Cullohill
Well-Known Member
Yesterday was our trip to Aston Le Walls, was quite a big day for us as our last go at Intermediate didnt go too well and this was only our 4th go at this level, since then weve done IN classes with mixed results. Luckily our last outing to Knaptoft went well so I wasnt feeling too over nervous.
I peeled my eyes open at 5am woke Budsie up who was lying down napping happily, was rather pleased lifting his pyjamas up not to find too many stable stains. Got all jobs done loaded up and off we went.
Arrived to almost fly past lorry park, realised it was very wet and theyd change parking about a bit. Went off to walk course, it was beautiful. To me it was a true Intermediate track some nice big bold fences and some accurate skinnies. Was quite a step up from novice track at Knaptoft and were lots of questions for me and Bud especially on the skinny front. I decided I would go all direct routes unless something dramatic happened and knew Id have to ride the very best I could to have a good round.
Dressage was quite exciting walking past xc start and first few fences of the course over to dressage well Bud thought it was uber exciting!
Luckily when I got over there he settled quickly and warmed in brilliantly, unfortunately after our short break when I picked him back up he had gone a bit wooden and not as soft. He did a good test but just wasnt as nice and soft as he can be but I was happy. We got 30.5 so I was rather surprised!! But then others were in the very low 20s so it was all relative the judge was obviously marking low and it was a competitive section so we werent in the top few.
SJ lovely up to height course on the surface, I told myself to ride forward but ended up getting him a bit wound up collecting him on corners as the fences came very quick then thinking forward so he was a bit tense, just had one down from me hooking on corner and ending too close to square oxer so he came down on it. Annoyed with myself for trying too hard and not letting him do his stuff, lesson learnt.
XC was nervous but only for the fact I knew if I didnt ride 100% it would go wrong so put pressure on. I gave myself a good talking too and we went out start box like little silver bullet Bud felt amazing he flew first 2 out his stride then didnt bat eyelid at brush into water , over skinny log pile under tree then flew ditch hedge. Then to skinny treasure chest in middle of field, I kept legs on and focused on straightness and over we flew, sharp left to a corner he clocked on to it and popped lovely, up bank to log on top then it was down short steep bank sharp right to corner, earlier in season it was flagged separately so we did circle bit this time it was one fence so had to make sure got the turn, I sat up made the turn and with bit of a growl and kicks we were over, then to massive wide fence saw a flyer wow he has so much scope over we went, then to double of pheasant feeders popped those lovely, motor on up to steeplechase then to my worry fence .. suspended log up steep bank another log on top down steep bank to wide very skinny triple brush .. we were over the logs then at top of bank I saw a woman behind the triple brush I screamed course kept riding few pony club kicks and a bit of verbal encourage and the boy did it, massive pats and kicked on down to hayrack flew that, then sharp right turn to skinny hedge open ditch skinny hedge, through that like a pro then to another bogie fence a trakenar, gave him one behind girth on way over but he didnt need it didnt even look flew it sharp left to jump over big log straight into water luckily we had bit of momentum and my long legs flapping as he just had a look but we were splashing through the water and legs on to skinny brush on way out, then turned to big two steps up onto bank then down to skinny hedge then kicked on over last to finish.
Then the tears flowed, yes I know soppy but I was just so happy, I jumped off and sobbed into Buds sweaty neck and patted him to death. It was the most amazing xc round ever. He was back to focused brave and honest Bud and just jumped incredibly I was just so happy.
Eventually scores went up and to my surprise we only got 3.6 time faults which was very very good as most had few more. I didnt even try hard for the time I think because he jumped so many out his stride and hes easy to turn we saved a lot of time so again I was grinning.
And to make my smile just that bit bigger we ended up 9th.
Was just great as it was a tough section against dressage scores of 22 and a lot of top riders and 40 starters so for little old amateur me and Budster to get a rosette was just great so good end to a very long day.
Just entered for Winkburn IN next as struggling to find another Intermediate that isnt miles away and thought be nice to hopefully have a good run round novice xc to finish season.
Sorry for the very long and descriptive report but as you may tell Im quite proud of my little grey pony he came good for me and we had a lot of fun doing it.
Thanks for reading have got lovely photo coming out of second water will have to post link to prof page when its up.
Tea and millionaires shortbread for all who got this far.
I peeled my eyes open at 5am woke Budsie up who was lying down napping happily, was rather pleased lifting his pyjamas up not to find too many stable stains. Got all jobs done loaded up and off we went.
Arrived to almost fly past lorry park, realised it was very wet and theyd change parking about a bit. Went off to walk course, it was beautiful. To me it was a true Intermediate track some nice big bold fences and some accurate skinnies. Was quite a step up from novice track at Knaptoft and were lots of questions for me and Bud especially on the skinny front. I decided I would go all direct routes unless something dramatic happened and knew Id have to ride the very best I could to have a good round.
Dressage was quite exciting walking past xc start and first few fences of the course over to dressage well Bud thought it was uber exciting!
SJ lovely up to height course on the surface, I told myself to ride forward but ended up getting him a bit wound up collecting him on corners as the fences came very quick then thinking forward so he was a bit tense, just had one down from me hooking on corner and ending too close to square oxer so he came down on it. Annoyed with myself for trying too hard and not letting him do his stuff, lesson learnt.
XC was nervous but only for the fact I knew if I didnt ride 100% it would go wrong so put pressure on. I gave myself a good talking too and we went out start box like little silver bullet Bud felt amazing he flew first 2 out his stride then didnt bat eyelid at brush into water , over skinny log pile under tree then flew ditch hedge. Then to skinny treasure chest in middle of field, I kept legs on and focused on straightness and over we flew, sharp left to a corner he clocked on to it and popped lovely, up bank to log on top then it was down short steep bank sharp right to corner, earlier in season it was flagged separately so we did circle bit this time it was one fence so had to make sure got the turn, I sat up made the turn and with bit of a growl and kicks we were over, then to massive wide fence saw a flyer wow he has so much scope over we went, then to double of pheasant feeders popped those lovely, motor on up to steeplechase then to my worry fence .. suspended log up steep bank another log on top down steep bank to wide very skinny triple brush .. we were over the logs then at top of bank I saw a woman behind the triple brush I screamed course kept riding few pony club kicks and a bit of verbal encourage and the boy did it, massive pats and kicked on down to hayrack flew that, then sharp right turn to skinny hedge open ditch skinny hedge, through that like a pro then to another bogie fence a trakenar, gave him one behind girth on way over but he didnt need it didnt even look flew it sharp left to jump over big log straight into water luckily we had bit of momentum and my long legs flapping as he just had a look but we were splashing through the water and legs on to skinny brush on way out, then turned to big two steps up onto bank then down to skinny hedge then kicked on over last to finish.
Then the tears flowed, yes I know soppy but I was just so happy, I jumped off and sobbed into Buds sweaty neck and patted him to death. It was the most amazing xc round ever. He was back to focused brave and honest Bud and just jumped incredibly I was just so happy.
Eventually scores went up and to my surprise we only got 3.6 time faults which was very very good as most had few more. I didnt even try hard for the time I think because he jumped so many out his stride and hes easy to turn we saved a lot of time so again I was grinning.
And to make my smile just that bit bigger we ended up 9th.
Just entered for Winkburn IN next as struggling to find another Intermediate that isnt miles away and thought be nice to hopefully have a good run round novice xc to finish season.
Sorry for the very long and descriptive report but as you may tell Im quite proud of my little grey pony he came good for me and we had a lot of fun doing it.
Thanks for reading have got lovely photo coming out of second water will have to post link to prof page when its up.
Tea and millionaires shortbread for all who got this far.
