GinaGeo
Well-Known Member
The car was packed, the bay pony was collected from Uni and we set off down the M1 towards Milton Keynes. The weather forecast was bleak, with thunderstorms forecast and non-stop heavy rain. All I could think was that all my uni friends would be all glammed up for the summer ball and Id be spending the night sheltering from thunderstorms in a tent I really wasnt sure wed made the right decision. :redface3: Bay pony hates the rain and despises mud. Typically, the further south we travelled, the heavier it rained and the harder the windscreen wipers had to work. Supergroom mum and I developed a new mantra. Were here because we want to be, were because its fun
. Putting up the Tent, was even more fun, and involved lying on it to prevent a kite flying session, as well as a couple of minor disagreements regarding its construction. Our mantra was repeated several times. After tea, we noticed a small gap in the clouds, and jumped at the opportunity to take bay pony for a leg stretch. He felt fabulous. Through, listening and completely with me so didnt ride for long. Put him to bed and trailed back to the tent for a good nights sleep.
The morning resulted with me and supergroom mum both having very sore backsides. The air mattress had kindly completely deflated at 4.30am and coupled with the rain bouncing off the tent, sleep was lacking. :rolleyes3: After a last minute detour to the trade stands to purchase some more hairnets (I swear they grow legs and run away I get through hundreds of the darned things!) I set too, plaiting and prettifying bay pony. I did wash his legs, but there was little point as they were instantly covered in mud splats within seconds of walking out the stable. :mad3: So complete with waterproofs we headed over to the first Trot up. Solo decided he was in-hand showing and set off at a fair belt, eager to show that not only was he very sound, but that he could easily out trot me too. He was most confused when we didnt do a full lap of the field, and had a little bit of a strop about being told to stop. But he passed and off we went to sort him out for the Dressage.
http://www.ultimate-images.co.uk/photocart/index.php?do=photocart&viewGallery=18587#image=874749
http://www.ultimate-images.co.uk/photocart/index.php?do=photocart&viewGallery=18587#image=874751
As I was tacking up for dressage the rain seemed to break for lunch and whilst the sun didnt make an appearance it was positively glorious in comparison! Bay pony was beautifully forward and certainly took a good contact. I focussed our warm up on keeping him soft, through and relaxed. He can get a bit tense when hes that onwards. His tests were always more relaxed when he wasnt as fit, now hes ready and waiting for the fun stuff he started to guess a lot. Walk especially is a battle to stay completely still, or he starts trying to guess whats next. Weve done a lot of walk to canter to improve the canter, which worked brilliantly, but now I need to go back and relax the walk again.
The centre line was like glue, and bay pony was struggling to understand why he couldnt trot 1/2m either side, so it wasnt our usual straight entrance. I also took my foot off the gas for the turn as weve had slippage issues in the past, which was noted by the judge. The main comments were needs to let go more in front, and when I was able too he was scoring eights. When I had to take a bit more of a contact to contain everything we dropped down to sevens and sixes. The final centre line was a little strong and he ignored my subtle halt aids, which meant I had to take a bit of a pull before we ended up trotting over the judges car. This was noted and we were rightfully marked down for it. He also got a foot stuck in the mud in the halt bless.
[video=youtube;5rtfP2jcwfA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rtfP2jcwfA[/video]
We scored a respectable 32.5 penalties, which left us in sixth overnight. I hadnt been intending to buy a stopwatch, its going to be a long time before were capable of novice so it seemed like an unnecessary expense. But being in a competitive position, my competitive side took over and we trailed off to the trade stands to purchase one.
The scheduled talk about the roads and tracks was incredibly useful and gave us lots of hints and tips to make the next day a lot easier, as well as giving us basic guidelines for calculating our mile markers. Supergroom mum and I set off admist a rainstorm to walk the 8km roads and tracks and the 2km cross country course. I dont think Ive walked so far in soggy boots for a long time! The XC whilst mostly relatively simple had a couple of questions bay pony and I hadnt come across before in competition. Three was a pair offset logs, jumped down a slope ridden either on a curve or at angle. Nine was a pair of very skinny barrels on a curving four strides, which was approached from a hair pin turn after a galloping section and was the one that I thought he might not read correctly and in time.
For some reason bay pony hadnt touched his hay overnight, he can be picky and despite having brought hay from home for him, he was on hunger strike. Cue a bit of a panic. Id come prepared with a full bag of grass chaff, in case he did this (it happens fairly regularly diva.). So we spent the morning shovelling grass chaff down him so he had something in his gut. I noticed that his front shoes were a little loose, had heard him clunk them in the dressage, so went off to find the event farrier to ask him to pop us a couple of nails in them. He squeezed us in and Solo stood like a lamb, which was a relief as he has been a bit funny in the past to shoe. Nothing to do with the shoeing process, he can be a little wary of strange men. Hes never really come into contact with men apart from when being shod, but my farrier at Uni has worked hard making friends with him, giving him cuddles and feeding him treats for being good which has paid off thank goodness! My farrier is great!
I had my times strapped to my arm, my stopwatch synced with event time, supergroom mum had her times to be in certain places in her pocket and we were ready to go. Five seconds to go, I started my stopwatch and off we trotted. Phase A was to be ridden at 250mpm for 16 minutes. The aim was to hit the km markers every four minutes. We started off in a good trot, before we hit a lovely uphill section, where I let him have a good canter to get his muscles warmed up ready for the steeplechase. At the first km I was 2 minutes up on time, which was good as there was a gravel section Id have to steady up over, with him being studded behind. We completed the rest in trot, with a bit of walk in places. We finished bang on 16minutes, which gave us plenty of time to shorten stirrups, check girth, get a drink, sort out my watch and give him a walk before the steeplechase.
Bay pony has never jumped a steeplechase before, and these were pretty big jumps, the brush was measuring at least 3 foot and without a warm up jump I was a little unsure how hed react. In the past he has been a bit hesitant at the first fence. He stood beautifully outside the start box as the countdown began, started my stopwatch, the starter said Go and he flew. I didnt know he could accelerate quite so fast! He did hesitate at the first, but went when I said it was Ok. The rest is a bit of a blur, he was flying and by the second lap was starting to understand it. Nice to know the Derby winner a couple of generations back has had an effect somewhere!
http://www.ultimate-images.co.uk/photocart/index.php?do=photocart&viewGallery=18593#image=875610
[video=youtube;IHshyVakQb8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHshyVakQb8[/video]
The end of phase b is the start of phase c. I kept him cantering, slowing down gradually until he felt ready to walk. Phase c was slower, 160mpm, which is a mix of walk and trot. I kept him up on the clock for the first few km, to allow us to have a steadier time at the end, to help reduce his heart rate ready for the vet check before XC. We trotted the last 50m in to allow the vet to see him trotted to ensure he was sound to continue. Supergroom mum was brilliant and we kept him walking, whilst washing, sweat scraping and washing his boots and legs whilst we were in the 10minute box.
The morning resulted with me and supergroom mum both having very sore backsides. The air mattress had kindly completely deflated at 4.30am and coupled with the rain bouncing off the tent, sleep was lacking. :rolleyes3: After a last minute detour to the trade stands to purchase some more hairnets (I swear they grow legs and run away I get through hundreds of the darned things!) I set too, plaiting and prettifying bay pony. I did wash his legs, but there was little point as they were instantly covered in mud splats within seconds of walking out the stable. :mad3: So complete with waterproofs we headed over to the first Trot up. Solo decided he was in-hand showing and set off at a fair belt, eager to show that not only was he very sound, but that he could easily out trot me too. He was most confused when we didnt do a full lap of the field, and had a little bit of a strop about being told to stop. But he passed and off we went to sort him out for the Dressage.
http://www.ultimate-images.co.uk/photocart/index.php?do=photocart&viewGallery=18587#image=874749
http://www.ultimate-images.co.uk/photocart/index.php?do=photocart&viewGallery=18587#image=874751
As I was tacking up for dressage the rain seemed to break for lunch and whilst the sun didnt make an appearance it was positively glorious in comparison! Bay pony was beautifully forward and certainly took a good contact. I focussed our warm up on keeping him soft, through and relaxed. He can get a bit tense when hes that onwards. His tests were always more relaxed when he wasnt as fit, now hes ready and waiting for the fun stuff he started to guess a lot. Walk especially is a battle to stay completely still, or he starts trying to guess whats next. Weve done a lot of walk to canter to improve the canter, which worked brilliantly, but now I need to go back and relax the walk again.
The centre line was like glue, and bay pony was struggling to understand why he couldnt trot 1/2m either side, so it wasnt our usual straight entrance. I also took my foot off the gas for the turn as weve had slippage issues in the past, which was noted by the judge. The main comments were needs to let go more in front, and when I was able too he was scoring eights. When I had to take a bit more of a contact to contain everything we dropped down to sevens and sixes. The final centre line was a little strong and he ignored my subtle halt aids, which meant I had to take a bit of a pull before we ended up trotting over the judges car. This was noted and we were rightfully marked down for it. He also got a foot stuck in the mud in the halt bless.
[video=youtube;5rtfP2jcwfA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rtfP2jcwfA[/video]
We scored a respectable 32.5 penalties, which left us in sixth overnight. I hadnt been intending to buy a stopwatch, its going to be a long time before were capable of novice so it seemed like an unnecessary expense. But being in a competitive position, my competitive side took over and we trailed off to the trade stands to purchase one.
The scheduled talk about the roads and tracks was incredibly useful and gave us lots of hints and tips to make the next day a lot easier, as well as giving us basic guidelines for calculating our mile markers. Supergroom mum and I set off admist a rainstorm to walk the 8km roads and tracks and the 2km cross country course. I dont think Ive walked so far in soggy boots for a long time! The XC whilst mostly relatively simple had a couple of questions bay pony and I hadnt come across before in competition. Three was a pair offset logs, jumped down a slope ridden either on a curve or at angle. Nine was a pair of very skinny barrels on a curving four strides, which was approached from a hair pin turn after a galloping section and was the one that I thought he might not read correctly and in time.
For some reason bay pony hadnt touched his hay overnight, he can be picky and despite having brought hay from home for him, he was on hunger strike. Cue a bit of a panic. Id come prepared with a full bag of grass chaff, in case he did this (it happens fairly regularly diva.). So we spent the morning shovelling grass chaff down him so he had something in his gut. I noticed that his front shoes were a little loose, had heard him clunk them in the dressage, so went off to find the event farrier to ask him to pop us a couple of nails in them. He squeezed us in and Solo stood like a lamb, which was a relief as he has been a bit funny in the past to shoe. Nothing to do with the shoeing process, he can be a little wary of strange men. Hes never really come into contact with men apart from when being shod, but my farrier at Uni has worked hard making friends with him, giving him cuddles and feeding him treats for being good which has paid off thank goodness! My farrier is great!
I had my times strapped to my arm, my stopwatch synced with event time, supergroom mum had her times to be in certain places in her pocket and we were ready to go. Five seconds to go, I started my stopwatch and off we trotted. Phase A was to be ridden at 250mpm for 16 minutes. The aim was to hit the km markers every four minutes. We started off in a good trot, before we hit a lovely uphill section, where I let him have a good canter to get his muscles warmed up ready for the steeplechase. At the first km I was 2 minutes up on time, which was good as there was a gravel section Id have to steady up over, with him being studded behind. We completed the rest in trot, with a bit of walk in places. We finished bang on 16minutes, which gave us plenty of time to shorten stirrups, check girth, get a drink, sort out my watch and give him a walk before the steeplechase.
Bay pony has never jumped a steeplechase before, and these were pretty big jumps, the brush was measuring at least 3 foot and without a warm up jump I was a little unsure how hed react. In the past he has been a bit hesitant at the first fence. He stood beautifully outside the start box as the countdown began, started my stopwatch, the starter said Go and he flew. I didnt know he could accelerate quite so fast! He did hesitate at the first, but went when I said it was Ok. The rest is a bit of a blur, he was flying and by the second lap was starting to understand it. Nice to know the Derby winner a couple of generations back has had an effect somewhere!
http://www.ultimate-images.co.uk/photocart/index.php?do=photocart&viewGallery=18593#image=875610
[video=youtube;IHshyVakQb8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHshyVakQb8[/video]
The end of phase b is the start of phase c. I kept him cantering, slowing down gradually until he felt ready to walk. Phase c was slower, 160mpm, which is a mix of walk and trot. I kept him up on the clock for the first few km, to allow us to have a steadier time at the end, to help reduce his heart rate ready for the vet check before XC. We trotted the last 50m in to allow the vet to see him trotted to ensure he was sound to continue. Supergroom mum was brilliant and we kept him walking, whilst washing, sweat scraping and washing his boots and legs whilst we were in the 10minute box.
well done 
