Gamebird
Well-Known Member
Fugly sadly has been kicked in the field again this week (again
). To borrow a phrase from Baydale he runs up to the other horses like a Great Dane puppy - legs everywhere and tongue lolling out and the other horses just go 'yeah, whatever' and boot him
. Hence every time I go to catch him I'm looking for the next wound
. So the Combined Training today was always going to be touch and go but having paid £36 of entry fees in advance fairly galvanises the spirit and 2 days of constant icing and antibiotics resulted in a cold hard leg when I turned up to muck out at 5.30 this morning
.
Being of a superstitious nature I decided not to learn the tests in advance on the basis that if I did he'd be lame. I was slight;y
on arrival to discover that P4 involves 3
centre lines - not a strong point - and P10 has half 10m circles and cantering across the diagonal
.
P4 didn't go well. To be fair I'd forgotten that this was only his 2nd ever test. I was surprised to see continuous boards all around the arena - and so was Fugly
though luckily once he'd been round the outside once he was cool with them
. The walk and trot work was OK, if a little short in outline but the canter is a weak point at the mo. The first canter went pretty much: ask for L canter, horse runs off then obliges half a marker later with R canter. Back to trot, re-establish L canter then loses balance on the cicle and changes behind..... trot again, L canter again.....
. Big horse, small arena
Luckily he went in for the SJing, spent the entire round on the correct lead, changed when asked and jumped a lovely clear
During the break the dressage judge came to find me to let me know that her and her write had both voted my horse 'horse they'd most like to take home', and also that although they could see he was very green they thought he had the most potential they'd seen all day
.
So.... onto the second class and P10. I stayed in my jumping saddle and let my stirrups down a bit as I felt his canter was sooo much better in the SJing warm up than the dressage. All I can say is WOW... what a fab test. I love this horse
.
Comment was 'Much better test!' and the score was 10 marks better
.
He was tiring a bit for the SJing (85cm). The height is well within his capabilities, it's just sorting the canter between fences. I thought we had 1 down, the results said 2 but I didn't complain as I don't like to be awkward and it didn't really matter. The jumping from the first class with the dressage from the second would have had us in the top 3 in either class. As it was we were 7th in both
.
I have a problem with the horse in that I have invested heavily in him in my expectations, hopes and ambitions. I feel that he is really special (he is going SOOOO well at home) and I put a lot of pressure on my self and get extremely disappointed with anything less than 100%. Because he is so sensible I forget how young and green he is.
OK, because I'm a masochist here are the dressage pics from P4 - the dodgy test - please navigate forwards and backwards through them, there are quite a few!!. I know he is too short in his outline !
http://www.jumpforit.co.uk/pr5dec9dress/jfi_8763.htm
And a jumping one - the front legs need to improve (his and mine!) but he gives you a lovely feel over a fence:
http://www.jumpforit.co.uk/pr5dec9/jfi_9048.htm
Being of a superstitious nature I decided not to learn the tests in advance on the basis that if I did he'd be lame. I was slight;y
P4 didn't go well. To be fair I'd forgotten that this was only his 2nd ever test. I was surprised to see continuous boards all around the arena - and so was Fugly
Luckily he went in for the SJing, spent the entire round on the correct lead, changed when asked and jumped a lovely clear
During the break the dressage judge came to find me to let me know that her and her write had both voted my horse 'horse they'd most like to take home', and also that although they could see he was very green they thought he had the most potential they'd seen all day
So.... onto the second class and P10. I stayed in my jumping saddle and let my stirrups down a bit as I felt his canter was sooo much better in the SJing warm up than the dressage. All I can say is WOW... what a fab test. I love this horse
Comment was 'Much better test!' and the score was 10 marks better
He was tiring a bit for the SJing (85cm). The height is well within his capabilities, it's just sorting the canter between fences. I thought we had 1 down, the results said 2 but I didn't complain as I don't like to be awkward and it didn't really matter. The jumping from the first class with the dressage from the second would have had us in the top 3 in either class. As it was we were 7th in both
I have a problem with the horse in that I have invested heavily in him in my expectations, hopes and ambitions. I feel that he is really special (he is going SOOOO well at home) and I put a lot of pressure on my self and get extremely disappointed with anything less than 100%. Because he is so sensible I forget how young and green he is.
OK, because I'm a masochist here are the dressage pics from P4 - the dodgy test - please navigate forwards and backwards through them, there are quite a few!!. I know he is too short in his outline !
http://www.jumpforit.co.uk/pr5dec9dress/jfi_8763.htm
And a jumping one - the front legs need to improve (his and mine!) but he gives you a lovely feel over a fence:
http://www.jumpforit.co.uk/pr5dec9/jfi_9048.htm
