Baydale
Well-Known Member
It might not be common knowledge that I'm a Yorkshire lass due to my complete lack of accent, but I am, so a trip "oop north" when Aske v kindly gave me a late entry was gratefully received.
We stopped off on the way to pick up provisions from Ma and Pa Baydale, Marty looking nervous (or gleeful,
it's so difficult to tell with horses, isn't it?
) about being taken back from whence he came, as we bought him from near Northallerton. OH and I power-walked the course, seeing one elimination, four stops and one fall on the way
, then back to polish Marty and get him in dressage mode. Once I'd peeled his ears off the trailer roof - he could hear cross country happening
- I got on and warmed up for my stressage, feeling like he was relatively amenable for him.
We went in and he is feeling so much more rideable with more self-carriage, but we just had a couple of cheeky monky moments: one was a trot to halt instead of to walk, the other a walk to canter instead of to trot, but at least he was on my aids.
And the judge was smiley, probably more due to the fact I was the last of the day than anything else.
We got to the showjumping in plenty of time to see it resembled an Alton Towers ride, with every inch and contour of the arena being used....not great for a gobby 6yo who's still on his forehand.
The sj stewards v sweetly "bullied" us (their words, not mine) into getting a move on so they could get on with the far superior novice classes
, so I did about 5 fences, got him to clout one (I'm good at that
) and went in. My half-halts were pretty much ignored the whole way round, and my trial shorter stirrups/more forward lower leg position didn't work either, so there was much whoa-ing, head-chucking and upper body see-sawing as the pair of us whirled round looking like a couple of demented muppets (me Kermit, him Fozzie
). The commentator said something about a "lovely clear round for Nicky McBaydale" so I'll shall recommend that he visit Specsavers.
A quick change into my Kermit outfit and a few laps of the warm up then off we set: easy peasy over 1 and 2, bold over the into-space at 3 and then we hurtled down the hill on the wrong leg
to the double of square things on a v neat two strides, round the edge of the hill to the scalloped hedge: Marty intent on watching the next horse starting SO nearly jumped the higher bit
, then over the onion box and more hurtling downhill to the hedge before we came out into the open to the offset rolltops, again a v neat two strides. My steering and leading legs got better from there and he was feeling good, maybe liking the downhill bits better than the uphill bits as he's still a little portly.
I'd heard of someone tripping up in the water so minced into it in a collected canter, to then almost nosedive two thirds of the way across.
He inhaled some of it, I wore the rest but thank god my xc lower leg is 10 times better than my sj lower leg
as we survived. He was fab over the hedge oxer, barely left the ground over the ickle coffin but stayed straight and soft, then hauled his big tummy up the hill over the chair and vegetable stand to finish, huffing and puffing a bit but not overly distressed and still managed to eat a polo by the time we got back to the trailer.
I knew I'd gone steady as Marty hasn't seen hills before and I didn't want to knacker him out completely, but surprisingly only got 2.8 time and somehow managed to come 9th. He got a 36 dressage btw: was mainly 7s until he did his freestyling, for which he deservedly got 4s, but comments of what a lovely horse he is
....I know he's got a good test in him but he just ain't gonna give it to me easily.
If you've got this far please join me for afternoon tea: I've got builders' tea and shortbread but only because I forgot to bring some of Ma Baydale's scrummy cakes with me today.
We stopped off on the way to pick up provisions from Ma and Pa Baydale, Marty looking nervous (or gleeful,
We went in and he is feeling so much more rideable with more self-carriage, but we just had a couple of cheeky monky moments: one was a trot to halt instead of to walk, the other a walk to canter instead of to trot, but at least he was on my aids.
We got to the showjumping in plenty of time to see it resembled an Alton Towers ride, with every inch and contour of the arena being used....not great for a gobby 6yo who's still on his forehand.
A quick change into my Kermit outfit and a few laps of the warm up then off we set: easy peasy over 1 and 2, bold over the into-space at 3 and then we hurtled down the hill on the wrong leg
I'd heard of someone tripping up in the water so minced into it in a collected canter, to then almost nosedive two thirds of the way across.
I knew I'd gone steady as Marty hasn't seen hills before and I didn't want to knacker him out completely, but surprisingly only got 2.8 time and somehow managed to come 9th. He got a 36 dressage btw: was mainly 7s until he did his freestyling, for which he deservedly got 4s, but comments of what a lovely horse he is
If you've got this far please join me for afternoon tea: I've got builders' tea and shortbread but only because I forgot to bring some of Ma Baydale's scrummy cakes with me today.
