Gamebird
Well-Known Member
Just be grateful that all I can manage this time of night is some mild alphabetisation! So, Jerry's BE90 debut with me (we've both done it before, just not with each other 
):
I just can't believe the weather today. I you'd told me it was July I'd have believed you. Bear in mind that on my last trip to Draycott I was nearly knocked over by horizontal hail and the boards all blew across the arena during my dressage test. As it was, my cold-weather eventing kit (hunt shirt, fleece-lined gloves, ski socks) was never going to be appropriate with temps getting up to 21C at times. What with all the shorts and vests on display you could nearly have been on a Caribbean cruise (yeah, OK
).
I was there ridiculously early for my times so played the ever entertaining 'swan around like you've got hours to kill then make a last minute dash for it and be late even though you started off early' game
. It didn't work though so after 20mins poncing around the dressage warm up I still had 20mins to go so I wandered over to watch the carnage (sorry 'BE90 show-jumping' 
). I'll stop being flippant for 5 secs because there was the most horrific accident - someone came off on the XC and their horse got loose and galloped straight through the SJing ring, jumping both ropes. It bounced off a parked car, tried to jump another rope, dragged it with its legs then tried to jump the hedge/ditch into the XC warm-up but didn't make it and landed upside down at the other side. It was a horrific fall, like some pointing accidents I've seen. It didn't look good tbh, and I don't know the outcome but I really, really hope that the horse was OK 
.
Soooo, back to the story..... we did a nice test. I cranked up the canter a notch or two as we'd been out at unaff dressage at the weekend and been thoroughly slated for collecting the canter too much. Apparently I overdid it today as I got comments of 'canter needs more collection'. Bah, you just can't win 
The show-jumping was interesting. The ring was massive with loads of room between the fences - just what you need on a horse whose accelerator is permanently stuck to the floor within sight of coloured poles and who is never going to be backed off by 90cm 
. There was a related distance in a straight line between 1 and 2. Most did it on six, quite a few on seven and I even saw a successful eight strides. I was therefore rather surprised to be launched into orbit before I'd even counted to five! . The 'standing off and pretending the fences were 1.20' theme continued for the round, except for the one fence where I really had him back on his hocks and at a deeper spot and inevitably had it down .
So to the XC. Allegedly Jerry is 'naughty' XC (I include the inverted commas as I'm not entirely sure what 'naughty' entails!). After a distinctly deep spot and cat leap at 2 I remembered that even strong horses need riding forward and could hear the commentator all the way round saying 'cracking jump at fence...' . I apologised to the fence judge at 2 at the end of my round and they assured me that they'd seen worse. So a nice clear
I then hung around for the results, pretty much assured of a place as my dressage turned out to be a reasonable 32.5 (after being hammered for the overly forward canter). And hung around, and hung around. About two hours later they posted 5.2 time faults for me - my first in about 2 years! However plenty of people got them and like my husband kindly said tonight: maybe today wasn't about breaking records, just getting a feel for a new horse. It was good enough for 10th place - Jerry's best ever placing - so everyone's happy.
Thanks to BaggyBreeches who took time out of her busy workday (personally I'd call it skiving) to come and laugh at my show-jumping efforts. Out loud. In the middle of the warm-up
Wine (can't tell you what it is, didn't even look at the bottle before I poured) and fresh pineapple (offsetting my day-before-payday diet of three stale hot-cross buns) to all who've got this far!
):I just can't believe the weather today. I you'd told me it was July I'd have believed you. Bear in mind that on my last trip to Draycott I was nearly knocked over by horizontal hail and the boards all blew across the arena during my dressage test. As it was, my cold-weather eventing kit (hunt shirt, fleece-lined gloves, ski socks) was never going to be appropriate with temps getting up to 21C at times. What with all the shorts and vests on display you could nearly have been on a Caribbean cruise (yeah, OK
).I was there ridiculously early for my times so played the ever entertaining 'swan around like you've got hours to kill then make a last minute dash for it and be late even though you started off early' game
. It didn't work though so after 20mins poncing around the dressage warm up I still had 20mins to go so I wandered over to watch the carnage (sorry 'BE90 show-jumping' ). I'll stop being flippant for 5 secs because there was the most horrific accident - someone came off on the XC and their horse got loose and galloped straight through the SJing ring, jumping both ropes. It bounced off a parked car, tried to jump another rope, dragged it with its legs then tried to jump the hedge/ditch into the XC warm-up but didn't make it and landed upside down at the other side. It was a horrific fall, like some pointing accidents I've seen. It didn't look good tbh, and I don't know the outcome but I really, really hope that the horse was OK .Soooo, back to the story..... we did a nice test. I cranked up the canter a notch or two as we'd been out at unaff dressage at the weekend and been thoroughly slated for collecting the canter too much. Apparently I overdid it today as I got comments of 'canter needs more collection'. Bah, you just can't win
The show-jumping was interesting. The ring was massive with loads of room between the fences - just what you need on a horse whose accelerator is permanently stuck to the floor within sight of coloured poles and who is never going to be backed off by 90cm
. There was a related distance in a straight line between 1 and 2. Most did it on six, quite a few on seven and I even saw a successful eight strides. I was therefore rather surprised to be launched into orbit before I'd even counted to five! . The 'standing off and pretending the fences were 1.20' theme continued for the round, except for the one fence where I really had him back on his hocks and at a deeper spot and inevitably had it down .So to the XC. Allegedly Jerry is 'naughty' XC (I include the inverted commas as I'm not entirely sure what 'naughty' entails!). After a distinctly deep spot and cat leap at 2 I remembered that even strong horses need riding forward and could hear the commentator all the way round saying 'cracking jump at fence...'
. I apologised to the fence judge at 2 at the end of my round and they assured me that they'd seen worse. So a nice clear I then hung around for the results, pretty much assured of a place as my dressage turned out to be a reasonable 32.5 (after being hammered for the overly forward canter
). And hung around, and hung around. About two hours later they posted 5.2 time faults for me - my first in about 2 years! However plenty of people got them and like my husband kindly said tonight: maybe today wasn't about breaking records, just getting a feel for a new horse. It was good enough for 10th place - Jerry's best ever placing - so everyone's happy.Thanks to BaggyBreeches who took time out of her busy workday (personally I'd call it skiving
) to come and laugh at my show-jumping efforts. Out loud. In the middle of the warm-up Wine (can't tell you what it is, didn't even look at the bottle before I poured
) and fresh pineapple (offsetting my day-before-payday diet of three stale hot-cross buns) to all who've got this far!
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