Come backstepping with me

ester

ester

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While we're on a carriage driving vibe join me for backstepping obstacles for @rara007 with the supercob at Glebe in Sussex today, I've left the sound on as people might find it interesting though we're a bit muffled as I kept the camera in its case (probably best!) Forgot to video for obstacle 1 so the first one is actually obstacle 2, small carriage/harness malfunction which is why he looks a bit stuck at one point but he's so clever he unhooked/fixed it by himself. - you can put the groom down outside of obstacles to fix things but there is a penalty for getting down in an obstacle.

In addition to navigating your driver round obstacles and keeping the carriage on the ground regardless of turn or camber you are also keeping an eye out for kilometer markers to check you're overall time as there is a 2 minute window to finish the 6.5km in, and making sure they go through the compulsory flags along the way (15 of those). I forgot my good pens so you can't read it easily! but on her back rara has a list of the order we should be doing everything and the times we should be hitting the km markers, and the finish, the pony speed was 13kmph.
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Anyway he was of course fab, actually his first time of doing a tough roads and tracks (7.5km) followed by a 7 obstacle marathon. After a good dressage and cones yesterday he finished 3rd in a strong open single pony class.


And thought it might be helpful to include the alternate view of the first obs in the vid :)


A short additional note about baby horse, who did his first ever marathon+obstacles today (which takes 30 minutes in total/6.5km, he didn't do the roads and tracks) and while being a little shell shocked bit suprised to find obstacle 1 there is a lot going on as you often drive circles round a field with lots of other people and they are coming in and going out (at speed) of obstacles you might be driving next to at the time he was very good. He didn't blink an eye at going over the wooden bridge, had a little lead from me going into the water the first time but then trotted straight in twice more. He was exemplary behaviour wise all weekend.

They'll both be having a little holiday now and even I have short break to fit some riding competitions in instead!

Pic from the roads and tracks section
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I've got better, the more I do the easier it gets, usually do 3 walks and walk each obstacle twice on each of those. First walk to decide route, I have to do the 2nd walk on my own as this throws up any bits I don't actually know and can then check with Rara. If I go quiet she knows it's because I'm having a brain fart and we hope we don't have them at the same time 😂. Me also driving has definitely helped (maybe that was part of her grand plan)
 
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I've added the on the ground view of the first obstacle in the video so people can see what it looks like.
 
Gosh that looks complicated. Well done all.
What is the clicking noise? Is it the carriage and are you allowed to canter throught the water?
 
I think it’s just the camera against its waterproof case/the mount

Yes all obstacles fast as you can but the turns/ground into the water weren’t very conducive to entering faster and everyone’s a bit tired by then. This also means I only got my arse wet not everything below the waist and waterlogging my boots as the step on that little carriage is very low 😅. Possibly the driest I’ve ever finished a marathon. The
 
I've still no idea how the driver remembers how to navigate all the turns through the obstacles!
Question though, on the video it looks like you are catching up with another competitor. Is that an issue or is it OK to queue and wait as it's your total obstacle time rather than total course time that counts?
 
we’re not catching up as we’d be heading to different obstacles I’ve annotated the map so red line to start, do obstacle one, carry on round the loop until hit obstacle 2 (then blue) round the loop again to obstacle 3 etc. the CF labels are the compulsory flags you must go through on each loop - same track each loop I just did in different colours to try and show what I mean!

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But obviously by sharing the loop sometimes people can get bunched up, if safe you allow faster turnouts to come past, people exiting obstacles always have priority and even if that means you have to walk a bit there’s plenty of distance to make up any time lost. In Storms average trot we usually have several short walk breaks or we’d be too fast. I can upload the whole 30 min if people are keen 😅. If something happens and you are held for a decent amount of time the same as eventing that gets taken off your final time.

So time round the whole course matters - 2 minute window to get home within and as fast as you can in each obstacle-these are included in the total time so if you are fast in obstacles you then likely have time for walk breaks over the rest of the course.
Your score is the time taken in obstacles as a total, but you’d get penalties for being too fast or too slow over the total distance.

It’s not always the case people are on the same loop like this they can be different ones between different obstacle it depends how the obstacles are laid out, these are new so purposely laid in this manner as it does facilitate spectating and also makes it easier to keep an eye on everyone.
 
At least I don’t have to remember the dressage test too as groom 😅 I have to be quiet for that bit - though a rogue ‘oh good boy’ slipped out for maestros 2nd canter transition as he nailed it (he was a bit confused about doing canter in dressage for the first transition 😅)
 
Great video 👌🏻 Less shakey than I expected considering the ground and carriage!
Really interesting how his fitness has come on now he understands it better and we’ve figured indoor voices suit him better than being more demanding!
 
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Really interesting - thank you for sharing!! Well done on some great results too.

I had no idea that back-stopping involved so much navigating, I think I'd be terrified of getting it wrong 😆. Presumably you both walked the course first a few times?
 
Yes! Generally I walk it and 95% decide routes (how you get to each gate is free for you to chose, often there’ll be one way clearly shorter but shorter isn’t always quickest!). Then we go round once or twice together, Ester goes round by herself to check she knows it, then the morning of we do a final check. A big event I’ll average 30k steps a day and that’s using a bike between the obstacles. It’s very much a team sport, you can only go as fast as the weakest link! Some drivers will prefer the backsteppers to mainly remain quiet but they must know the route and ground as well as you. And most will want navigating as as speed it’s too late to ask which way by the time you realise you’re not 100%. There’s almost as many ways for a backstepper to slip up as there is the driver. Navigating, especially if you end up off the planned track, plus literally navigating the actual course to remember compulsory flags, the timing.. plus of course if you’re fast enough or the grounds bad enough, keeping you upright is pretty physical and errors are easily turnovers.
 
Generally Ester is flapping about leaving the house (work in progress) so gets there later than planned which means rara has mostly decided the routes, though sometimes I think I do actually find it useful for remembering to be there for the decision making and she doesn't always turn down my input. We also often stride out different routes simultaneously to find out how much difference in either paces/total walking time between route options. It might be fewer strides but if its 2 changes of rein and you might stall you might be better cantering a longer/easier route and that keeps the horses thinking forwards.

I think Rara mostly knows what I mean when I describe things and vice versa though I occasionally say either 'what am I calling this?' or just 'I am calling this this just so you know' a lot of it is flatwork terms. I got into a conversation with other people about it over the weekend and discovered they use all sorts of random descriptions, round the boobs was definitely mentioned!

My walk on my own and in the morning usually involves me narrating what I'm going to say as directions too. Some obstacles are just easier to learn than others, for this one number 4 was the tricky one, in part because the 2 tier dumpy bags made line of sight more difficult. I used to video walking them and people do but don't find that particularly helpful anymore but in the early days it meant I could check from my camp bed where we are going. I used to think right I know the first 3, then get to 4 and they'd go out of my head completely 😂. Slightly different memory bank to indoor competitions that are usually walk then drive straight away learning stuff for 2 days time.

Whenever we go away my PT says 'just make sure you stay active' and I'm like you're kidding right, you know thats not an issue!

What this bloomin forum gets you into 😂😂😂
 
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