Michen
Well-Known Member
A Bog update! Finally got truck and trailer sorted after much faffing with drop hitches, hitch balls, ratings etc etc. We were all set to head to Wyoming (just across the border) for combined training, which btw here is dressage and xc- amazing, and then it got cancelled because it's too wet. In the desert. WTF! It's rained and rained which is great but I can't believe even here things are being called off because of the weather.
I am entered for spring gulch horse trials this weekend, the equivalent of BE (affiliated) but I've been really struggling with the jumping. I know I'll be fine XC but my SJ has got progressively worse and I haven't jumped more than a foot since October. Obviously there's been some ups and downs with Bog so I've probably only had a handful of lessons but my confidence is through the floor. I really struggle with the surface at our barn and it's made me defensive, worried and stressed. I kept missing fences and the more I missed the worse it got. I find jumping in a small indoor hard, and the outdoor rides a bit deep for Bog so I felt pretty stuck and was ready to just pack the idea of jumping again in. It is totally me, no such problems when assistant trainer rides Bog.
It's a strange feeling because in the UK I'd have been eventing every other weekend by now and it's that which gets my confidence up. And I'd be wanting to work towards a better dressage, stepping up a level etc. Well there's not enough eventing here or the kind of ground I'd want to do it on to be going out consistently, so it's left me with a bit of a what is the point kind of feeling. Combine that with struggling to jump even a foot and my confidence about as low as it has been and..well.. yeh. Why bother putting myself under the stress and pressure of it all. Boggle's neck has also been constantly clicking in both directions pretty much since his fall, at least that's when I noticed it, so that's playing on my mind despite him feeling completely normal in every way and having been since by 2 normal vets and 1 chiro vet since the fall!
I literally could not meet an x pole at the right distance on sunday. So as a very last ditch attempt I decided to try and get a lesson in at a jump/breeding barn 45 mins away who I'd heard good things about and I felt the surface might be more what we were used to in the UK. This involved towing down the i70 which is a long mountain pass for the first time (@Caol Ila will know what a reckoning that is!). I have such good fellow boarders though, I noticed a familiar car behind me and one of them, knowing I was nervous, went completely out of her way to follow me down the mountain pass to make sure no one sat on my tail and added to my stress. As it happened my truck was great and engine braked superbly the whole way down so my fear of having to sit on the brakes and potentially smoke them out was dissipated. It's really nice having my own transport again, I definitely had a WTF moment- towing my horse to a showjumping lesson in Colorado...how did that even happen
such a similar routine that I did a hundred times in the UK but in a completely different environment.
On to the lesson, another friend met me there who knew the instructor. Within under a minute he got the measure of exactly what was going wrong. I think out of the 30 or so (very small!) fences we jumped, we missed once. I could not stop grinning, I finally got the joy of it all back and Boggle felt fantastic, I could almost feel him breathe a sigh of relief that I wasn't riding like such a useless lemon anymore. I ended the lesson filled with confidence and wanting to do it all again even if we just have the odd jump lesson and never compete in anything again.
And what a backdrop for a lesson, sorry no videos as they were from so far away so can't see much. So we will head to the horse trials (with a very large support crew- eek!) and see what we can do stateside. How on earth we will make the optimum time without being too fast I don't know, its 350mpm instead of the usual I think 420mpm of a BE80. And we are always too quick!
VERY excited that Bears owner is flying back out here on Friday for two weeks of fun! And very much loving life here, enjoying every minute of it. Oh and a few photos of what I woke up to at 4am on the Kings coronation... There were scones too, and a quiche.
for those!
I am entered for spring gulch horse trials this weekend, the equivalent of BE (affiliated) but I've been really struggling with the jumping. I know I'll be fine XC but my SJ has got progressively worse and I haven't jumped more than a foot since October. Obviously there's been some ups and downs with Bog so I've probably only had a handful of lessons but my confidence is through the floor. I really struggle with the surface at our barn and it's made me defensive, worried and stressed. I kept missing fences and the more I missed the worse it got. I find jumping in a small indoor hard, and the outdoor rides a bit deep for Bog so I felt pretty stuck and was ready to just pack the idea of jumping again in. It is totally me, no such problems when assistant trainer rides Bog.
It's a strange feeling because in the UK I'd have been eventing every other weekend by now and it's that which gets my confidence up. And I'd be wanting to work towards a better dressage, stepping up a level etc. Well there's not enough eventing here or the kind of ground I'd want to do it on to be going out consistently, so it's left me with a bit of a what is the point kind of feeling. Combine that with struggling to jump even a foot and my confidence about as low as it has been and..well.. yeh. Why bother putting myself under the stress and pressure of it all. Boggle's neck has also been constantly clicking in both directions pretty much since his fall, at least that's when I noticed it, so that's playing on my mind despite him feeling completely normal in every way and having been since by 2 normal vets and 1 chiro vet since the fall!
I literally could not meet an x pole at the right distance on sunday. So as a very last ditch attempt I decided to try and get a lesson in at a jump/breeding barn 45 mins away who I'd heard good things about and I felt the surface might be more what we were used to in the UK. This involved towing down the i70 which is a long mountain pass for the first time (@Caol Ila will know what a reckoning that is!). I have such good fellow boarders though, I noticed a familiar car behind me and one of them, knowing I was nervous, went completely out of her way to follow me down the mountain pass to make sure no one sat on my tail and added to my stress. As it happened my truck was great and engine braked superbly the whole way down so my fear of having to sit on the brakes and potentially smoke them out was dissipated. It's really nice having my own transport again, I definitely had a WTF moment- towing my horse to a showjumping lesson in Colorado...how did that even happen
such a similar routine that I did a hundred times in the UK but in a completely different environment.On to the lesson, another friend met me there who knew the instructor. Within under a minute he got the measure of exactly what was going wrong. I think out of the 30 or so (very small!) fences we jumped, we missed once. I could not stop grinning, I finally got the joy of it all back and Boggle felt fantastic, I could almost feel him breathe a sigh of relief that I wasn't riding like such a useless lemon anymore. I ended the lesson filled with confidence and wanting to do it all again even if we just have the odd jump lesson and never compete in anything again.
And what a backdrop for a lesson, sorry no videos as they were from so far away so can't see much. So we will head to the horse trials (with a very large support crew- eek!) and see what we can do stateside. How on earth we will make the optimum time without being too fast I don't know, its 350mpm instead of the usual I think 420mpm of a BE80. And we are always too quick!
VERY excited that Bears owner is flying back out here on Friday for two weeks of fun! And very much loving life here, enjoying every minute of it. Oh and a few photos of what I woke up to at 4am on the Kings coronation...
There were scones too, and a quiche.for those!
Last edited:
Good to hear you're both back on form.
