blood_magik
Well-Known Member
Might as well cram them both in together 
Last week Raz and I headed 180 miles north to Inverurie for our second Area Festival. What should have been a 5 hour journey ended up taking just over 6 but we got there eventually.
Razs stable overlooked the indoor warmup and he could see everyone come and going so he was happy. Im glade I packed a waterproof rug as its was pretty cold and wet and blowing right into his stable.
Needless to say I slept well that night, having done all of the driving.
Saturday morning we braved the arena walk and Im glad we did - his eyes were on stalks for a good few laps and there were a few fire breathing dragon moments... he did settle eventually though.
First up was our elementary area festival. We were supposed to go to Rockrose last month but Raz twisted a shoe and stood on the clip the day before so we had to pull out. My goal was top 10 (ideally top 3) but we had a few silly mistakes that cost us our usual mark - ended up 6th on 65.44 with an 8.5 for our final halt from the judge at B
Popped him back in his stable for a bit before the medium warmup class. Our new warmup is much more efficient so had planned to give myself 25 minutes including the tack check as wed done a lot of supple-ing work earlier. But no... Raz wasnt for listening and I could have done with another 5-10 minutes to work on our halfpasses.
The toy went out the pram in the indoor - everything was a monster that was going to eat him so I just tried my best to ride through it. I was very relieved to get up that final centre line in one piece.
No idea how we won it
got a decent enough mark as well - 64.48%
On Sunday we had our final test - our medium area festival. Our last attempt didnt go particularly well (60.1-something average score) so I was hoping for something around the 63/64 mark and another top 10 finish.
He was much better in the arena walk and we even managed a mooch about on a long-ish rein. He felt pretty good when I got back on to warmup so only did a little bit of suppling work before working on the dreaded Halfpass. Somehow they managed to make up time (were running 10mins behind) so things were a little hurried but we got one final *good* canter HP both ways before heading round.
Made sure I keep him soft while work in around the arena and he actually listened for once. He did feel a little tired in the trot halfpasses but I thought our shoulder in was pretty decent. A few mistakes again - stuck in the second half piri, he changed after the first canter extension and our second simple change was a bit rubbish but overall he felt sooo much more rideable.
Really happy to have finished 4th with 63.08 so weve qualified for both finals in October. Thankfully this one is only 20 minutes away.
Took a bit of a detour via Fife and the Forth Road Bride coming home to avoid the Blair traffic but we got there eventually.
Raz is now having a few easy days while I concentrate on getting my 4yo back up and running after her holiday.
Heading up towards Dundee
Are we there yet?
The best view
Early arena walk
Success!
Heading home over the forth road bridge
Then today we took Beau, T and Blue over to Muirmill for their weekday BS. Dad and T got eliminated for jumping the wrong fence early on and dad then decided he wasnt going to jump Blue so I did instead.
I havent jumped him since February so was pleasantly surprised to find he was lovely and forward (used to be LAZY as hell). Not sure I quite got it together with him in the warmup as we kept jumping to one side of the warmup fences but he jumped well and helped me when I got the distance wrong so Im no complaining.
In the ring he felt like he backed right off the first few but once he got going I was struggling to hold him back. Luckily hes super honest (I dropped my reins and went really wide coming into 9)and pinged round to win the open section.
Beau didnt have a good show - something was spooking him in the warmup and he kept barging away from it through the opposite shoulder so I wasnt feeling particularly optimistic going into the 1.05.
And I was right. We had the first blimmin fence down. I was entered in the 1.10m so I pulled up and saved him for that.
The 1.10 didnt look particularly big but there was one dogs leg I didnt like the look of. Beau didnt either (not helped by me riding the line like a total muppet) and we ended up getting eliminated at the second part of that line. Sack the jockey...
So very much Half and half Today. Hopefully I at least get a nice picture. Nothing on this weekend so weve got a couple of lessons booked - I *will* get round a newcomers before the end of next week.
Blue
[video]https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nwG-MQo2Z5w[/video]
And Beau
[video]https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UWeJLYv5a6M[/video]
Thanks for reading if youve gotten this far
Last week Raz and I headed 180 miles north to Inverurie for our second Area Festival. What should have been a 5 hour journey ended up taking just over 6 but we got there eventually.
Razs stable overlooked the indoor warmup and he could see everyone come and going so he was happy. Im glade I packed a waterproof rug as its was pretty cold and wet and blowing right into his stable.
Needless to say I slept well that night, having done all of the driving.
Saturday morning we braved the arena walk and Im glad we did - his eyes were on stalks for a good few laps and there were a few fire breathing dragon moments... he did settle eventually though.
First up was our elementary area festival. We were supposed to go to Rockrose last month but Raz twisted a shoe and stood on the clip the day before so we had to pull out. My goal was top 10 (ideally top 3) but we had a few silly mistakes that cost us our usual mark - ended up 6th on 65.44 with an 8.5 for our final halt from the judge at B
Popped him back in his stable for a bit before the medium warmup class. Our new warmup is much more efficient so had planned to give myself 25 minutes including the tack check as wed done a lot of supple-ing work earlier. But no... Raz wasnt for listening and I could have done with another 5-10 minutes to work on our halfpasses.
The toy went out the pram in the indoor - everything was a monster that was going to eat him so I just tried my best to ride through it. I was very relieved to get up that final centre line in one piece.
No idea how we won it
got a decent enough mark as well - 64.48%On Sunday we had our final test - our medium area festival. Our last attempt didnt go particularly well (60.1-something average score) so I was hoping for something around the 63/64 mark and another top 10 finish.
He was much better in the arena walk and we even managed a mooch about on a long-ish rein. He felt pretty good when I got back on to warmup so only did a little bit of suppling work before working on the dreaded Halfpass. Somehow they managed to make up time (were running 10mins behind) so things were a little hurried but we got one final *good* canter HP both ways before heading round.
Made sure I keep him soft while work in around the arena and he actually listened for once.
He did feel a little tired in the trot halfpasses but I thought our shoulder in was pretty decent. A few mistakes again - stuck in the second half piri, he changed after the first canter extension and our second simple change was a bit rubbish but overall he felt sooo much more rideable. Really happy to have finished 4th with 63.08 so weve qualified for both finals in October. Thankfully this one is only 20 minutes away.
Took a bit of a detour via Fife and the Forth Road Bride coming home to avoid the Blair traffic but we got there eventually.
Raz is now having a few easy days while I concentrate on getting my 4yo back up and running after her holiday.
Heading up towards Dundee
Are we there yet?
The best view
Early arena walk
Success!
Heading home over the forth road bridge
Then today we took Beau, T and Blue over to Muirmill for their weekday BS. Dad and T got eliminated for jumping the wrong fence early on and dad then decided he wasnt going to jump Blue so I did instead.
I havent jumped him since February so was pleasantly surprised to find he was lovely and forward (used to be LAZY as hell). Not sure I quite got it together with him in the warmup as we kept jumping to one side of the warmup fences but he jumped well and helped me when I got the distance wrong so Im no complaining.
In the ring he felt like he backed right off the first few but once he got going I was struggling to hold him back. Luckily hes super honest (I dropped my reins and went really wide coming into 9)and pinged round to win the open section.
Beau didnt have a good show - something was spooking him in the warmup and he kept barging away from it through the opposite shoulder so I wasnt feeling particularly optimistic going into the 1.05.
And I was right. We had the first blimmin fence down. I was entered in the 1.10m so I pulled up and saved him for that.
The 1.10 didnt look particularly big but there was one dogs leg I didnt like the look of. Beau didnt either (not helped by me riding the line like a total muppet) and we ended up getting eliminated at the second part of that line. Sack the jockey...
So very much Half and half Today. Hopefully I at least get a nice picture. Nothing on this weekend so weve got a couple of lessons booked - I *will* get round a newcomers before the end of next week.
Blue
[video]https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nwG-MQo2Z5w[/video]
And Beau
[video]https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UWeJLYv5a6M[/video]
Thanks for reading if youve gotten this far
