j1ffy
Well-Known Member
What a weekend! It started early with a trip to Wellington Area Festival on Friday to do the Novice Bronze class with Indio. His straightness issues mean that we're still not completely secure at Novice so I was really hoping for a fairly straight clear round with him working into both reins. Wellington was a new venue for us but he's such a teacher's pet that I didn't worry too much about that! He did have a brief look in the cafe during our warm up and was a bit goggly-eyed when we went into the arena, but a bit of stretchy trot and he breathed again.
Our test felt lovely - I felt I could really prepare him and he worked into both reins (albeit somewhat more supple to the left, it's a work in progress!) and push the mediums. He was a sweetie for the canter G&R as normally he struggles with this to the right, but he seemed to anticipate it and I felt him gather himself and take his weight back a stride or two before so he didn't fall on his face!
We untacked and put him back on the trailer then headed in for tea and cake (I love the cafe there!). After a while I wandered down to look at the scores and a friend spotted me and said "why aren't you tacking up?! You're in ninth!" Cue a mad dash back to the trailer, pulled off poor Indio and threw his tack on and in for the prize giving. Indio wasn't impressed and wanted to sleep through the whole thing.
Handsome boy
Then on Sunday it was Pocholo's turn! His last competition was in June 2011. In between he had three months navicular rehab at Rockley, then went back to Spain for four years on working livery at my friend's riding holiday place while I was away working in Hong Kong. Since coming back in January he's had some unfocused schooling, been nanny to youngsters or nutty horses on hacks and taught my stepdaughter to ride. I finally did his BD registration a couple of weeks ago so nabbed a late entry for a couple of Prelim classes.
He seemed happy to finally get off the yard! He loaded perfectly and behaved beautifully. I was pleased with both tests - he stayed mostly on my aids (he's a tad lazy...) and felt with me. I was still surprised to find we won the P15 with 65.4% and came second in P19 with 67.29%. What a superstar, he's so generous that he can teach a child to ride but perfectly capable of going to a competition after 5 years out and getting some decent scores.
Our test felt lovely - I felt I could really prepare him and he worked into both reins (albeit somewhat more supple to the left, it's a work in progress!) and push the mediums. He was a sweetie for the canter G&R as normally he struggles with this to the right, but he seemed to anticipate it and I felt him gather himself and take his weight back a stride or two before so he didn't fall on his face!
We untacked and put him back on the trailer then headed in for tea and cake (I love the cafe there!). After a while I wandered down to look at the scores and a friend spotted me and said "why aren't you tacking up?! You're in ninth!" Cue a mad dash back to the trailer, pulled off poor Indio and threw his tack on and in for the prize giving. Indio wasn't impressed and wanted to sleep through the whole thing.
Handsome boy
Then on Sunday it was Pocholo's turn! His last competition was in June 2011. In between he had three months navicular rehab at Rockley, then went back to Spain for four years on working livery at my friend's riding holiday place while I was away working in Hong Kong. Since coming back in January he's had some unfocused schooling, been nanny to youngsters or nutty horses on hacks and taught my stepdaughter to ride. I finally did his BD registration a couple of weeks ago so nabbed a late entry for a couple of Prelim classes.
He seemed happy to finally get off the yard! He loaded perfectly and behaved beautifully. I was pleased with both tests - he stayed mostly on my aids (he's a tad lazy...) and felt with me. I was still surprised to find we won the P15 with 65.4% and came second in P19 with 67.29%. What a superstar, he's so generous that he can teach a child to ride but perfectly capable of going to a competition after 5 years out and getting some decent scores.
