Diane_Pepper
Well-Known Member
My day started at 5am ..pretty early but it hasn't been the worst for this season!
Was driving for half an hour, then realised I had forgotten my jacket as it had been washed & I had forgotten to put it back in the lorry - so trundled back home, picked it up & mum was driving rather eratically so she would have enough time to walk the course when we got there
Arrived in quite good time, took 3 & a 1/2 hrs (yes, we're mad!!) rather than the 4 we expected, so we made up for lost time
Walked over to secs with passports (as we know damn well that they check them there) & got numbers etc, then one of the secs started whingeing at Mum cause Lady has a Weatherby's passport & it doesn't have her name on it - just says chestnut filly, so mum was arguing that they never check the passport against the horse anyway(which is true!) - so it could be any passport you're giving them!!
Sec got a bit sh*tty & said 'oh well we can refuse your entry if you want!' & so mum backed down!
What they failed to moan about this time was that Pepper's passport actually says 'Dr. Pepper' & we only have him registered as Pepper to BE (they complained about it last year) but failed to notice this time!
Anyway onto the competing bit!
Pepper warmed up nicely, a little bit sluggish, but i was feeling quite optimistic! I was pushing him throughout to engage his backside and stop him coming to a halt(!) but he did a smashing little test
We got 33pens - about 13th/14th, so slightly disappointed as he's usually in the top 10, but oh well.
Definitely an improvement on Monmouth's 45.2
SJ wasn't a very difficult nor up to height course, Pepper jumped 1,2 beautifully, bit of a short one at 3 but picked his legs up well. Went disunited to 4 & he wouldn't change!! but we managed to clear 4 & 5 which was a related distance.
Totally mucked up on my stride to no. 6 which was quite an awkward turn from 5 and he put the tiniest of strides in & scrambled over it - I swear any other horse would have stopped! & then cleared the rest of the course nicely
Very pleased with him, as SJ is our worst phase by far!
Onto XC, which was supposed to be all new fences, but i only spotted about 3
. Wasn't too difficult, I wasn't very windy about anything. He jumped fence 4ab like a pro & also the 2 steps down to the hedgehog!
Bit dodgy at the shepfeeder combo, but got out ok
he flew everything else (went beautifully over the corner & water) but felt quite sluggish through the 2nd half, so I knew I was in for time faults - especially as hes only a pony too
Ended up with 7.6 time faults!!
Not good!
I don't think he's been having enough high energy food for all the hacking he's been doing lately though, so have upped his rations for this week ready for Mount Ballan on sunday
17th overall...ooops!
IF we had finished on our dressage we would have been 6th (we can always say IF can't we!)
couple of piccies
got an 8 for this movement!!
fence 1 SJ
after coming down 2 steps, then 4 strides to the hedgehog fence
Was driving for half an hour, then realised I had forgotten my jacket as it had been washed & I had forgotten to put it back in the lorry - so trundled back home, picked it up & mum was driving rather eratically so she would have enough time to walk the course when we got there
Arrived in quite good time, took 3 & a 1/2 hrs (yes, we're mad!!) rather than the 4 we expected, so we made up for lost time
Walked over to secs with passports (as we know damn well that they check them there) & got numbers etc, then one of the secs started whingeing at Mum cause Lady has a Weatherby's passport & it doesn't have her name on it - just says chestnut filly, so mum was arguing that they never check the passport against the horse anyway(which is true!) - so it could be any passport you're giving them!!
Sec got a bit sh*tty & said 'oh well we can refuse your entry if you want!' & so mum backed down!
What they failed to moan about this time was that Pepper's passport actually says 'Dr. Pepper' & we only have him registered as Pepper to BE (they complained about it last year) but failed to notice this time!
Anyway onto the competing bit!
Pepper warmed up nicely, a little bit sluggish, but i was feeling quite optimistic! I was pushing him throughout to engage his backside and stop him coming to a halt(!) but he did a smashing little test
We got 33pens - about 13th/14th, so slightly disappointed as he's usually in the top 10, but oh well.
Definitely an improvement on Monmouth's 45.2
SJ wasn't a very difficult nor up to height course, Pepper jumped 1,2 beautifully, bit of a short one at 3 but picked his legs up well. Went disunited to 4 & he wouldn't change!! but we managed to clear 4 & 5 which was a related distance.
Totally mucked up on my stride to no. 6 which was quite an awkward turn from 5 and he put the tiniest of strides in & scrambled over it - I swear any other horse would have stopped! & then cleared the rest of the course nicely
Very pleased with him, as SJ is our worst phase by far!
Onto XC, which was supposed to be all new fences, but i only spotted about 3
Bit dodgy at the shepfeeder combo, but got out ok
he flew everything else (went beautifully over the corner & water) but felt quite sluggish through the 2nd half, so I knew I was in for time faults - especially as hes only a pony too
Ended up with 7.6 time faults!!
Not good!
I don't think he's been having enough high energy food for all the hacking he's been doing lately though, so have upped his rations for this week ready for Mount Ballan on sunday
17th overall...ooops!
IF we had finished on our dressage we would have been 6th (we can always say IF can't we!)
couple of piccies
got an 8 for this movement!!
fence 1 SJ
after coming down 2 steps, then 4 strides to the hedgehog fence
