AutumnRose
Well-Known Member
Right i've waited a looooooooong time to write this report so join me in a glass of vino and settle in
Pulborough BE yesterday and 8am dressage times meant that i was on the yard by 4.30am
and had a horrible slow, dark and very foggy journey there. It was still pitch black when i got there and we were the first ones there which is a first for me!!!!! There were a couple of organisers there who drove over to congratulate me on my early arrival
Did a quick run round the course in the semi light, luckily its a venue i know well so i knew the lay of the land already and found my way around. Sadly the rain this week had just made very hard ground very slippery on top but they had worked hard on take offs and landings were prepared well so i planned to run plus zooming round for time was last thing on my mind!!!
On for dressage and warmed up ok. Following a couple of disappointing scores recently i've worked on a new warm up routine to keep his attention. As he's working at a much higher level at home i feel like he's not really been concentrating on trotting circles in intro tests. I've never been first in the arena before but the judge was very smiley as i went round the edge!! Did an ok test, was pleased with the canter work particularly although we did slip on corners a bit even with 2 studs all round. Got 33.5 which i was happy with
Pic from test....
Onto show jumping. Didn't do much in the warm up as it was really small and slippery. Into the ring and he surprised me a bit by having a good look at the first jump!!!! Was just a rustic oxer but i think the sun was catching the fillers a bit strangely as i saw lots of horses look. So he got a bit of a reminder behind my leg for that and rode all the fillers very firmly just incase but he popped beautifully round the rest for a clear round.
He's making intro sj seem really easy now
Quick change for xc and down to the warm up, both the warm up fences were about 2'3 which i thought was a bit weird. Soon it was into the box and we were off. Set off firmly and aimed to keep a nice forward rhythm whilst keeping an eye for spooky things between fences!!!! He was LOVELY, much less spooky and i felt like he was really paying attention to me. 1,2,3,4 were nice, 5 was a triple bar then off a reasonable step down which he hopped off smoothly. I gave him a smack into number 6 which was rails with a ditch in front (have decided to be ultra poitive to all ditches from now on!!!) which resulted in a huge leap when he saw the ditch as he took off....7,8,9 lovely and smooth, 10 a and b was two logs on a cuve which felt fab, kicked on a little bit down to a plain rail oxer nicely. Roll top in front of water which i kicked a lot into and he took me by surprise by zooming through and leaping up step (got left behind a tiny bit!), sweetly through hanging roll top to skinny and turned for home. Chair then a big-ish oxer which i saw a lovely forward stride to, ditch to hanging log wasnt hugely pretty as i gave him a smack into ditch which resulted in big leap and then fiddling 3 strides to log but he was never not going and sorted all his legs out for me. Over 2 big steeplechase fences and then the last so......................HIS FIRST BE XC CLEAR!!!!!!!!!!! YAY!!!!!!!!
I was pretty much
through the finish with loads and loads of pats. Anyone who saw me finish probably thought i'd gone a bit mad as i possibly looked like i'd just gone through the finish at Badminton!!!!!
Turned out i got 16 time (told you i went slow
), not bothered about that at all as the ground was still very firm and it was his 3rd of 4 events in a row so i was never going to push him. PLus i want to be a bit more confident about his spooking before i go any faster.
I got an awesome xc pic of him but i forgot to ask about putting it up but i'll put link up later in week when it goes online.
I'm still on a bit of a high tbh, i know its small fry to lots of people but i've had the crappiest year and was beginning to wonder if we'd ever get everything together on the same day so i'm extremely pleased to get his first double clear under his belt
Tweseldown next week to finish, hopefully to prove yesterday wasnt a fluke
Pulborough BE yesterday and 8am dressage times meant that i was on the yard by 4.30am
Did a quick run round the course in the semi light, luckily its a venue i know well so i knew the lay of the land already and found my way around. Sadly the rain this week had just made very hard ground very slippery on top but they had worked hard on take offs and landings were prepared well so i planned to run plus zooming round for time was last thing on my mind!!!
On for dressage and warmed up ok. Following a couple of disappointing scores recently i've worked on a new warm up routine to keep his attention. As he's working at a much higher level at home i feel like he's not really been concentrating on trotting circles in intro tests. I've never been first in the arena before but the judge was very smiley as i went round the edge!! Did an ok test, was pleased with the canter work particularly although we did slip on corners a bit even with 2 studs all round. Got 33.5 which i was happy with
Onto show jumping. Didn't do much in the warm up as it was really small and slippery. Into the ring and he surprised me a bit by having a good look at the first jump!!!! Was just a rustic oxer but i think the sun was catching the fillers a bit strangely as i saw lots of horses look. So he got a bit of a reminder behind my leg for that and rode all the fillers very firmly just incase but he popped beautifully round the rest for a clear round.
Quick change for xc and down to the warm up, both the warm up fences were about 2'3 which i thought was a bit weird. Soon it was into the box and we were off. Set off firmly and aimed to keep a nice forward rhythm whilst keeping an eye for spooky things between fences!!!! He was LOVELY, much less spooky and i felt like he was really paying attention to me. 1,2,3,4 were nice, 5 was a triple bar then off a reasonable step down which he hopped off smoothly. I gave him a smack into number 6 which was rails with a ditch in front (have decided to be ultra poitive to all ditches from now on!!!) which resulted in a huge leap when he saw the ditch as he took off....7,8,9 lovely and smooth, 10 a and b was two logs on a cuve which felt fab, kicked on a little bit down to a plain rail oxer nicely. Roll top in front of water which i kicked a lot into and he took me by surprise by zooming through and leaping up step (got left behind a tiny bit!), sweetly through hanging roll top to skinny and turned for home. Chair then a big-ish oxer which i saw a lovely forward stride to, ditch to hanging log wasnt hugely pretty as i gave him a smack into ditch which resulted in big leap and then fiddling 3 strides to log but he was never not going and sorted all his legs out for me. Over 2 big steeplechase fences and then the last so......................HIS FIRST BE XC CLEAR!!!!!!!!!!! YAY!!!!!!!!
I was pretty much
Turned out i got 16 time (told you i went slow
I got an awesome xc pic of him but i forgot to ask about putting it up but i'll put link up later in week when it goes online.
I'm still on a bit of a high tbh, i know its small fry to lots of people but i've had the crappiest year and was beginning to wonder if we'd ever get everything together on the same day so i'm extremely pleased to get his first double clear under his belt
Tweseldown next week to finish, hopefully to prove yesterday wasnt a fluke
