holzrokz
Well-Known Member
Barely been on this forum in the past year (and more of a lurker really) as have had no exciting horsey things going on (and the forum makes me jealous of everyone else's exciting horsey going on!) but have finally got my arse in gear.
Flashback to last June/July. Thinking that I would no longer be able to keep sharing the horse I had been sharing for almost 2 years due to graduating from uni and thinking I would have to move back home, I finally rang her owner to tell her I would not be able to share her anymore. Then the very next morning had a facebook message from an old colleague where I did a work placement year and was suddenly offered a job
so then had to tell her owner I could in fact keep sharing her. However due to now being 50 miles away from where she is stabled I can only ride once a week and didn't have any money to do anything with her. Fast forward to now, 2 promotions later, a bit more money and getting bored with just hacking I started some lessons with yard owner and entered some combined training at Brook Farm.
So share horse is now 20 (not that she acts it), generally despises dressage, but is a good jumper and used to jump affiliated. She jumps out of her field for fun (on a very regular basis!) She's been going pretty well in lessons and my riding is a little bit better to considering I've been only riding once a week.
Had a leisurely dressage time of 1.17 and so decided to bath on the morning. For some unknown reason I can't tell the time and decided setting my alarm for half 7 when I wanted to leave at 8 was a good idea. Cue getting to the yard an hour later than I intended to! She was also a massive fidget bum to bath and clearly knew she was going to a party and so spent her time pawing the ground, not standing still and telling everyone she was going to a competition. For some mad reason she also decided to try and roll on gravel and concrete in the car park as I was hand grazing her! She continued to react as if I had slipped some speed in her water until she was plaiting where she calmed down. I then realised just how late I was and so had to trot throughout our entire hack in order to get there on time.
Surprisingly neither of us were even out of breath when we got there and I thought she must have had a good enough trot to bring her energy levels back down to normal. I was quite wrong and she acted like a 4 year old at its first ever show for the majority of our warm-up She finally began to calm down but I couldn't do any of the nice stretchy work she has been giving me at home as she was so on her toes it just resulted in rushing or tanking. In all fairness she hasn't been in their outdoor to do dressage before. She was very surprised when a head popped out of the judges box window!
So the test wasn't anywhere near as nice and relaxed and supple as she has been going at home. The only time she remotely softened was during canter (sort of!) and during the last bit of trot. She got better throughout the test once she had stopped gawping at everything. But most importantly, we had barely no 'trantering' as it has been called. This is her default move when tense (instructor thinks she was possibly draw reined as a youngster and so we are slowly trying to unravel the bad habits) and there were perhaps 2 steps in the entire test which is a big improvement, particularly after the canter, where after a few strides she came back to a nice trot rather than rush off thinking we would be cantering again. Scored a fairly low 58% but agree with every single mark and comment that we got. All 5's to start off with (when she was gawping and not concentrating) with marks getting into 6's and 7's for canter at the end of the test. So some positives to take forward I suppose
Then came the fun bit! Only entered the 65cm as neither of us have jumped much in the past year. Walked the course to fence 3 but then someone came in to jump and so had to just watch them for the rest of the course. Got on to warm-up and they immediately called me in so quickly cantered around and jumped the cross and then the spread. Jumped both very nicely so I was feeling happy and excited for once instead of worried. She's such a good little jumper. Got into the arena, had a look at some fences and she pretty much went 'right lets go, just point me in the right direction and I'll jump them.' Had a lovely clear round and felt like we met every jump spot on and had a lovely forward but adjustable canter! Definitely need to be jumping higher as 65 is just far too small for her, she jumps much better the bigger they are and is such a push button ride. She also never seems spooky at all when jumping, yet dressage boards are just terrifying!
Didn't get placed however we somehow qualified for trailblazers second rounds so lots more dressage practice until then! Hopefully will get her out once more before then so we have a bit more match practice.
Just the one little photo as no photographer there and we were a bit rushed so her owner forgot to take pics.
I seem to have been replaced by a new rider, though I don't know for how long when the new rider starts using its claw to stay on
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Flashback to last June/July. Thinking that I would no longer be able to keep sharing the horse I had been sharing for almost 2 years due to graduating from uni and thinking I would have to move back home, I finally rang her owner to tell her I would not be able to share her anymore. Then the very next morning had a facebook message from an old colleague where I did a work placement year and was suddenly offered a job
so then had to tell her owner I could in fact keep sharing her. However due to now being 50 miles away from where she is stabled I can only ride once a week and didn't have any money to do anything with her. Fast forward to now, 2 promotions later, a bit more money and getting bored with just hacking I started some lessons with yard owner and entered some combined training at Brook Farm. So share horse is now 20 (not that she acts it), generally despises dressage, but is a good jumper and used to jump affiliated. She jumps out of her field for fun (on a very regular basis!) She's been going pretty well in lessons and my riding is a little bit better to considering I've been only riding once a week.
Had a leisurely dressage time of 1.17 and so decided to bath on the morning. For some unknown reason I can't tell the time and decided setting my alarm for half 7 when I wanted to leave at 8 was a good idea. Cue getting to the yard an hour later than I intended to! She was also a massive fidget bum to bath and clearly knew she was going to a party and so spent her time pawing the ground, not standing still and telling everyone she was going to a competition. For some mad reason she also decided to try and roll on gravel and concrete in the car park as I was hand grazing her! She continued to react as if I had slipped some speed in her water until she was plaiting where she calmed down. I then realised just how late I was and so had to trot throughout our entire hack in order to get there on time.
Surprisingly neither of us were even out of breath when we got there and I thought she must have had a good enough trot to bring her energy levels back down to normal. I was quite wrong and she acted like a 4 year old at its first ever show for the majority of our warm-up
She finally began to calm down but I couldn't do any of the nice stretchy work she has been giving me at home as she was so on her toes it just resulted in rushing or tanking. In all fairness she hasn't been in their outdoor to do dressage before. She was very surprised when a head popped out of the judges box window! So the test wasn't anywhere near as nice and relaxed and supple as she has been going at home. The only time she remotely softened was during canter (sort of!) and during the last bit of trot. She got better throughout the test once she had stopped gawping at everything. But most importantly, we had barely no 'trantering' as it has been called. This is her default move when tense (instructor thinks she was possibly draw reined as a youngster and so we are slowly trying to unravel the bad habits) and there were perhaps 2 steps in the entire test which is a big improvement, particularly after the canter, where after a few strides she came back to a nice trot rather than rush off thinking we would be cantering again. Scored a fairly low 58% but agree with every single mark and comment that we got. All 5's to start off with (when she was gawping and not concentrating) with marks getting into 6's and 7's for canter at the end of the test. So some positives to take forward I suppose
Then came the fun bit! Only entered the 65cm as neither of us have jumped much in the past year. Walked the course to fence 3 but then someone came in to jump and so had to just watch them for the rest of the course. Got on to warm-up and they immediately called me in so quickly cantered around and jumped the cross and then the spread. Jumped both very nicely so I was feeling happy and excited for once instead of worried. She's such a good little jumper. Got into the arena, had a look at some fences and she pretty much went 'right lets go, just point me in the right direction and I'll jump them.' Had a lovely clear round and felt like we met every jump spot on and had a lovely forward but adjustable canter! Definitely need to be jumping higher as 65 is just far too small for her, she jumps much better the bigger they are and is such a push button ride. She also never seems spooky at all when jumping, yet dressage boards are just terrifying!
Didn't get placed however we somehow qualified for trailblazers second rounds so lots more dressage practice until then! Hopefully will get her out once more before then so we have a bit more match practice.
Just the one little photo as no photographer there and we were a bit rushed so her owner forgot to take pics.
I seem to have been replaced by a new rider, though I don't know for how long when the new rider starts using its claw to stay on