HufflyPuffly
Well-Known Member
So our most local AF is at Myerscough College, and since we've never been I figured a scouting mission was required to see how silly Topaz would be in their indoor arena...
Well it was another one of those days! Why can't I have a normal day, you know one without vets and copious amounts of slimy skanky snot like substances?
Up bright and early for our trip over to Myerscough, Topaz had even been bathed the day before so all that was needed was the box to be loaded and Topaz to be plaited, and to leave no later than 9am! The only extra things to be done were to skip the girls out and pop their morning nets in...
I arrived at the yard to a beautiful Skylla... not.... she had decided the elephant eye look was a good one to model at 8am *sigh*. Topaz went on hold whilst I called our lovely vet (we are on very good terms with our vet now
) who agreed it sounded a bit doge and could do with a look, I mean who doesn't love an emergency call out on a Sunday that couldn't possibly have waited 24hrs! Skylla the 'Spensive indeed! One sedative later from the stabby man, as the vet is now known as by Skylla, and a good ole poke around, and we're still confident that the sinuses are still looking ok and no fractures around her eye socket could be felt (and would have shown up on her x-rays anyway), so more anti-inflammatries and antibiotics *joy*. Well actually Skylla adores Metacam so at least the anti-inflammatries will be easy to dispense 
!
Warning if you don't like snot you wont like this picture, it doesn't really show how swollen her eye was but demonstrates the ickiness quite well:
So at 10am (hmm yes an hour later than I 'had' to set off) I had a decision to make about whether to take Topaz or not, we were pushing it but I thought we should go and at least we could have a nosy at the indoor arena even if we weren't going to be at all competitive. So for the second time in as many weeks we went unplaited to a show, the shame of it! We made it with seconds to spare as the competitor before me was mid-test as we got to the warm-up, and I have to say a huge thank you to the lovely competitor who went early so I could have five minutes in the warm-up, I think our rather wild, emotional and somewhat harassed entrance made them take pity on us .
E45 was truly pants. Topaz was super tense, and bewildered about being shoved straight into a strange arena with banners all down one side, I was massively impressed with her as she didn't down tools and tell me to sod off which she was more than entitled to! It actually went ok considering the lack of warming up, we did our best and have probably done worse tests even with a proper warm-up .
Then onto M69, this time the judge was late (stuck on the M6) so we went from no warm-up to too much warm-up. After walking round the warm-up for an age with limited success at relaxing Topaz, she was not impressed still at her terrible treatment, I had even forgot to bring her massage pad I mean how is a black beast to behave in such circumstances! Had just given up and got off Topaz when the judge arrived. So back on for the third time (poor Topaz!) I tried to gain some semblance of control and relaxation (between the spooking and random flailing of legs as Topaz kept forgetting how many legs she actually had) and we were back in. Thought it went quite well considering, as we're not really ready for this level yet. First half pass was good, the next a bit wibbly wobbly . The difficult counter canter line she did very well for her as she does struggle with this , and she managed to keep a lid on the flying changes. Unfortunately we were late for the walk pirouettes (woops sack the jockey ), and they weren't the best which was a shame as she's usually quite competent at them.
Overall I was very pleased we had made the journey and wasn't fussed about our scores, as I'd already decided it was to just be a sight-seeing mission (we need to find another banner with a white horse on as she took some exception to the one in the main arena). Therefore I was pleasantly surprised with a generous (no really our elementary was 'that' bad) 61% in both tests! Wasn't last in the elementary amazingly and didn't stay for the end of the medium class as we were only training so not sure where we came in that one. I think we might have secured an area festival set for medium now , not our aim but nice to have attained !
Nothing booked in now until our area festival (and now too poor thanks to Skylla), so a few weeks hard training will have to suffice 
.
x x x
Well it was another one of those days! Why can't I have a normal day, you know one without vets and copious amounts of slimy skanky snot like substances?
Up bright and early for our trip over to Myerscough, Topaz had even been bathed the day before so all that was needed was the box to be loaded and Topaz to be plaited, and to leave no later than 9am! The only extra things to be done were to skip the girls out and pop their morning nets in...
I arrived at the yard to a beautiful Skylla... not.... she had decided the elephant eye look was a good one to model at 8am *sigh*. Topaz went on hold whilst I called our lovely vet (we are on very good terms with our vet now
) who agreed it sounded a bit doge and could do with a look, I mean who doesn't love an emergency call out on a Sunday that couldn't possibly have waited 24hrs! Skylla the 'Spensive indeed! One sedative later from the stabby man, as the vet is now known as by Skylla, and a good ole poke around, and we're still confident that the sinuses are still looking ok and no fractures around her eye socket could be felt (and would have shown up on her x-rays anyway), so more anti-inflammatries and antibiotics *joy*. Well actually Skylla adores Metacam so at least the anti-inflammatries will be easy to dispense !Warning if you don't like snot you wont like this picture
, it doesn't really show how swollen her eye was but demonstrates the ickiness quite well:
So at 10am (hmm yes an hour later than I 'had' to set off) I had a decision to make about whether to take Topaz or not, we were pushing it but I thought we should go and at least we could have a nosy at the indoor arena even if we weren't going to be at all competitive. So for the second time in as many weeks we went unplaited to a show, the shame of it
! We made it with seconds to spare as the competitor before me was mid-test as we got to the warm-up, and I have to say a huge thank you to the lovely competitor who went early so I could have five minutes in the warm-up, I think our rather wild, emotional and somewhat harassed entrance made them take pity on us . E45 was truly pants. Topaz was super tense, and bewildered about being shoved straight into a strange arena with banners all down one side
, I was massively impressed with her as she didn't down tools and tell me to sod off which she was more than entitled to! It actually went ok considering the lack of warming up, we did our best and have probably done worse tests even with a proper warm-up .Then onto M69, this time the judge was late (stuck on the M6) so we went from no warm-up to too much warm-up
. After walking round the warm-up for an age with limited success at relaxing Topaz, she was not impressed still at her terrible treatment, I had even forgot to bring her massage pad I mean how is a black beast to behave in such circumstances! Had just given up and got off Topaz when the judge arrived. So back on for the third time (poor Topaz!) I tried to gain some semblance of control and relaxation (between the spooking and random flailing of legs as Topaz kept forgetting how many legs she actually had) and we were back in. Thought it went quite well considering, as we're not really ready for this level yet. First half pass was good, the next a bit wibbly wobbly . The difficult counter canter line she did very well for her as she does struggle with this , and she managed to keep a lid on the flying changes. Unfortunately we were late for the walk pirouettes (woops sack the jockey ), and they weren't the best which was a shame as she's usually quite competent at them.Overall I was very pleased we had made the journey and wasn't fussed about our scores, as I'd already decided it was to just be a sight-seeing mission (we need to find another banner with a white horse on as she took some exception to the one in the main arena
). Therefore I was pleasantly surprised with a generous (no really our elementary was 'that' bad) 61% in both tests! Wasn't last in the elementary amazingly and didn't stay for the end of the medium class as we were only training so not sure where we came in that one. I think we might have secured an area festival set for medium now , not our aim but nice to have attained !Nothing booked in now until our area festival (and now too poor thanks to Skylla
), so a few weeks hard training will have to suffice .x x x
