ago about how horse had been a bit off lately, not really using himself fully, reluctant to engage behind or be consistent in the contact. Anyway got vet out and he has one very tiny bone chip in each hind fetlock joint. Vet thinks this has probably been bothering him and causing his poor performance. Vet also thinks the chips have been there since he was a yearling and he has just adapted to them, only now really showing as a problem as I have been asking him to use himself more lately. (As well as our eventing we also try to do dressage at ele/mediumish level but he has good and bad days with it). Vet suggested joint injections for now to see if they help. Long term solution would be surgery to remove the chips but obviously this is a big thing, will be very expensive (he's not insured), obviously has it's risks and no guarantee I'll get a sound horse back at the end of it

Decided to give the injections a try to see if they made any difference, well they defiantely did hence why we went out eventing last weekend! Vet said it would be a good test of his soundness and how effective they had been, checked him monday morning and there was no heat or swelling in his legs, lunged then rode him today and he is fine, perfectly sound still, so now that the injections have worked I am less inclined to want to put him through surgery. He lives out all the time currently and would need at least 6 weeks box rest after it which I'm not sure how he'd adapt to (I'm sure he'd cope but he'd probably be miserable, there are no other horses who live in on the yard apart from one at night so he'd be stuck on his own most of the time). The chips are right under the back of the fetlock which I think would be awkward to get at due to all the tendons/ligaments etc that are over them though vet assures me it is doable. He might have other problems caused by the chips which we don't know about yet (would get him scanned prior to surgery so we knew if anything else needed treating too). I think mainly I am scared that costs will spiral out of control, I am worried about putting him through surgery and then for his sake about all the rehab that comes afterwards. The fact that the chips have always been there makes it hard for me to believe they can cause so much of a problem (he is 13). I'm told surgery near a joint increases the risk of arthritis. And because he is now sound and going so well I find myself think of all the things I could be doing with him over the winter.

Am I selfish not to want to put him through surgery? Part of me does want to but I think the cost is a major stopping point combined with the potential stress to him. But if I don't do it the chips will still be there potentially aggravating him, even if he can't feel them, and porbably doing damage to the structures that run over them, which one day may be un-repairable. Vet says if we just medicated him yearly I could probably get another 4-5 years out of him before he breaks down. If I go for surgery I could get 10 or more but who knows? It is a really hard decision. I love my horse, have had him a long time and want to do what's best for him. Vet also suggested I could just loan him as a happy hack or low level competition horse as he could probably cope with that quite happily with the chips, but I can't bear the thought of not having him! It ight be easier if I didn't already have another horse (a 24 year old) as I could just buy another one to compete on and let my coloured boy have an easier life, but I don't want the extra expense and commitment of having 3, I barely have any free time as it is! If I do put him through surgery I want to do it soon really, so he is off over winter and can be brought back into work again ready for next years event season. But I am finding it really hard to make a decision! Please help! xx