Baydale
Well-Known Member
The Yorkshire pony and his Yorkshire rider decided that far from it being grim up north, it was the most scenic and friendly event they have been to for a long time.
All that is obviously secondary to the competition side: here's how it went.
I was ably assisted by my glamorous assistant for the day, KatB, so Hector was polished to within an inch of his life; no mean feat when he is morphing into a fluffy angora rabbit at the moment. We also had the backup team of my parents, Mr Camera and Mrs Picnic - I felt very spoilt. Pity that Ms Organised couldn't have remembered her navy jacket and a certain other bit of kit that the secretary normally needs to look at, but we begged/borrowed/blagged our way out of trouble.
After our dressage at Lt Downham that I thought was lovely and soft (37.4), I went for dynamic, powerful and bold this time; now you try telling that to a Cleveland Bay. Hector did his
"oh really?" face, but we managed to do an ok test, spoilt only by two of the most shocking halts you have ever seen, the second where he swang his bum so violently to the right I thought he might fall over.
He got 32, which was in the top ten after dressage.
Note to Self:
look up!
Just about to do his camp headshake in medium canter:
Onto the showjumping, and I joked with the steward that they must have borrowed the poles from Arena UK. They were most definitely "continental" (that was a KatB word: she is SO up with what's what and who's who whereas I'm stuck back in the "old days".
) I kept my warm-up short and sweet and he was feeling good, but I still felt sick as a parrot before I went in. I needn't have worried as he jumped a really lovely round, our only iffy moments being 1) him jumping the first so big he almost landed on his nose, and 2) the last line of planks, four strides to treble (oxer, upright, upright), all downhill and the treble was short.
I think I heard him touch one of those but they stayed up. Huge pats and polos for him
, much jabbering and excitement from me at having jumped clear.
(Hector says he'll be tidier in front when they get bigger
)
Now the exciting bit: it was a cracking course, not over-big or particularly technical, but the terrain seemed to play a part in how it rode as it is very hilly and has a twisty wooded part too. Everything was cleverly sited, and what appeared inocuous certainly didn't ride that way. I made my way up to the start and saw a guy (northern event trainer) who has a half-brother to H by Java Tiger, so he helped make me even more nervous by saying he was going to watch (yep, thanks for that
). It had got quite warm and H was doing his Brighton beach donkey impression, so I decided not to hassle him, but instead let the first 6 or 7 fences wake him up, then crack on a bit. It was a long old pull up to 6 (KatB and I needed oxygen at that point when we walked the course
), and then downhill to a curved wall and skinny at 7, angled hedges at 8 - he was jumping well thus far - then narrow house to two big steps to another narrow house. Well, as Kerilli will testify after seeing him at Houghton, H is not a huge fan of steps and thinks that monsters lurk at the bottom of them.
He jumped the house really well, then did an eek at the top step, a slightly smaller eek at the second one, then popped the house at the bottom fine. V odd, as he's never had a major hiccup with them, he's just very suspicious.
On then to a beefy table followed by a tiny-looking corner approached downhill with the backdrop of the lake and the hills, all very scenic but H was enjoying the view so much he only locked on to it about two strides out. Up another hill via a chase fence to a decent-sized log oxer which he made feel like nothing:
Downhill then to a corner, followed immediately by a brush into water, brush in the water and triple brush out of the water; I felt him jink in the water and thought he was spooking, but that must have been when he pulled his shoe off. In and out of the woods over another brush with a tight turn to two skinny wooden animals on a curving one stride - he was foot perfect over that and it was definitely a fence where polite ponies excelled (HumungaHorse would most definitely been found out there), then two straightforward ones to finish. More pats and polos for the boy and more gabbling and jabbering from his over-excited jockey who was even more chuffed to have got a double clear.
I thought it was a really educational course and he definitely got better and better as he went round, therefore it was more valuable intermediate mileage on his eventing clock. I didn't have a watch on (it must have been hiding away with my navy jacket and the other bit of kit I forgot) but knew I hadn't gone very fast and thought the time would have been tough to get anyway as it was so hilly there, so whilst 20 time sounds like masses, in the intermediate sections that was about average. However, in an OI section with Oli T, Matt W, Piggy, Caroline Powell etc, I was never going to be in with a shout (I was 18th fwiw). I think it was Bill Levett who said "you can only go to the well so many times", so why run the legs off him every time out? This is the horse nicknamed The Malingerer after all, who wouldn't be the toughest of event horses.
Afternoon tea and scones if you've made it this far.
And a gratuitous cute pony pic:
I was ably assisted by my glamorous assistant for the day, KatB, so Hector was polished to within an inch of his life; no mean feat when he is morphing into a fluffy angora rabbit at the moment. We also had the backup team of my parents, Mr Camera and Mrs Picnic - I felt very spoilt. Pity that Ms Organised couldn't have remembered her navy jacket and a certain other bit of kit that the secretary normally needs to look at, but we begged/borrowed/blagged our way out of trouble.
After our dressage at Lt Downham that I thought was lovely and soft (37.4), I went for dynamic, powerful and bold this time; now you try telling that to a Cleveland Bay. Hector did his
Note to Self:
Just about to do his camp headshake in medium canter:
Onto the showjumping, and I joked with the steward that they must have borrowed the poles from Arena UK. They were most definitely "continental" (that was a KatB word: she is SO up with what's what and who's who whereas I'm stuck back in the "old days".
(Hector says he'll be tidier in front when they get bigger
Now the exciting bit: it was a cracking course, not over-big or particularly technical, but the terrain seemed to play a part in how it rode as it is very hilly and has a twisty wooded part too. Everything was cleverly sited, and what appeared inocuous certainly didn't ride that way. I made my way up to the start and saw a guy (northern event trainer) who has a half-brother to H by Java Tiger, so he helped make me even more nervous by saying he was going to watch (yep, thanks for that
On then to a beefy table followed by a tiny-looking corner approached downhill with the backdrop of the lake and the hills, all very scenic but H was enjoying the view so much he only locked on to it about two strides out. Up another hill via a chase fence to a decent-sized log oxer which he made feel like nothing:
Downhill then to a corner, followed immediately by a brush into water, brush in the water and triple brush out of the water; I felt him jink in the water and thought he was spooking, but that must have been when he pulled his shoe off. In and out of the woods over another brush with a tight turn to two skinny wooden animals on a curving one stride - he was foot perfect over that and it was definitely a fence where polite ponies excelled (HumungaHorse would most definitely been found out there), then two straightforward ones to finish. More pats and polos for the boy and more gabbling and jabbering from his over-excited jockey who was even more chuffed to have got a double clear.
I thought it was a really educational course and he definitely got better and better as he went round, therefore it was more valuable intermediate mileage on his eventing clock. I didn't have a watch on (it must have been hiding away with my navy jacket and the other bit of kit I forgot) but knew I hadn't gone very fast and thought the time would have been tough to get anyway as it was so hilly there, so whilst 20 time sounds like masses, in the intermediate sections that was about average. However, in an OI section with Oli T, Matt W, Piggy, Caroline Powell etc, I was never going to be in with a shout (I was 18th fwiw). I think it was Bill Levett who said "you can only go to the well so many times", so why run the legs off him every time out? This is the horse nicknamed The Malingerer after all, who wouldn't be the toughest of event horses.
Afternoon tea and scones if you've made it this far.
