Marquire
Well-Known Member
Yesterday was the Area festival in Aberdeenshire for us Scottish peeps. I had qualifying sheets for both Prelim and Novice so was doing both.
We had been threatened with rain but thankfully it stayed off as Grumpy Boy hates to get wet. The warm up was going well until some horses in the field behind the warm up arena decided to have a massive gallop around. GB decided the top end of the arena was then super scarey and I had 5 minutes of him stopping spinning and generally being a complete arse. I had just finally just got him to trot at this end of the arena without him having a complete fit when the steward said I had to go and do my test. Not the best really.
He went into the test arena feeling about 17hh (He's 15.3hh) and proceeded to prance around like a lunatic. After about 15 seconds the judge tooted and I had no option but to go for it. To me it felt on the borderline of out of control and TBH I was just glad to get through it as he felt like an unexploded bomb. Imagine my surprise when the results came out and we were 1st equal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We got a sash and everything and I have to admit I was quite tearful. GB was still in a rage for the prize giving, refused to put his ears forward for the photographer and then tried to piss off with me in the lap of honour. How embarassing.
An hour later we had to warm up for the Novice restricted class. Thankfully, GB had forgotten about the gremlins at the bottom end of the warm up arena but he was still very much on his toes and I didn't dare ask for medium canter as I wasn't sure I'd be able to stop. The test itself wasn;t too bad until the first medium canter when GB decided he was reinacting 'the charge of the light bridage' down the long side and totally forgot he was 'snaffle mouthed'. By brute force I managed to get him back to working canter before the corner but both judges noted that he was 'resistant coming back to working canter'. That was putting it mildly! In the second medium I didn't ask for much extension and the little sod decided to do three changes up the longside instead. I have never been so glad when a test has been over.
I wasn't holding out much hope for the results but obviuosly the judges saw something they liked because we came 2nd so I had another prize giving and another ' wall of death' lap of honour.
Very tired today but really pleased with my little monster!
We had been threatened with rain but thankfully it stayed off as Grumpy Boy hates to get wet. The warm up was going well until some horses in the field behind the warm up arena decided to have a massive gallop around. GB decided the top end of the arena was then super scarey and I had 5 minutes of him stopping spinning and generally being a complete arse. I had just finally just got him to trot at this end of the arena without him having a complete fit when the steward said I had to go and do my test. Not the best really.
He went into the test arena feeling about 17hh (He's 15.3hh) and proceeded to prance around like a lunatic. After about 15 seconds the judge tooted and I had no option but to go for it. To me it felt on the borderline of out of control and TBH I was just glad to get through it as he felt like an unexploded bomb. Imagine my surprise when the results came out and we were 1st equal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
An hour later we had to warm up for the Novice restricted class. Thankfully, GB had forgotten about the gremlins at the bottom end of the warm up arena but he was still very much on his toes and I didn't dare ask for medium canter as I wasn't sure I'd be able to stop. The test itself wasn;t too bad until the first medium canter when GB decided he was reinacting 'the charge of the light bridage' down the long side and totally forgot he was 'snaffle mouthed'. By brute force I managed to get him back to working canter before the corner but both judges noted that he was 'resistant coming back to working canter'. That was putting it mildly! In the second medium I didn't ask for much extension and the little sod decided to do three changes up the longside instead. I have never been so glad when a test has been over.
I wasn't holding out much hope for the results but obviuosly the judges saw something they liked because we came 2nd so I had another prize giving and another ' wall of death' lap of honour.
Very tired today but really pleased with my little monster!
