sfward
Well-Known Member
Well we had an interesting day at Bishop Burton on Saturday - educational is probably the word...!
We got there in time to walk the course before dressage, which I thought might be interesting as it had a couple of quite tricky combinations (for PN) and everything came up quite fast - having had very little brakes and some rather dodgy steering at Aske I wasn't sure at all how it would go...!
Warmed up for dressage and she was going pretty nicely, a little strong in the hand especially in canter but I know I need to work on this long term as she is still quite downhill and weak, and she was at least lovely and calm (possibly thanks to a couple of squirts of Rescue Remedy...!!!) In we went and did what I thought was a pretty good test, definitely our best so far with the exception of one canter circle where she knocked a board and changed behind, and the trot diagonal when the silly score collector ran out from behind the car and made her jump just as I gave the reins away... For some reason the judge was marking very harshly so we only scored 40.5 which was disappointing, but seeing as the best was only 33 I suppose it wasn't too bad.
Showjumping was not so good - she worked in well but then got really keen and strong in the ring and had 2 down. She was really very rude so in view of the long term picture I decided to get tough on the XC and use it as a schooling exercise, seeing as we were unlikely to get placed anyway with 2 show jumps down. I ended up jumping several practice jumps out of trot and pulling up afterwards to drill in the braking message, and obviously it worked as she was lovely XC - very polite, came back to me when asked and actually thought about what she was doing so made a very nice job of the various combinations. We got 9.2 time penalties for pootling round, but I don't really care as it was important she learns that she can't go everywhere at 300 mph!
Predictably were nowhere near the places, but I was happy in general, think it was a productive day and at least I know what I need to work on over the winter!
Sorry no photos, obviously the photographer was having one of many coffee breaks whilst we were going round...
!!
We got there in time to walk the course before dressage, which I thought might be interesting as it had a couple of quite tricky combinations (for PN) and everything came up quite fast - having had very little brakes and some rather dodgy steering at Aske I wasn't sure at all how it would go...!
Warmed up for dressage and she was going pretty nicely, a little strong in the hand especially in canter but I know I need to work on this long term as she is still quite downhill and weak, and she was at least lovely and calm (possibly thanks to a couple of squirts of Rescue Remedy...!!!) In we went and did what I thought was a pretty good test, definitely our best so far with the exception of one canter circle where she knocked a board and changed behind, and the trot diagonal when the silly score collector ran out from behind the car and made her jump just as I gave the reins away... For some reason the judge was marking very harshly so we only scored 40.5 which was disappointing, but seeing as the best was only 33 I suppose it wasn't too bad.
Showjumping was not so good - she worked in well but then got really keen and strong in the ring and had 2 down. She was really very rude so in view of the long term picture I decided to get tough on the XC and use it as a schooling exercise, seeing as we were unlikely to get placed anyway with 2 show jumps down. I ended up jumping several practice jumps out of trot and pulling up afterwards to drill in the braking message, and obviously it worked as she was lovely XC - very polite, came back to me when asked and actually thought about what she was doing so made a very nice job of the various combinations. We got 9.2 time penalties for pootling round, but I don't really care as it was important she learns that she can't go everywhere at 300 mph!
Predictably were nowhere near the places, but I was happy in general, think it was a productive day and at least I know what I need to work on over the winter!
Sorry no photos, obviously the photographer was having one of many coffee breaks whilst we were going round...
