j1ffy
Well-Known Member
Indio and I had one of those educational but not so good on paper days at Hartpury for the PetPlan Area Festival on Sunday!
First up was Elementary Bronze. I pretty much rode like a muppet. Apparently washing line reins and hoping everything looks nice isnt an appropriate tactic above Prelim! Other than a disagreement about taking a fifth step the rein back and Indio needing a poo in the first Medium trot (he's only just learnt that pooing in the arena is possible - typical! - and is yet to learn that he doesn't need to slow down to to it. On the plus side it meant he didn't poo on the lorry...) there were no major blips, just all a bit flat for 61.96%.
Three hours, lunch and a gentle arse-kicking from my superb eyes-on-the-ground later, I shortened up my reins, got Indio on the bit and headed into our Medium Bronze test. Indio managed to get it all out in the warm-up this time so no poo-gates likely at least...
It all felt a lot better, I was feeling very pleased with it then got three movements ahead of myself! Error of course so 2 points deducted per judge...oops. Indio then objected to me not letting him take over in the walk pirouette so another major blip. Other than that I felt we did pretty much as well as we can do at the level - watching the video there is a lot I can improve on, Im on a steep learning curve at Medium but its good fun! With the errors I was very happy to be on the right side of 60% and not last 😝
I have so much love for Indio, he was a pro and he feels so good when I ride him properly. Lots more work to do and I cant wait! Hartpury put on an excellent Festival - everything ran bang on time, the stewards, volunteers and judges were lovely and the catering spot-on.
Ill be brave and share the video of my Medium: https://youtu.be/dxJ7KA-2RJY
And some screen grabs:
First up was Elementary Bronze. I pretty much rode like a muppet. Apparently washing line reins and hoping everything looks nice isnt an appropriate tactic above Prelim! Other than a disagreement about taking a fifth step the rein back and Indio needing a poo in the first Medium trot (he's only just learnt that pooing in the arena is possible - typical! - and is yet to learn that he doesn't need to slow down to to it. On the plus side it meant he didn't poo on the lorry...) there were no major blips, just all a bit flat for 61.96%.
Three hours, lunch and a gentle arse-kicking from my superb eyes-on-the-ground later, I shortened up my reins, got Indio on the bit and headed into our Medium Bronze test. Indio managed to get it all out in the warm-up this time so no poo-gates likely at least...
It all felt a lot better, I was feeling very pleased with it then got three movements ahead of myself! Error of course so 2 points deducted per judge...oops. Indio then objected to me not letting him take over in the walk pirouette so another major blip. Other than that I felt we did pretty much as well as we can do at the level - watching the video there is a lot I can improve on, Im on a steep learning curve at Medium but its good fun! With the errors I was very happy to be on the right side of 60% and not last 😝
I have so much love for Indio, he was a pro and he feels so good when I ride him properly. Lots more work to do and I cant wait! Hartpury put on an excellent Festival - everything ran bang on time, the stewards, volunteers and judges were lovely and the catering spot-on.
Ill be brave and share the video of my Medium: https://youtu.be/dxJ7KA-2RJY
And some screen grabs:
It might be a while since I've commented on an Indio thread but the offer still stands if you ever want rid of him... The broken leg's nearly sorted too so it's perfect timing really 
