ester
Not slacking multitasking
So @rara007 let me borrow the fabulous Storm again last weekend, having not driven since the indoor championships (tend to have to let her drive her own pony in the outdoor season 
and she's kept me quite busy enough this summer without me also driving) it was very handy to be able to have lessons the Tuesday to Friday, even if I did spend most of them feeling like I'd learned very little since the last time we were there 2 years ago 
. It's supposed to be progressive so that by the time you get to the weekend you feel ready for competition, I actually think you felt you had loads of time to get it together at the start of the week and by Friday you were a bit argghhhh and although I tried not to be I got a bit flappy.
We spent the first session working mostly on our walk as there's a lot of it in the dressage test we had to do, we did a lot of shoulder in which was not required. .
Afterwards we were allowed to go and have a play with the cones, it was a nice relatively simple course focusing on pace, and handily in this arena there are loads of advertising boards to make sure I am looking up and not at the cones.
Wednesday we did some obstacles practice, this was all going quite serenely practicing lines and working on contact during turns in a steady trot, instructor (who knows him only with Rara) waxing lyrical about how good he was to dial it right down for me etc, until we reached what would be obstacle 1, that was going to necessitate one small circle turn at the beginning, at which point cob went oh that's what we're doing as demonstrated below
Thursday we did cones practice, there was a comment made about looking like we were off to the pub which TBH I don't see as a bad plan, and we've also learned that me having him not too punchy but driving slightly tighter lines works better for us, usually cones phase only has a time allowed but in this competition you get penalities for over and under - but they also include a visible stop clock. I think the aim is mostly to get you better at judging pace.
Friday we practiced the dressage test, at this point after 3 days of me driving I chucked rara on the front end for 10 mins so she could reinstall some buttons first. I had done a vague jog through with my ridden share in a 60x20, so had the pattern in my head a bit but that wasn't that helpful for actual circle sizes in a 50x30 space so I wasn't filled confidence and walked round the arena trying to nail my marks later that day as it seems silly to lose marks for accuracy.
Saturday was Dressage and Cones day, we had quite a lot to fit in and rara was with 4 turnouts (her driving storm and maestro, on the back for me and on the back for a para. Thankfully M is such a good boy now that he was fine for me to get him ready to put to for a quick change over.
Dressage went ok, unfortunately in thinking it was going ok I somewhat forgot that my half circle was supposed to be to the 3/4 line rather than the track. . . luckily they allow backsteps to navigate all phases for this so I got a loud 3/4 line! in my ear and managed to salvage it, apparently my 15m circles were still the wrong size despite my walking though. Happy to finish on a 33.5 a small lead on 33.88 in second.
We went straight into cones and managed a clear with just 1.21 time penalties (equivalent to 1.21 seconds too slow) having slowed down too much then sped up again, but that made us the cones winner and with a slightly bigger overall lead.
Now here's the thing, we have been here before, and then I get too overexcited/panicy and mess it up, Storm is a very good dressage and cones pony for me but obstacles can make a really big difference score wise and sometimes just making a small mistake in one ends up making a big difference. I therefore commenced operation we're just going to have a bloody lovely time going round these obstacles, and I am going to make sure I drive all my straight lines (our issue at indoor championships). I'd have been round as backstep twice already and storm might sort of remember where he is going even with a long break from rara's time to mine.
Well turned out Rara had quite a lot of cob in the morning, I was a little concerned about quite how much cob I might have in the afternoon. . . .
He was then absolutely bloomin amazing I got a 'that's enough' heading in to obstacle from the boss on the back, after obstacle 3 I said I was quite relieved he had remembered to tone it down for me again, then in obstacle 4 (a 'no heroics necessary' from rara. . . she's been here before with me too. .. ) I suddenly had all the cob, drifting in slightly the wrong direction as he thought it might be time to race to the finish. It made for a less than beautifiul left turn but we managed to tone it all down after that and drive the rest of the obstacles sensibly.
obstacle 1
Obstacle 2
youtu.be
Obstacle 3: this is twisty and he really listened, although you can see his propensity to go oh single barrel best canter that then
Obstacle 4: featuring dad, mum, sisters friend and sister in the background
Result, I won obstacles with a 143, 2nd was on 176, so if nothing else my obstacles have definitely improved! So after winning every phase we had a 44 point lead to take the champion rosette
, and stormy got some feed vouchers for his troubles although he was just as happy about all the haylage he got for the weekend instead of weighed soaked hay
It was a brilliant weekend, this pony has a long queue of people who would love to be getting the opportunity I do with him. It's hard to describe how lovely a pony he is, in everything as he also loves a cuddle and fuss and be told he's brilliant.
He also managed to be reserve champion in the open with Rara, and Maestro was a creditable 4th in the open horse - he's not really built for these sort of obstacles but learned loads (there is a car in my dressage arena, I have to walk in a corner of this huge arena while someone charges off to do an obstacle, oh ok)
Back on the back for both the boys next weekend
and she's kept me quite busy enough this summer without me also driving) it was very handy to be able to have lessons the Tuesday to Friday, even if I did spend most of them feeling like I'd learned very little since the last time we were there 2 years ago . It's supposed to be progressive so that by the time you get to the weekend you feel ready for competition, I actually think you felt you had loads of time to get it together at the start of the week and by Friday you were a bit argghhhh and although I tried not to be I got a bit flappy.We spent the first session working mostly on our walk as there's a lot of it in the dressage test we had to do, we did a lot of shoulder in which was not required. .
Afterwards we were allowed to go and have a play with the cones, it was a nice relatively simple course focusing on pace, and handily in this arena there are loads of advertising boards to make sure I am looking up and not at the cones.
Wednesday we did some obstacles practice, this was all going quite serenely practicing lines and working on contact during turns in a steady trot, instructor (who knows him only with Rara) waxing lyrical about how good he was to dial it right down for me etc, until we reached what would be obstacle 1, that was going to necessitate one small circle turn at the beginning, at which point cob went oh that's what we're doing as demonstrated below
Thursday we did cones practice, there was a comment made about looking like we were off to the pub which TBH I don't see as a bad plan, and we've also learned that me having him not too punchy but driving slightly tighter lines works better for us, usually cones phase only has a time allowed but in this competition you get penalities for over and under - but they also include a visible stop clock. I think the aim is mostly to get you better at judging pace.
Friday we practiced the dressage test, at this point after 3 days of me driving I chucked rara on the front end for 10 mins so she could reinstall some buttons first
. I had done a vague jog through with my ridden share in a 60x20, so had the pattern in my head a bit but that wasn't that helpful for actual circle sizes in a 50x30 space so I wasn't filled confidence and walked round the arena trying to nail my marks later that day as it seems silly to lose marks for accuracy.Saturday was Dressage and Cones day, we had quite a lot to fit in and rara was with 4 turnouts (her driving storm and maestro, on the back for me and on the back for a para. Thankfully M is such a good boy now that he was fine for me to get him ready to put to for a quick change over.
Dressage went ok, unfortunately in thinking it was going ok I somewhat forgot that my half circle was supposed to be to the 3/4 line rather than the track. . . luckily they allow backsteps to navigate all phases for this so I got a loud 3/4 line! in my ear and managed to salvage it, apparently my 15m circles were still the wrong size despite my walking though. Happy to finish on a 33.5 a small lead on 33.88 in second.
We went straight into cones and managed a clear with just 1.21 time penalties (equivalent to 1.21 seconds too slow) having slowed down too much then sped up again, but that made us the cones winner and with a slightly bigger overall lead.
Now here's the thing, we have been here before, and then I get too overexcited/panicy and mess it up, Storm is a very good dressage and cones pony for me but obstacles can make a really big difference score wise and sometimes just making a small mistake in one ends up making a big difference. I therefore commenced operation we're just going to have a bloody lovely time going round these obstacles, and I am going to make sure I drive all my straight lines (our issue at indoor championships). I'd have been round as backstep twice already and storm might sort of remember where he is going even with a long break from rara's time to mine.
Well turned out Rara had quite a lot of cob in the morning, I was a little concerned about quite how much cob I might have in the afternoon. . . .
He was then absolutely bloomin amazing I got a 'that's enough' heading in to obstacle from the boss on the back
, after obstacle 3 I said I was quite relieved he had remembered to tone it down for me again, then in obstacle 4 (a 'no heroics necessary' from rara. . . she's been here before with me too. .. ) I suddenly had all the cob, drifting in slightly the wrong direction as he thought it might be time to race to the finish. It made for a less than beautifiul left turn but we managed to tone it all down after that and drive the rest of the obstacles sensibly.obstacle 1
Obstacle 2
- YouTube
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youtu.be
Obstacle 3: this is twisty and he really listened, although you can see his propensity to go oh single barrel best canter that then
Obstacle 4: featuring dad, mum, sisters friend and sister in the background
Result, I won obstacles with a 143, 2nd was on 176, so if nothing else my obstacles have definitely improved! So after winning every phase we had a 44 point lead to take the champion rosette
, and stormy got some feed vouchers for his troubles although he was just as happy about all the haylage he got for the weekend instead of weighed soaked hay
It was a brilliant weekend, this pony has a long queue of people who would love to be getting the opportunity I do with him. It's hard to describe how lovely a pony he is, in everything as he also loves a cuddle and fuss and be told he's brilliant.
He also managed to be reserve champion in the open with Rara, and Maestro was a creditable 4th in the open horse - he's not really built for these sort of obstacles but learned loads (there is a car in my dressage arena, I have to walk in a corner of this huge arena while someone charges off to do an obstacle, oh ok)
Back on the back for both the boys next weekend
and he’s somewhat outlasted the vague plan of keep him 6 months so we had something to do the indoor season with 
