Advice on whether this is a good idea please - only a quickie

[jules89]

Tomorrow there is a local hunter trial 2 mins down the road at one of the loveliest places in the forest.

There is a 2"9 and a 3"3 (hardly up to height but you know what I mean)

I was thinking of taking Z for a jolly, just ridden him out in a pelham and he was v gd in it.

Gd idea? Yey or Ney?

Am walking course at 3 so will have a good idea whether to do the 2"9 or 3"3 but is this a good idea? And if it is do you think the pelham or waterford? (he is running through the waterford a bit atm and I want to try the pelham in a way and would rather do it at an unaff HT than BE)

 

[LEC]

Waste of time doing 2'9 just do 3'3 or go round twice.

The only way you can tell if bits work is by going xc. Nothing else gives you an idea otherwise.

 

[archoak]

I think he'll be fine, you only did a few jumps yesterday and as long as he's had some turnout today I would go

 

[connie1288]

Yeh you can enjoy it with no pressure, I agree with Lec though, not much point in 2'9 as you wont get a good enough feel of what he would be like at your normal level.
As you say, good time to try new bit when not recorded!!
Good luck.

 

[jules89]

ok cheers guys

the 3"3 does have lower options if everything goes wrong

will take a few pics of course to show u later

Thanks

 

[jumptoit]

Go for the 3ft 3 and try out the pelham!

 

[jules89]

ok thanks guys, have walked the course and here are some pics :

palisade

ski jump

wall

the ground is perfect, really springy old turf

 

[cheekycharley]

Looks lovely, good luck!

 

[langside]

good luck

watch out for the scary flags

 

[jules89]

haha they're odd aren't they! Lets hope Zeb isn't scared of them

 

[Thistle]

Hope nothing hits those flags, bamboo canes are lethal when split.

 

[TarrSteps]

You're probably both due for a "fun", low stress outing and this seems just the ticket.

I find it's great when you're working on skills for a higher level to drop back a bit from time to time and give yourself space to concentrate on practising/perfecting the things you're paying attention to without the pressure of jumping larger jumps, going faster, doing trickier movements etc. Since is a situation like that placings aren't the goal, I usually try to pick a few things I'm going to really concentrate on, to MAKE myself do - specifics like make sure I'm keeping my weight balanced, or perfect my release, or make myself wait to the jump, or make sure the horse is soft before I ask for a movement, or insist on the horse always going off the leg or whatever I've been working on at home. That way you can judge what's working and what's not. If you just have very general things you kinda, sorta want done, like say, keeping a rhythm, that's great but it's not as helpful, I find, as saying "I'm going to keep a good rhythm by checking it this way and doing x, y, and z to maintain/correct accordingly.'

Of course there's nothing bad about just wanting to go out and have a blast but, as they say, there are only so many jumps in the horse and, especially if it's a lovely horse with a great future like yours, there's no harm in making it count.

Hope you have a good day out.

 

[jules89]

Thanks

I wouldn't do it if there was a sniff of a doubt that the ground, for instance, was bad, but in all honesty it is 100x better than the ground at Mattingley, and as I may not get a PN run before my next BE, this seemed like a good option,

I am going to be soft into every fence, still have a good pace/rhythm on but then work on being able to set up without interfering and generally having a nice, happy, funfilled round

 

[shee]

good luck, have fun and enjoy yourself

looking forward to hearing the report of how everything went

 

[jules89]

I will try and get a vid of him flying

lets just hope the new brakes work!