HufflyPuffly
Well-Known Member
Skylla is a pretty black and white thinker, she either likes it and is super up for it or she doesn't like it full stop!
An example of this is a bitting clinic I went to with Hilary Vernan. Skylla has always been a little fussy in the contact in every bit I've tried, I had decided it was therefore clearly a schooling issue, it was only findings from the Chiropractic vet that led me to go to the biting clinic. One ride in the bit Hilary suggested and she took the contact and was happy to take it forward and down! Apparently she had just been telling me she didn't like all the other bits lol!
Anyway, first outing of the weekend was on Saturday, down the road for some very low key showjumping. Last time I went no-one else turned up, so we were excited that there were other actual competitors there! First up the 70cm, now although Skylla loves her new bit as she is very confident to take a contact, it isn't very helpful for jumping as she was erm, a touch strong
. However, a nice double clear and somehow we managed to win the jump off! A red jumping rosette on my very own horse 
.
Thought maybe we should push ourselves to do the 80cm with fillers and everything 😱. I have no idea why show jumps freak me out more than XC ones 🤦ðŸ¼â€â™€ï¸ðŸ¤·ðŸ¼â€â™€ï¸, but there you go 80cm looks big currently 😂. However, Skylla was awesome and jumped her socks off for another double clear (just!) and second place.
80cm round:
Then after the highs of Saturday it was back to earth with a bump for our first attempt at express eventing on Sunday!
SJ looked fine after the confidence of Saturday and XC, had a couple of tricky fences, but otherwise looked ok.
Warmed up and Skylla felt great, reasonably polite (I’d put the flash back on). Into the showjumping, and she wanted to look at everything that was going on 🤦ðŸ¼â€â™€ï¸, however the fences were kind. Rolled a pole off 6, as she was way too complacent and I didn’t insist on getting her back on her hocks enough. Then came round to the double disunited and distracted, so unsurprisingly she stopped 🤦ðŸ¼â€â™€ï¸. Jumped fine the second time and finished well!
Onto the XC, and there were a few issues out on course, so we had a little time to get our breath back and have a wee (Skylla not me 😂). Set off and bless Skylla, she isn’t great with other horses and one finishing meant she just took her eyes off two (scary red dragon), so we wobbled to a stop, snorted at it and then circled and popped it.
Legged it off with me a little 🤦ðŸ¼â€â™€ï¸ to 3 and massively unlucky that another horse galloped past just as we got to the fence and Skylla downed tools at a horse passing her that close. Her personal space issues meant she just couldn’t deal with that and jump! Jumped on the third attempt but she was super rattled by this point and carted me to four, where she didn’t read it as she was just running, stopped and tried to run out and I may have parted company 🤦ðŸ¼â€â™€ï¸.
Lovely fence judge said I could get back on and continue, so the couple of mins this took just gave Skylla chance to calm down. Back on she popped 4.
Then there was a lovely stretch to settle into a rhythm before 5, a log with a drop landing and one stride to a small box fence. Flew over, had a gallop to 6 another small log. 7 a slightly bigger log she whizzed over, another long stretch before the small corner (when we came to school I might have jumped the open corner as I wasn’t sure what would be in the class 😂🙈). 9 was a rail with a slight drop in landing, then it was the ditch complex, tiny peek before bouncing through. 11 was a lovely roll top to 12 a house. 13 she finally realised the pressure on the reins meant slow down 😂, before bouncing up and down the bank, before another roll top at 14, slightly scary here as the landing side ran away downhill quite steeply so glad she came back to me to turn right!
Another nice canter stretch before walking down the steep slope to the water, splashed through and jumped the small blue fence out. 16 was a trakehner, which Skylla had zero issues at, same with the chair fence before a gallop to the finish over a box with hedge at the top ☺ï¸.
So a frustrating start of the day, but we (me) learnt loads!!! I need to kick myself to ride every fence with enough attention, she is green and getting distracted on her part is expected! Plus more work on her personal space issues with other horses, she was genuinely, massively upset at the other horse coming that close at speed and needs a better reaction than ‘sod that I’m out’ 😂🙈.
We've another hunter trials next weekend, so I'm hoping it will be a more confident day for her without other horses being too close!
An example of this is a bitting clinic I went to with Hilary Vernan. Skylla has always been a little fussy in the contact in every bit I've tried, I had decided it was therefore clearly a schooling issue, it was only findings from the Chiropractic vet that led me to go to the biting clinic. One ride in the bit Hilary suggested and she took the contact and was happy to take it forward and down! Apparently she had just been telling me she didn't like all the other bits lol!
Anyway, first outing of the weekend was on Saturday, down the road for some very low key showjumping. Last time I went no-one else turned up, so we were excited that there were other actual competitors there! First up the 70cm, now although Skylla loves her new bit as she is very confident to take a contact, it isn't very helpful for jumping as she was erm, a touch strong
. However, a nice double clear and somehow we managed to win the jump off! A red jumping rosette on my very own horse .Thought maybe we should push ourselves to do the 80cm with fillers and everything 😱. I have no idea why show jumps freak me out more than XC ones 🤦ðŸ¼â€â™€ï¸ðŸ¤·ðŸ¼â€â™€ï¸, but there you go 80cm looks big currently 😂. However, Skylla was awesome and jumped her socks off for another double clear (just!) and second place
.
80cm round:
Then after the highs of Saturday it was back to earth with a bump for our first attempt at express eventing on Sunday!
SJ looked fine after the confidence of Saturday and XC, had a couple of tricky fences, but otherwise looked ok.
Warmed up and Skylla felt great, reasonably polite (I’d put the flash back on). Into the showjumping, and she wanted to look at everything that was going on 🤦ðŸ¼â€â™€ï¸, however the fences were kind. Rolled a pole off 6, as she was way too complacent and I didn’t insist on getting her back on her hocks enough. Then came round to the double disunited and distracted, so unsurprisingly she stopped 🤦ðŸ¼â€â™€ï¸. Jumped fine the second time and finished well!
Onto the XC, and there were a few issues out on course, so we had a little time to get our breath back and have a wee (Skylla not me 😂). Set off and bless Skylla, she isn’t great with other horses and one finishing meant she just took her eyes off two (scary red dragon), so we wobbled to a stop, snorted at it and then circled and popped it.
Legged it off with me a little 🤦ðŸ¼â€â™€ï¸ to 3 and massively unlucky that another horse galloped past just as we got to the fence and Skylla downed tools at a horse passing her that close. Her personal space issues meant she just couldn’t deal with that and jump! Jumped on the third attempt but she was super rattled by this point and carted me to four, where she didn’t read it as she was just running, stopped and tried to run out and I may have parted company 🤦ðŸ¼â€â™€ï¸.
Lovely fence judge said I could get back on and continue, so the couple of mins this took just gave Skylla chance to calm down. Back on she popped 4.
Then there was a lovely stretch to settle into a rhythm before 5, a log with a drop landing and one stride to a small box fence. Flew over, had a gallop to 6 another small log. 7 a slightly bigger log she whizzed over, another long stretch before the small corner (when we came to school I might have jumped the open corner as I wasn’t sure what would be in the class 😂🙈). 9 was a rail with a slight drop in landing, then it was the ditch complex, tiny peek before bouncing through. 11 was a lovely roll top to 12 a house. 13 she finally realised the pressure on the reins meant slow down 😂, before bouncing up and down the bank, before another roll top at 14, slightly scary here as the landing side ran away downhill quite steeply so glad she came back to me to turn right!
Another nice canter stretch before walking down the steep slope to the water, splashed through and jumped the small blue fence out. 16 was a trakehner, which Skylla had zero issues at, same with the chair fence before a gallop to the finish over a box with hedge at the top ☺ï¸.
So a frustrating start of the day, but we (me) learnt loads!!! I need to kick myself to ride every fence with enough attention, she is green and getting distracted on her part is expected! Plus more work on her personal space issues with other horses, she was genuinely, massively upset at the other horse coming that close at speed and needs a better reaction than ‘sod that I’m out’ 😂🙈.
We've another hunter trials next weekend, so I'm hoping it will be a more confident day for her without other horses being too close!
