_MizElz_
Well-Known Member
On hindsight, it all seems a bit trivial now, but god, my heart missed a few beats!
Ellie and I went to a local ODE; we did it last year and got eliminated in the water, so I was absolutely determined not to let THAT happen again. Dressage is our absolute weak point, so I decided to do it in my jumping saddle; I had a theory that because I don't use my dressage saddle very often, I'm not as 'with' her as in my jumping saddle. It would appear that is absolutely the case, as bless her, she did the best test ever. Granted, it still wasn't anything fancy compared to normal people's standards, but I knew the minute we finished that we'd done streets better than usual. Normally we're around the 44-46 mark (consistently awful, haha!), but today, we managed 36.5 - amazing for us! When we left, we were 6th of 30 in the dressage; I'm still stunned now And have decided to sell my dressage saddle, as I don't think I can be bothered to use it again. (And on that subject, does anyone have any idea how much I should be asking for a Thorowgood T4? Leather saddles seem easy enough to estimate price, but I have no idea where to start for a synthetic?!)
Ellie went clear SJ - shame it wasn't timed, as she seemed to be in jump-off mode! So then we toddled off to the XC. She started beautifully - I would say the course was less challenging than last year in general, but it still rode beautifully. She went through the first water complex beautifully, but it was the second one I was more worried about as last year, she point blankly refused to jump down the step. This time, I made sure she was going really forward and bouncy, and she put a massive leap in - I think we only had two strides before we were out again! We then popped the barrels a few strides after, only for Ellie to suddenly be on three legs, absolutely hopping. I honestly think my heart stopped; it felt like she's broken a leg I jumped straight off and she had her near hind up off the ground, held up to her tummy. Bless her - all that had happened was that with such a big jump into the water, she'd knocked her boot on the upward step, and it had slid down around her pastern. I was so relieved...once she'd calmed down and allowed me near it, I pulled it off, and one of the lovely fence judges came to help me get back on (I think I broke her back ) once we'd checked that Ellie was fine. We went on to finish clear, although I'm still not sure what the final decision was about penalties; I went back to thank the judge afterwards, and although she said she had marked me clear, I think some of the judges at other fences weren't sure that should be the case. But hey - I don't really mind; Ellie did everything I asked of her, and I'm just so relieved that what had felt so horrific actually turned out to be nothing...!
The only downside was, when I got back to the trailer and started to de-stud, I discovered we'd lost a shoe. And although I spent an hour trawling the XC course, I couldn't find it anywhere, so am guessing it may have also fallen victim to our massive jump into the water, and is lurking somewhere in the bottom!
There aren't any photos available yet, but I will post a link when they're online
Thanks for reading! x
Ellie and I went to a local ODE; we did it last year and got eliminated in the water, so I was absolutely determined not to let THAT happen again. Dressage is our absolute weak point, so I decided to do it in my jumping saddle; I had a theory that because I don't use my dressage saddle very often, I'm not as 'with' her as in my jumping saddle. It would appear that is absolutely the case, as bless her, she did the best test ever. Granted, it still wasn't anything fancy compared to normal people's standards, but I knew the minute we finished that we'd done streets better than usual. Normally we're around the 44-46 mark (consistently awful, haha!), but today, we managed 36.5 - amazing for us! When we left, we were 6th of 30 in the dressage; I'm still stunned now And have decided to sell my dressage saddle, as I don't think I can be bothered to use it again. (And on that subject, does anyone have any idea how much I should be asking for a Thorowgood T4? Leather saddles seem easy enough to estimate price, but I have no idea where to start for a synthetic?!)
Ellie went clear SJ - shame it wasn't timed, as she seemed to be in jump-off mode! So then we toddled off to the XC. She started beautifully - I would say the course was less challenging than last year in general, but it still rode beautifully. She went through the first water complex beautifully, but it was the second one I was more worried about as last year, she point blankly refused to jump down the step. This time, I made sure she was going really forward and bouncy, and she put a massive leap in - I think we only had two strides before we were out again! We then popped the barrels a few strides after, only for Ellie to suddenly be on three legs, absolutely hopping. I honestly think my heart stopped; it felt like she's broken a leg I jumped straight off and she had her near hind up off the ground, held up to her tummy. Bless her - all that had happened was that with such a big jump into the water, she'd knocked her boot on the upward step, and it had slid down around her pastern. I was so relieved...once she'd calmed down and allowed me near it, I pulled it off, and one of the lovely fence judges came to help me get back on (I think I broke her back ) once we'd checked that Ellie was fine. We went on to finish clear, although I'm still not sure what the final decision was about penalties; I went back to thank the judge afterwards, and although she said she had marked me clear, I think some of the judges at other fences weren't sure that should be the case. But hey - I don't really mind; Ellie did everything I asked of her, and I'm just so relieved that what had felt so horrific actually turned out to be nothing...!
The only downside was, when I got back to the trailer and started to de-stud, I discovered we'd lost a shoe. And although I spent an hour trawling the XC course, I couldn't find it anywhere, so am guessing it may have also fallen victim to our massive jump into the water, and is lurking somewhere in the bottom!
There aren't any photos available yet, but I will post a link when they're online
Thanks for reading! x