Ambers Echo
Still wittering on
So I knew I was in trouble when I walked the course. The jumping looked fairly straight forward but navigation was a nightmare! I couldn’t find the jumps without a horse never mind at speed with one! 12 seemed to be followed by 14. Where did 13 go??!!
My pre XC prep consisted of trying to memorise all the twists and turns and reciting the bonkers mantra (180 degree turn behind the trees to the Womble after 6/ through a gap and hard right down a hill to 10 etc etc).
But anyway back to the start of the day…. Amber was lovely and calm again in the dressage and we finally saw a shift in scores. Having been consistently round about 38 all season (and last season), Amber scored a 35. Still not good enough to be competitive but a huge step in the right direction. I rode her with more hand and more leg and she seemed to go better. I don’t much like how it feels but I think I need to trust my RI and persevere. We lost needless marks in a few places too so we can improve on that further too which is encouraging.
Then onto SJ and rideable Amber was back. So we had another calm, controlled clear.
Hopefully this is now the new normal for her.
Then onto XC – the best bit! Will this finally be the day ALL THREE phases come together for a DC, within the time to finish on a reasonable dressage?? Sadly not….. Amber had a very uncharacteristic stop at 3. Just a straightforward roll top. Even the commentator said ‘that’s a surprise as she was jumping very confidently’. She flew the rest of the course including all the harder questions. So that was very frustrating. She just seemed a bit distracted so the jump took her by surprise. My fault for not getting her attention back on me quickly enough when I could tell she had not locked on. But as she was travelling nicely I assumed she’d jump it anyway. Repeat after self: Be a RIDER not a PASSENGER!
And then I compounded that mistake by forgetting one of the counter-intuitive turns off the main track and picked up time penalties too.
But I am thrilled with her and very excited now about the rest of the season. Somerford was my first DC but it was a wild ride and felt like a fluke. I could just have easily have fallen off or had run outs. This felt like a much better performance. I was not just being towed around by her.
Video edit of our day. She is an absolute joy to ride when she is moving freely and jumping out of her stride. Love her so, so much.
My pre XC prep consisted of trying to memorise all the twists and turns and reciting the bonkers mantra (180 degree turn behind the trees to the Womble after 6/ through a gap and hard right down a hill to 10 etc etc).
But anyway back to the start of the day…. Amber was lovely and calm again in the dressage and we finally saw a shift in scores. Having been consistently round about 38 all season (and last season), Amber scored a 35. Still not good enough to be competitive but a huge step in the right direction. I rode her with more hand and more leg and she seemed to go better. I don’t much like how it feels but I think I need to trust my RI and persevere. We lost needless marks in a few places too so we can improve on that further too which is encouraging.
Then onto SJ and rideable Amber was back. So we had another calm, controlled clear.
Hopefully this is now the new normal for her.
Then onto XC – the best bit! Will this finally be the day ALL THREE phases come together for a DC, within the time to finish on a reasonable dressage?? Sadly not….. Amber had a very uncharacteristic stop at 3. Just a straightforward roll top. Even the commentator said ‘that’s a surprise as she was jumping very confidently’. She flew the rest of the course including all the harder questions. So that was very frustrating. She just seemed a bit distracted so the jump took her by surprise. My fault for not getting her attention back on me quickly enough when I could tell she had not locked on. But as she was travelling nicely I assumed she’d jump it anyway. Repeat after self: Be a RIDER not a PASSENGER!
And then I compounded that mistake by forgetting one of the counter-intuitive turns off the main track and picked up time penalties too.
But I am thrilled with her and very excited now about the rest of the season. Somerford was my first DC but it was a wild ride and felt like a fluke. I could just have easily have fallen off or had run outs. This felt like a much better performance. I was not just being towed around by her.
Video edit of our day. She is an absolute joy to ride when she is moving freely and jumping out of her stride. Love her so, so much.