SnowGoose
Well-Known Member
So the run of happy outings had to end eventually - not a disaster but definatly disappointing 
Yet again we set off at the crack of dawn for an 8.20am dressage, fortunately slightly closer than last early bird outing so i could walk the course the day before resulting in a fairly civilised 6.25am departure from the yard. KatB had kindly offered to join me (clearly has major BE withdrawl to get up at that time) meaning i could quite leisurely stud up while she wandered off to get my number. Off to the warm up and went fairly smoothly. We are in an interim stage of schooling at the moment where he is starting to get the hang of working through his back but if i ask for too much energy from the back end he cant quite hold it and charges off unbalanced with his head in the air. Decided the safest option was to keep it quiet and together which is best achieved in sitting trot, again though he is not fully ready for this so looses a bit of 'swing'
Test itself felt loads better than catton. much more balanced on turns and bending nicely, tendency to drop a little behind the vertical at times so some inconsistancy as i tried (not very well) to ride him forward more when this happened. slightly disappointed with score of 35, only 0.5 better than last test put us about mid section after dressage but know there are more marks to come so trying not to worry about it too much, judges comments were basically she would like to see him swing through his back more then he would score higher so pretty fair.
On to showjumping and arena seemed very big after lots of indoor SJ of late. After his arena ODE at vale view the weekend before i was worried i might have knocked his confidence a little so decided to keep him in the snaffle in case he backed off. BIG MISTAKE snaffle is lovely in enclosed indoor school but B set off round the field sized SJ arena in a lovely XC canter as soon as i asked him to steady, he leant on the bit and charged off resulting in flat jumps and 2 poles down instuctor also made me put stirrups down last week and looking at pics seems this has resulted in complete loss of my lower leg position so they will be going straight back up again! on the plus side he definately wasnt backing off his fences so i havent dented his confidence too much
quick change and over to XC. Had bitted up this time, put him in his kimblewick which after experimenting at home over the last couple of weeks seems his preferred option for more control. warmed up in lovely SJ canter though didnt seem to want to really open up but he's sometimes like that in the warmup area so didnt think to much of it and popped the jumps nicely. Trotted through to the start box, couple little circles, 10,9,8.. into start box, 7,6.. B suddenly starts mouthing wildly and tongue going mad.. 5,4.. hes got his tongue over the bit, cue frantically trying to reach into his mouth from the saddle to get it back.. 3,2.. arrrggghhh cant get it back over... 1, go... final attempt, not 100% its back but a few secs late we're out of the start box. Now normally he heads out quite steadily so having to ride him down to the first didnt really worry, still not forward to 2 but it had a lot of plastic pigs underneath so maybe he's looking at them? big kick and he flys it, turn to 3, popped nicely then steady canter again to log trailer at 4 leg on and ballooned it, turned up the hill, now we'll go nope continued that way round whole course, jumped all the fences really nicely but never really opened up between which was very weird as has been VERY forward at home and at previous BE100. took long route at final corner as not really sure what he was doing so didnt want to risk silly run out on record and finished clear with 14 time faults.
so much debating of cause, possibly tongue not back over bit? was very forward in SJ in snaffle and came off XC hardly sweating so definately not fitness issue. Possibly bit of muscle fatigue as has been working very hard since coming back into full training 6/7 weeks ago? gave him couple days off and he had sports massage yesterday where he had quite a lot of tightness in his pectoral muscles, possibly related? will take him for hack tomorrow and see how he feels and have ordered new bit which will hopefully be better for XC then see how he is at stafford.
pro pics here: as you can see SJ is awful he's usually really good through his shoulder over fences too so the inverted jumps are very abnormal
http://www.horsepower-photography.co.uk/viewdir.tlx?albumid=274559
if direct link doesnt work - http://www.horsepower-photography.co.uk/libraryhome.tlx Buckminster ODE, section C, page 2, no 104 Primitive Storm
cheese toasties and crabbies alcoholic ginger beer if you have made it this far
Yet again we set off at the crack of dawn for an 8.20am dressage, fortunately slightly closer than last early bird outing so i could walk the course the day before resulting in a fairly civilised 6.25am departure from the yard. KatB had kindly offered to join me (clearly has major BE withdrawl to get up at that time
) meaning i could quite leisurely stud up while she wandered off to get my number. Off to the warm up and went fairly smoothly. We are in an interim stage of schooling at the moment where he is starting to get the hang of working through his back but if i ask for too much energy from the back end he cant quite hold it and charges off unbalanced with his head in the air. Decided the safest option was to keep it quiet and together which is best achieved in sitting trot, again though he is not fully ready for this so looses a bit of 'swing'Test itself felt loads better than catton. much more balanced on turns and bending nicely, tendency to drop a little behind the vertical at times so some inconsistancy as i tried (not very well
) to ride him forward more when this happened. slightly disappointed with score of 35, only 0.5 better than last test put us about mid section after dressage but know there are more marks to come so trying not to worry about it too much, judges comments were basically she would like to see him swing through his back more then he would score higher so pretty fair.On to showjumping and arena seemed very big after lots of indoor SJ of late. After his arena ODE at vale view the weekend before i was worried i might have knocked his confidence a little so decided to keep him in the snaffle in case he backed off. BIG MISTAKE
snaffle is lovely in enclosed indoor school but B set off round the field sized SJ arena in a lovely XC canter as soon as i asked him to steady, he leant on the bit and charged off resulting in flat jumps and 2 poles down instuctor also made me put stirrups down last week and looking at pics seems this has resulted in complete loss of my lower leg position so they will be going straight back up again! on the plus side he definately wasnt backing off his fences so i havent dented his confidence too much quick change and over to XC. Had bitted up this time, put him in his kimblewick which after experimenting at home over the last couple of weeks seems his preferred option for more control. warmed up in lovely SJ canter
though didnt seem to want to really open up but he's sometimes like that in the warmup area so didnt think to much of it and popped the jumps nicely. Trotted through to the start box, couple little circles, 10,9,8.. into start box, 7,6.. B suddenly starts mouthing wildly and tongue going mad.. 5,4.. hes got his tongue over the bit, cue frantically trying to reach into his mouth from the saddle to get it back.. 3,2.. arrrggghhh cant get it back over... 1, go... final attempt, not 100% its back but a few secs late we're out of the start box. Now normally he heads out quite steadily so having to ride him down to the first didnt really worry, still not forward to 2 but it had a lot of plastic pigs underneath so maybe he's looking at them? big kick and he flys it, turn to 3, popped nicely then steady canter again to log trailer at 4 leg on and ballooned it, turned up the hill, now we'll go nope continued that way round whole course, jumped all the fences really nicely but never really opened up between which was very weird as has been VERY forward at home and at previous BE100. took long route at final corner as not really sure what he was doing so didnt want to risk silly run out on record and finished clear with 14 time faults.so much debating of cause, possibly tongue not back over bit? was very forward in SJ in snaffle and came off XC hardly sweating so definately not fitness issue. Possibly bit of muscle fatigue as has been working very hard since coming back into full training 6/7 weeks ago? gave him couple days off and he had sports massage yesterday where he had quite a lot of tightness in his pectoral muscles, possibly related? will take him for hack tomorrow and see how he feels and have ordered new bit which will hopefully be better for XC then see how he is at stafford.
pro pics here: as you can see SJ is awful
he's usually really good through his shoulder over fences too so the inverted jumps are very abnormal http://www.horsepower-photography.co.uk/viewdir.tlx?albumid=274559
if direct link doesnt work - http://www.horsepower-photography.co.uk/libraryhome.tlx Buckminster ODE, section C, page 2, no 104 Primitive Storm
cheese toasties and crabbies alcoholic ginger beer if you have made it this far
