Arniebear
Well-Known Member
So my last update saw an eventing report from LD2 that didnt quite go to plan! In a moment of madness? or weakness? who knows i was bullied to cross the dark side and enter a BD!
The week after LD2 and the run up to our *hopefully* fleeting visit to the dark side didnt exactly go to plan either i somehow managed to come unattached from said horse and land in a heap in the arena..... from this i can conclude 1) horses really do see ghosts and 2) my arena at least has a soft landing.... 17.2 is a bit of a way to fall! Im not entirely sure what happened other than he spooked at nothing! and shot out from underneath me when landing from a fence, thankfully my sister had literally just put the camera down so theres no photographic evidence of my dismount! I remounted and we succesfully negotiated the showjumps as a pair
Onto our BD dilemma, I am by no means a dressage rider and i will in fact go as far as to say i *used* to hate it! I just hate it a little less nowadays, it probably has something to do with the fact i find it a little dull (if jumps are in the way then usually something entertaining happens!) anywho my sister is the dressage rider in our family - up to medium on her previous horse so this does come with some perks..... a long arena at home with all the letters in place to practise my failings and a BD book of all the tests to apprently fail to learn correctly! The dilemma of registering and entering for BD began, i believe they are a little behind the times.... well compared to BE anyway. After a lot of confusion and some help from a friend we were finally registered for associate membership (which is free - so god knows why it took the effort it did!) and then came the even bigger dilemma of entering with the venue.... dear god this took some patience!
Same horse and rider into 2 classes, both novice classes.... easy right?? mmmmm apprently not! I filled the forms in correctly so when times came out and i only had a time for the first novice i was a little annoyed, simple human error thou i had just been forgotten, quite a few phone calls later asssured it would all be sorted and to check the revised times later that day. Well i did and low and behold i was riding my boy in the first novice twice and apprently riding someone elses horse in the second novice..... very nice of them to let me but id rather ride my own! Lots more phone calls later and we finally had out times for both novices!
I'll skip the schooling session that didnt end well when my friend who was helping me go through my tests was deposited into a hedge by her steed all because the laminated test sheet made a noise :/ i felt a little bad but it was sort of funny as she managed to pull the bridle clean off in the process!
Onto sat we picked up our lorry buddy (friend who i give lifts too!) and headed over to the dark side! First test (N23) went ok, i say ok as he went lovely a little lack luster in the medium trots (needs more from behind!) but his canter work was nice. Numpty rider however forgot a movement so threw some marks away heyho came out with a score of 62.3% and 3rd.... cant complain with that for our first affiliated result
Onto N38 we arent fully established in counter canter yet so what will be will be, well superstar pony did yet again a lovely test all where it should be this time and we scored 65% to come 4th!!
Very proud of the bear we arent dressage minded, he would rather jump and quite frankly so would i, i put up with the dressage so we can event! but he had earned himself 5 shiny BD points for his record and although the scores arent world beating i think they are pretty good for a first attempt at BD especially as we havent ridden a novice test since march! Obviously room for improvement.... but thats whats winter is for!
A few pics of us in action!
So our trip to the dark side was a successful one and theres even a possibility we may return when the event season is over, there's whisperings of the winter membership but we wont let bear hear those just yet! My friend who shared a lift had a successful day too, it was nice to be out competing in a more chilled environment, but the mayhem of eventing beckons us next as we head to aston le walls on sat for another bash at 90! Not before of course an obligatory day off work tomorrow to hoon around the beach!! So exicted to play in the sea with bear!
To end the weekend we went out for a jolly yesterday and stumbled across some stubble fields.... well it would be rude not to have a play and we even managed to sneak in some skinny practise in head of aston on sat!
Thanks for reading my ramblings, im tempted to start a blog so i dont always have to bore you lot!! Plus its nice to record how things go i think! A work in progress still thou
The week after LD2 and the run up to our *hopefully* fleeting visit to the dark side didnt exactly go to plan either i somehow managed to come unattached from said horse and land in a heap in the arena..... from this i can conclude 1) horses really do see ghosts and 2) my arena at least has a soft landing.... 17.2 is a bit of a way to fall! Im not entirely sure what happened other than he spooked at nothing! and shot out from underneath me when landing from a fence, thankfully my sister had literally just put the camera down so theres no photographic evidence of my dismount! I remounted and we succesfully negotiated the showjumps as a pair
Onto our BD dilemma, I am by no means a dressage rider and i will in fact go as far as to say i *used* to hate it! I just hate it a little less nowadays, it probably has something to do with the fact i find it a little dull (if jumps are in the way then usually something entertaining happens!) anywho my sister is the dressage rider in our family - up to medium on her previous horse so this does come with some perks..... a long arena at home with all the letters in place to practise my failings and a BD book of all the tests to apprently fail to learn correctly! The dilemma of registering and entering for BD began, i believe they are a little behind the times.... well compared to BE anyway. After a lot of confusion and some help from a friend we were finally registered for associate membership (which is free - so god knows why it took the effort it did!) and then came the even bigger dilemma of entering with the venue.... dear god this took some patience!
Same horse and rider into 2 classes, both novice classes.... easy right?? mmmmm apprently not! I filled the forms in correctly so when times came out and i only had a time for the first novice i was a little annoyed, simple human error thou i had just been forgotten, quite a few phone calls later asssured it would all be sorted and to check the revised times later that day. Well i did and low and behold i was riding my boy in the first novice twice and apprently riding someone elses horse in the second novice..... very nice of them to let me but id rather ride my own! Lots more phone calls later and we finally had out times for both novices!
I'll skip the schooling session that didnt end well when my friend who was helping me go through my tests was deposited into a hedge by her steed all because the laminated test sheet made a noise :/ i felt a little bad but it was sort of funny as she managed to pull the bridle clean off in the process!
Onto sat we picked up our lorry buddy (friend who i give lifts too!) and headed over to the dark side! First test (N23) went ok, i say ok as he went lovely a little lack luster in the medium trots (needs more from behind!) but his canter work was nice. Numpty rider however forgot a movement so threw some marks away heyho came out with a score of 62.3% and 3rd.... cant complain with that for our first affiliated result
Onto N38 we arent fully established in counter canter yet so what will be will be, well superstar pony did yet again a lovely test all where it should be this time and we scored 65% to come 4th!!
Very proud of the bear we arent dressage minded, he would rather jump and quite frankly so would i, i put up with the dressage so we can event! but he had earned himself 5 shiny BD points for his record and although the scores arent world beating i think they are pretty good for a first attempt at BD especially as we havent ridden a novice test since march! Obviously room for improvement.... but thats whats winter is for!
A few pics of us in action!
So our trip to the dark side was a successful one and theres even a possibility we may return when the event season is over, there's whisperings of the winter membership but we wont let bear hear those just yet! My friend who shared a lift had a successful day too, it was nice to be out competing in a more chilled environment, but the mayhem of eventing beckons us next as we head to aston le walls on sat for another bash at 90! Not before of course an obligatory day off work tomorrow to hoon around the beach!!
So exicted to play in the sea with bear!To end the weekend we went out for a jolly yesterday and stumbled across some stubble fields.... well it would be rude not to have a play and we even managed to sneak in some skinny practise in head of aston on sat!
Thanks for reading my ramblings, im tempted to start a blog so i dont always have to bore you lot!! Plus its nice to record how things go i think! A work in progress still thou
