Arniebear
Well-Known Member
Thought id do a quick update as we have been out a few times since the last report 
Since gaining a 2nd in the 80cm at Isleham, our first ODE since injury rendered us useless back in 2013 i headed off to Ickworth park for the 75cm and some more of my eventing fix! We had another less than ideal start with a lorry coughing and spluttering into life and then breaking down again at the petrol station... I wasnt quite sure what to do sat at the pumps with a horse on board on my own and the rain battering down on us so i put my head in my hands and prayed, begged that she would start turned the key and she finally roared into life! Arriving this time with ample dressage warmup time we were soaked well before our test and bear wasnt exactly playing ball with me, we had napping round the edge of the arena and quite frankly a horrible tense test, scored 37 but i'm guessing the judge was feeling generous as im not sure we deserved that. Quick change of gear and off to sj, bear clearly had his naughty pants on that day as we entered the arena heading down the tother end to turn back for fence 1 and he slammed the breaks on and refused to move.... his little napping epoisde over and done with we flew round for 1 down, i was less than impressed with him, 2 phases down and napped in both he has NEVER done that before. I put it down to the horrid weather and 6am wake up call swapped my already soaked gear over once more for xc, the first few fences were tiny but they picked up in height further round. Flew out the start box over 1, 2 and 3 which exited the first woods.... headed towards 4 and he slammed the breaks on again.... i began to get angry now so sharp slap behind the saddle and we were off again flew 4, 5, 6 ,7 and ground to a halt in front of 8 the ditch this i was a little more forgiving with he hadnt seen a ditch on course for a few weeks so i let him look asked him to go and he went, fence 9 he took some offence to the gravel in front of the fence and stopped again, over on the 2nd attempt and after that i gave him no chance of stopping, lots of voal encouragement to get through the water and he flew the rest of the way round.
RUBBISH day on paper but a learning curve for us. Armed with a new plan of taking no ***** from bear and riding positively at everything we headed off this weekend to Gt Witchingham.... my nemesis course ive been their 3 x before with 3 different horses first time we came down in the start box, broke the saddle and scared the starter and paramedics! 2nd attempt i had to dismount my stead mid xc and yank a shoe out of his foot and limp him home and then 3rd attempt was back in 2013 with bear..... i hit the deck in the sj warmup! Main aim for sunday was to stay on board for all 3 phases!!!
32.5 dressage much more relaxed from him so fingers crossed he's realising dressage on grass isnt that exciting! 1 down sj i had a melt down jumping him at home on thurs so had to come up with a new plan for the SJ i upped our canter and rode more positively! So 2 out of the 3 phases and i was still aboard the bear.... so close to sucess!!!! Headed off for the xc out the start box flew 1, tried very hard to nap at 2 he lost i won, jumped 2 onto 3 tried again to nap, he lost again and i won! Over 3 tried once more to nap towards 4 once again he lost!! Over 4 and 5 and then the little sod got the better of me napped like hell and stopped at 6! jumped 2nd time and then stopped at 7 a jump with has a steep landing into woods, gave him chance to see it represented and im not really sure what happened tbh! we jumped the fence but for some reason were aimed at a tree on landing, reins on buckle end and me half hanging off the back... damn that was close! regained ourselves over 8 the exit out of the woods where he then proceeded to nap again.... so naughty! jumped the ditch from trot then flew the next few to the water which was a step in, he has never jumped into water before so when we stopped my plan was let him have a look suss it out then apply the pressure to go again, however due to his naughty behaviour earlier on course we had been caught up by another rider so i moved over to let them past and stole a lead from them down the drop into water and the rest of the way home, he flew over everything else!
I had finally managed to stay aboard my horse for all 3 phases of a ode at Gt Witchingham SUCCESS!!!
sod the xc penalities it was yet another learning curve and more experience for bear!
His XC does seemed to have gone backwards, its never the actual jumps that cause us issues its him napping inbetween them he has done it at every xc run so far, hes just turned 7 and obviously had the time off for his injury so im assuming he is going through the naughty 6/7 warmblood stage of life and hopefully he will get his act together and get over it! We are back out again this weekend at keysoe for the 80cm so we shall see how we go, i shall just give him no option to stop thankfully at 80cm he can jump from a trot if needs be. After that all i have planned is aston le walls at the end of june so june will be spent xc schooling at lots of diff venues with instructors, alone and in company to ingrain some things back into him before we dare to attempt my dream of BE.
I have decided that we wont be going BE until he is happily taking me around a xc course again and doesnt need me egging him on with every stride, how ever long that may take!
sadly no pictures from either event as i have to go alone these days and i will get told off if i post the pros!
thanks for reading! Any tips for a naughty nappy xc pony will be greatly received!
Since gaining a 2nd in the 80cm at Isleham, our first ODE since injury rendered us useless back in 2013 i headed off to Ickworth park for the 75cm and some more of my eventing fix! We had another less than ideal start with a lorry coughing and spluttering into life and then breaking down again at the petrol station... I wasnt quite sure what to do sat at the pumps with a horse on board on my own and the rain battering down on us so i put my head in my hands and prayed, begged that she would start turned the key and she finally roared into life! Arriving this time with ample dressage warmup time we were soaked well before our test and bear wasnt exactly playing ball with me, we had napping round the edge of the arena and quite frankly a horrible tense test, scored 37 but i'm guessing the judge was feeling generous as im not sure we deserved that. Quick change of gear and off to sj, bear clearly had his naughty pants on that day as we entered the arena heading down the tother end to turn back for fence 1 and he slammed the breaks on and refused to move.... his little napping epoisde over and done with we flew round for 1 down, i was less than impressed with him, 2 phases down and napped in both he has NEVER done that before. I put it down to the horrid weather and 6am wake up call swapped my already soaked gear over once more for xc, the first few fences were tiny but they picked up in height further round. Flew out the start box over 1, 2 and 3 which exited the first woods.... headed towards 4 and he slammed the breaks on again.... i began to get angry now so sharp slap behind the saddle and we were off again flew 4, 5, 6 ,7 and ground to a halt in front of 8 the ditch this i was a little more forgiving with he hadnt seen a ditch on course for a few weeks so i let him look asked him to go and he went, fence 9 he took some offence to the gravel in front of the fence and stopped again, over on the 2nd attempt and after that i gave him no chance of stopping, lots of voal encouragement to get through the water and he flew the rest of the way round.
RUBBISH day on paper but a learning curve for us. Armed with a new plan of taking no ***** from bear and riding positively at everything we headed off this weekend to Gt Witchingham.... my nemesis course ive been their 3 x before with 3 different horses first time we came down in the start box, broke the saddle and scared the starter and paramedics! 2nd attempt i had to dismount my stead mid xc and yank a shoe out of his foot and limp him home and then 3rd attempt was back in 2013 with bear..... i hit the deck in the sj warmup! Main aim for sunday was to stay on board for all 3 phases!!!
32.5 dressage much more relaxed from him so fingers crossed he's realising dressage on grass isnt that exciting! 1 down sj i had a melt down jumping him at home on thurs so had to come up with a new plan for the SJ i upped our canter and rode more positively! So 2 out of the 3 phases and i was still aboard the bear.... so close to sucess!!!! Headed off for the xc out the start box flew 1, tried very hard to nap at 2 he lost i won, jumped 2 onto 3 tried again to nap, he lost again and i won! Over 3 tried once more to nap towards 4 once again he lost!! Over 4 and 5 and then the little sod got the better of me napped like hell and stopped at 6! jumped 2nd time and then stopped at 7 a jump with has a steep landing into woods, gave him chance to see it represented and im not really sure what happened tbh! we jumped the fence but for some reason were aimed at a tree on landing, reins on buckle end and me half hanging off the back... damn that was close! regained ourselves over 8 the exit out of the woods where he then proceeded to nap again.... so naughty! jumped the ditch from trot then flew the next few to the water which was a step in, he has never jumped into water before so when we stopped my plan was let him have a look suss it out then apply the pressure to go again, however due to his naughty behaviour earlier on course we had been caught up by another rider so i moved over to let them past and stole a lead from them down the drop into water and the rest of the way home, he flew over everything else!
I had finally managed to stay aboard my horse for all 3 phases of a ode at Gt Witchingham SUCCESS!!!
sod the xc penalities it was yet another learning curve and more experience for bear! His XC does seemed to have gone backwards, its never the actual jumps that cause us issues its him napping inbetween them he has done it at every xc run so far, hes just turned 7 and obviously had the time off for his injury so im assuming he is going through the naughty 6/7 warmblood stage of life and hopefully he will get his act together and get over it! We are back out again this weekend at keysoe for the 80cm so we shall see how we go, i shall just give him no option to stop thankfully at 80cm he can jump from a trot if needs be. After that all i have planned is aston le walls at the end of june so june will be spent xc schooling at lots of diff venues with instructors, alone and in company to ingrain some things back into him before we dare to attempt my dream of BE.
I have decided that we wont be going BE until he is happily taking me around a xc course again and doesnt need me egging him on with every stride, how ever long that may take!
sadly no pictures from either event as i have to go alone these days and i will get told off if i post the pros!
thanks for reading! Any tips for a naughty nappy xc pony will be greatly received!
