Bank Holiday (again!) weekend in May

Thursday had a flatwork session, which I've not do e for a while. Shambles was fab and even managed a few flying changes without bucking. He is going the best he has ever gone at the moment, but our marks when out and about haven't improved, so I've completely lost my mojo at the moment.
Have been doing lots of hacking instead, and on Sunday myself and a friend (who rode cob for me) went out on a 14 mile hack across the north downs. It was absolutely beautiful and we must have only seen about 5 people the entire ride. So lucky to be able to do this from the yard with very minimal road work. received_586355843635665.jpegreceived_2888040354661476.jpegreceived_597690782465434.jpeg
 
I bought a couple of photos, the video shows us making good progress but the photos look less.... active than the last set. However, we are working on less vavavoom in order to get better balance, so we were following the plan.

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The canter is still quite rudimentary!

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But then, it was calm and controlled and I will take that as the biggest positive as I am older and woosey!
 
It is confirmed this is actually a tb with leg warmers 🤣 I let someone else (who retrains ex racers) ride D at the beginning of my lesson today as she was on one and she independently said she was very similar to riding a tiny ex racer 😅 not exactly what I set out to buy but she's so cute. Screenshot_20230531-202311-502.png
 
Thought I would just come back and give a mini-report from Stafford yesterday;
It was blooming cold and actually raining when we arrived (this was in no way part of the plan - my app had it at 22C and sunny so I hadn't brought any warm gear for either of us).
Of the 22 entries there were 17 forward and you can only imagine the chaos that was the small collecting ring which also had several others in there too. Poor Ace was literally quivering but I held his hand and he accepted me putting my leg on. I only walked and trotted enough to get him relaxed. We went into the main ring and the poor boy piaffed his way around the first lap. Obviously he looked beautiful but the phrase "not required at this level" springs to mind. Thankfully they split the group to canter as I think it would have been dangerous for 17 of us. This was a big test as Ace can't stand when he's excited but he stood like a rock. Then we went back out and, aside from an explosive transition to canter which the judges didn't see, he was excellent. His gallop was the best yet but he slipped behind just in front of the judges.
digital-low-resolution H44_6476.JPGThey didn't pull us in order so I went and stood at one end, big mistake, we were 17th for the ride and conformation judges! After over 45 minutes of waiting he had his turn. He wasn't brilliant - he went into right flexion on the left rein and the judge left him there (I kinda know why but if he'd just asked him to straighten he would have) but he did all the judge asked when asked unlike some who didn't even canter. He got 30/50 which shows there is room to improve for sure but one horse got a 5 so we weren't dead ducks. Then the in hand just said "he was glad he was finally at the last horse" and gave us a 20/50. Yes he's not an elephant, yes he's not carrying extra weight compared to many, and we don't have shoes on but I thought I had at least a half decent example of the breed. Hey ho, this is showing and I am paying to have someone give me their opinion of my horse, if they don't adore him I don't care because I effing well do!!
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So no placing for us, we came 14th out of 17 but given that I think 6 of those horses were at HOYS last year I wasn't overly disappointed.
I had a lovely day with a horse that was bought for happy hacking, that would never have coped with all the busy environment 2 years ago, that my daughter could sit on bareback after the class and have cuddles because she thinks he's the best horse in the world and doesn't like it when judges don't agree with her. And best of all I got some beautiful pictures of my 2nd best boy! To others he is Ruskington Solace, to me he is Ace!
 
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