Fuzzypuff
Well-Known Member
Wow, what an amazing experience I've had at the BD National Champs, it really was a rollercoaster!
As we were competing on Thursday, the first day of the show, we arrived on Wednesday which was possibly the busiest day for arriving - which made for rather a tense atmosphere for the horses. George went a bit nuts when I put him in the stable, bucking and rearing, which didn't bode so well for me. The atmosphere at the show was just huge and nothing had prepared me for it, it was so much more than even the BD Winter Champs. I think if in future I were to arrive on this day I would tack up and ride straight away from the lorry, then sort out the stable afterwards.
We took advantage of the extra arena walk on this day. George was pretty good for this, though the generator for the scoreboard did cause some trouble - not just for us! Then we popped into the warmup arena to do some work, with seemingly every single other horse on the showground - it was seriously busy! In the interest of getting on with it I rode positively in and popped him into trot, at which point I realised that I couldn't really touch his legs with my sides and didn't have any contact with him curling back. Anyway I persevered, no hope of stretching him down but doing my best to do lots of circles to try and settle him, whilst trying not to mow down Michael Eilberg! Then all of a sudden George freaked out and started spinning and broncing at the same time. I hung on but his neck had disappeared down in front of me and I had no hope of stopping him, then when he suddenly changed direction I went flying! I'm pretty used to dealing with his outbursts and normally can regain control quickly, but on this occasion I had no hope. I was fine, bounced easily, but on getting up I realised that I had wrecked my left boot on my cheesegrater stirrup tread
It all happened fast for me but mum said that a pony had cantered very close behind him, even though he was wearing a red ribbon, and that had set him off. He's really nervous of horses in the warmup, even more so since his broken leg, and he was already on alert from all the atmosphere and my nerves I'm sure making it worse so much more likely to be reactive.
My friend legged me back on and Dan the lovely steward mentioned that the bottom general exercise arena was much quieter, so we headed down there. I managed to stay on but he was still so sharp that I couldn't put my leg on at all and had no contact either, and couldn't establish it as any attempt to use my leg just made him go even faster. Eventually I decided to quit while I was relatively ahead, he was on such a high that no amount of work was going to settle him. So we put him away and I gave him some Protexin Quick Fix to help settle his tummy. To be honest I was feeling pretty useless and incompetent at this point, wondering how the next day would go, would we even get through it, and wondering if he would ever be able to do his job properly if this is his reaction to a busy warmup arena.
The next morning he was far more settled and was mostly snoozing at the back of the box. He seemed pretty tired after the day before, that low after the adrenaline high. The arena walk went well and then I took him to the bottom arena and was able to do a few circles of stretching in trot and canter then left it at that. We also banned mum from going near him until after my test, to limit the nerves around him!
When the time came for our test I took him to the bottom arena again and we totally lucked out as we had it to ourselves - the tired surface and sloping aspect worked to our advantage! He warmed up ok, he was indeed pretty tired and so a bit lacking in engagement, and knowing what he is like I didn't push him as I didn't want him to boil over I just had to take what I could get.
In to the test and he tightened a bit going into the arena, which was understandable - plus we had to go through the warmup to get there! However, he did settle and we had no mistakes, just unfortunately during the free walk another horse whinnied and he felt the need to answer back, raising his head in the process! I was so so pleased with him that he held it together in that huge arena!
The results were so quick that by the time I'd taken him back to the stable, untacked and then rushed off to the scoreboard the score was just going up, 68.8%! The score after me went up at the same time so I had no time to wait to find out that we were in THIRD PLACE!!!! :biggrin3: Huge excitement, not only did we make it into the prize giving but into the top three!!! So so proud of my boy, it wasn't a worldbeating test and we have done much better, but on that day and after the day before I really couldn't have asked for more.
There wasn't much time until the prize giving but I did manage to squeeze in a saddle fit check and a bit fitting. Then it was time to get back on and head down to the arena. The prize giving was good fun, George does love these, I might have had some trouble with brakes! As well as our prize money we also won a set of 4 stretch and flex wraps from Equilibrium, who were the class sponsors.
So, that was that. I took George home and then headed back to watch the rest of the show. It was just the most fantastic experience, and I am so so lucky to have this horse who from 2 regionals has given me not only 2 trips to the finals but 2 top 10 placings as well!! :cool3:
I can also see I have a lot of work to do on getting him happier working around other horses, we got away with it this time but may not be so lucky in future. So I'm thinking about ways to do that, maybe some group clinics if I can find any or some showing classes - suggestions gratefully received!
Video of our test: http://youtu.be/5qsgR00b-EQ?list=UU33RWRXOwskD9ZHNpJBdGEA
And some photos - I have permission to post these, they were taken by a friend:
In the warmup:
[Content removed]
Trit trotting:
[Content removed]
[Content removed]
[Content removed]
Good boy:
[Content removed]
Prize giving:
[Content removed]
Pretty rosette:
[Content removed]
As we were competing on Thursday, the first day of the show, we arrived on Wednesday which was possibly the busiest day for arriving - which made for rather a tense atmosphere for the horses. George went a bit nuts when I put him in the stable, bucking and rearing, which didn't bode so well for me. The atmosphere at the show was just huge and nothing had prepared me for it, it was so much more than even the BD Winter Champs. I think if in future I were to arrive on this day I would tack up and ride straight away from the lorry, then sort out the stable afterwards.
We took advantage of the extra arena walk on this day. George was pretty good for this, though the generator for the scoreboard did cause some trouble - not just for us! Then we popped into the warmup arena to do some work, with seemingly every single other horse on the showground - it was seriously busy! In the interest of getting on with it I rode positively in and popped him into trot, at which point I realised that I couldn't really touch his legs with my sides and didn't have any contact with him curling back. Anyway I persevered, no hope of stretching him down but doing my best to do lots of circles to try and settle him, whilst trying not to mow down Michael Eilberg! Then all of a sudden George freaked out and started spinning and broncing at the same time. I hung on but his neck had disappeared down in front of me and I had no hope of stopping him, then when he suddenly changed direction I went flying! I'm pretty used to dealing with his outbursts and normally can regain control quickly, but on this occasion I had no hope. I was fine, bounced easily, but on getting up I realised that I had wrecked my left boot on my cheesegrater stirrup tread
It all happened fast for me but mum said that a pony had cantered very close behind him, even though he was wearing a red ribbon, and that had set him off. He's really nervous of horses in the warmup, even more so since his broken leg, and he was already on alert from all the atmosphere and my nerves I'm sure making it worse so much more likely to be reactive.
My friend legged me back on and Dan the lovely steward mentioned that the bottom general exercise arena was much quieter, so we headed down there. I managed to stay on but he was still so sharp that I couldn't put my leg on at all and had no contact either, and couldn't establish it as any attempt to use my leg just made him go even faster. Eventually I decided to quit while I was relatively ahead, he was on such a high that no amount of work was going to settle him. So we put him away and I gave him some Protexin Quick Fix to help settle his tummy. To be honest I was feeling pretty useless and incompetent at this point, wondering how the next day would go, would we even get through it, and wondering if he would ever be able to do his job properly if this is his reaction to a busy warmup arena.
The next morning he was far more settled and was mostly snoozing at the back of the box. He seemed pretty tired after the day before, that low after the adrenaline high. The arena walk went well and then I took him to the bottom arena and was able to do a few circles of stretching in trot and canter then left it at that. We also banned mum from going near him until after my test, to limit the nerves around him!
When the time came for our test I took him to the bottom arena again and we totally lucked out as we had it to ourselves - the tired surface and sloping aspect worked to our advantage! He warmed up ok, he was indeed pretty tired and so a bit lacking in engagement, and knowing what he is like I didn't push him as I didn't want him to boil over I just had to take what I could get.
In to the test and he tightened a bit going into the arena, which was understandable - plus we had to go through the warmup to get there! However, he did settle and we had no mistakes, just unfortunately during the free walk another horse whinnied and he felt the need to answer back, raising his head in the process! I was so so pleased with him that he held it together in that huge arena!
The results were so quick that by the time I'd taken him back to the stable, untacked and then rushed off to the scoreboard the score was just going up, 68.8%! The score after me went up at the same time so I had no time to wait to find out that we were in THIRD PLACE!!!! :biggrin3: Huge excitement, not only did we make it into the prize giving but into the top three!!! So so proud of my boy, it wasn't a worldbeating test and we have done much better, but on that day and after the day before I really couldn't have asked for more.
There wasn't much time until the prize giving but I did manage to squeeze in a saddle fit check and a bit fitting. Then it was time to get back on and head down to the arena. The prize giving was good fun, George does love these, I might have had some trouble with brakes! As well as our prize money we also won a set of 4 stretch and flex wraps from Equilibrium, who were the class sponsors.
So, that was that. I took George home and then headed back to watch the rest of the show. It was just the most fantastic experience, and I am so so lucky to have this horse who from 2 regionals has given me not only 2 trips to the finals but 2 top 10 placings as well!! :cool3:
I can also see I have a lot of work to do on getting him happier working around other horses, we got away with it this time but may not be so lucky in future. So I'm thinking about ways to do that, maybe some group clinics if I can find any or some showing classes - suggestions gratefully received!
Video of our test: http://youtu.be/5qsgR00b-EQ?list=UU33RWRXOwskD9ZHNpJBdGEA
And some photos - I have permission to post these, they were taken by a friend:
In the warmup:
[Content removed]
Trit trotting:
[Content removed]
[Content removed]
[Content removed]
Good boy:
[Content removed]
Prize giving:
[Content removed]
Pretty rosette:
[Content removed]
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