henryhorn
Well-Known Member
CCj has asked me to do this as she is pretty traumatised today after an idiot woman drove into her courtesy car in a narrow lane. We have been up and measured the skid marks etc and C was virtually at a crawl and the twit woman going like a maniac.. But back to Bovington.
Fair old drive to get there, sat nav took us via some narrow lanes then we arrived at the tank museum. No horse trials signs to be seen, but a taxi driver beckoned us to follow him (another box following me at this point too) and there in the road were soldiers waving us past entrances , then more into entrances . Yet another telling us how to park. I mention this because as an event there appeared to be loads of minions many of whom spent the entire day whizzing up and down on small truck thingies, creating clouds of dust over horses and people who were all trudging backwards and forwards despairing of ever finding a way in to the action without massive detours..If only they had used the trucks as a free taxi to and from the arenas what a difference it would have made.
It's not an event we would go to again, everything is just miles apart with high wire fencing removng any short cuts, but dead level dressage arenas were nice. The ground was incredibly hard, I had difficulty getting our electric fence posts to go in at all, but they had put sandy/woody stuff down on rutted places.
The course was bigger and more imposing than th last PN, which we now realise must have been below height...
It was stiflingly hot so we kept Chocx in the box where a cool breeze blew on him.
Ten mins before her time CCJ got on him and sauntered over to the arena, trotted round once, walked to the arena, cantered round, halted and went in.
He did an accurate obdedient test, not full of power as he goes at home but it was very hot and he is 16..
When the results came up we were pleased to see he had the best score of 28.6 in that section. No pressure then! Never having been in that position before it rattled C a bit, ad although she did her utmost he had two poles down Sj, unusual for him as he normally jumps a clear round, but the surface felt pretty dead and the arena quite tight, looking at the results afterwards only 14 people managed to go clear Sj out of them all.
Bit deflating to go from pole position to lower but they tackled the Xc in early evening. I couldn't see the start and then suddenly round the corner comes Chocolate, looking very casual as he aways does, they disappeared ito the wood then re=appeared jumping down over something fairly big as they left the wood again . Sharp left hand turn and a fence I had seen quite a few people get eliminated at, Chocx cantered up and then produced a leap I swear was 5 feet in the air. It turns out it was a trakener and he was giving it plenty of room! (i didn't walk the course reason later) They made nothing of the remaining fences, as they passed me I heard her saying to him, "Come on Chocolate you idle b*****, get your self into gear!"
They actually appeared to be moving pretty fast by this point and finished exactly on the optimum time right down to the seconds..
He ended up 6th and won another £25, so his tally in three weeks is £95.. (against the probable £300 it cost to transport and run him three times , makes you realise we are mad!)
The clearance he gave some of the fences shows Novice won't be out of his reach by the end of he season, he just needs more experience as yet. And if he gets optimum time when appearing to slope along the time shouldn't be a problem either.
Bossanove gave us much needed encouragement, sad we had no idea who other people were, as it's not until you get back on here you know they were there.
I wasn't terribly well having somehow ingested wheat the day before, so didn't do much more than sit in the lorry and drink keeping cool.
We were amongst the last three lorries to leave and got home after a stop for a take away around 11pm..
Chocx is out in his field today, CCj has decided he isn't as fit as she would like him so his regime is being stepped up with more hill work. bearing in mind he walks round at least four hours a day he must be pretty fit anyway..
Our next BE is Pontispool, we're learning all the time. No work in for dressage in future, Beware of short doubles in the SJ (he refused to take of where asked and stuck a short extra stride in which made him too close) and get him to optimum fitness so on a boiling day like yesterday we have some energy to spare..
Pics will go up in the gallery later (we have written permission from the photographer, makes life easier on here!)
Oh and we think although Layla is healing very well, it may be an idea to put her in foal to Chocx for this year, what lovely foals we should get..the vet has been today and has said Jonty can go back to work again too, Diamond is sound after her bruised sole, so dare I say we may have several horses back on the road again or is that testing fate?
Fair old drive to get there, sat nav took us via some narrow lanes then we arrived at the tank museum. No horse trials signs to be seen, but a taxi driver beckoned us to follow him (another box following me at this point too) and there in the road were soldiers waving us past entrances , then more into entrances . Yet another telling us how to park. I mention this because as an event there appeared to be loads of minions many of whom spent the entire day whizzing up and down on small truck thingies, creating clouds of dust over horses and people who were all trudging backwards and forwards despairing of ever finding a way in to the action without massive detours..If only they had used the trucks as a free taxi to and from the arenas what a difference it would have made.
It's not an event we would go to again, everything is just miles apart with high wire fencing removng any short cuts, but dead level dressage arenas were nice. The ground was incredibly hard, I had difficulty getting our electric fence posts to go in at all, but they had put sandy/woody stuff down on rutted places.
The course was bigger and more imposing than th last PN, which we now realise must have been below height...
It was stiflingly hot so we kept Chocx in the box where a cool breeze blew on him.
Ten mins before her time CCJ got on him and sauntered over to the arena, trotted round once, walked to the arena, cantered round, halted and went in.
He did an accurate obdedient test, not full of power as he goes at home but it was very hot and he is 16..
When the results came up we were pleased to see he had the best score of 28.6 in that section. No pressure then! Never having been in that position before it rattled C a bit, ad although she did her utmost he had two poles down Sj, unusual for him as he normally jumps a clear round, but the surface felt pretty dead and the arena quite tight, looking at the results afterwards only 14 people managed to go clear Sj out of them all.
Bit deflating to go from pole position to lower but they tackled the Xc in early evening. I couldn't see the start and then suddenly round the corner comes Chocolate, looking very casual as he aways does, they disappeared ito the wood then re=appeared jumping down over something fairly big as they left the wood again . Sharp left hand turn and a fence I had seen quite a few people get eliminated at, Chocx cantered up and then produced a leap I swear was 5 feet in the air. It turns out it was a trakener and he was giving it plenty of room! (i didn't walk the course reason later) They made nothing of the remaining fences, as they passed me I heard her saying to him, "Come on Chocolate you idle b*****, get your self into gear!"
They actually appeared to be moving pretty fast by this point and finished exactly on the optimum time right down to the seconds..
He ended up 6th and won another £25, so his tally in three weeks is £95.. (against the probable £300 it cost to transport and run him three times , makes you realise we are mad!)
The clearance he gave some of the fences shows Novice won't be out of his reach by the end of he season, he just needs more experience as yet. And if he gets optimum time when appearing to slope along the time shouldn't be a problem either.
Bossanove gave us much needed encouragement, sad we had no idea who other people were, as it's not until you get back on here you know they were there.
I wasn't terribly well having somehow ingested wheat the day before, so didn't do much more than sit in the lorry and drink keeping cool.
We were amongst the last three lorries to leave and got home after a stop for a take away around 11pm..
Chocx is out in his field today, CCj has decided he isn't as fit as she would like him so his regime is being stepped up with more hill work. bearing in mind he walks round at least four hours a day he must be pretty fit anyway..
Our next BE is Pontispool, we're learning all the time. No work in for dressage in future, Beware of short doubles in the SJ (he refused to take of where asked and stuck a short extra stride in which made him too close) and get him to optimum fitness so on a boiling day like yesterday we have some energy to spare..
Pics will go up in the gallery later (we have written permission from the photographer, makes life easier on here!)
Oh and we think although Layla is healing very well, it may be an idea to put her in foal to Chocx for this year, what lovely foals we should get..the vet has been today and has said Jonty can go back to work again too, Diamond is sound after her bruised sole, so dare I say we may have several horses back on the road again or is that testing fate?
