Pictures Comp Report - Off the Track Showman Day

Accidental Eventer

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I entered this show back in January so we have been waiting for it to get here for an age. It consists of dressage, show jumping and in hand and it's free! Thanks Government incentive!


When we arrived I took Henry for a walk. He was much more interested in the grass than the buzzing atmosphere and the 3 loose horses that galloped past (from the in hand arena WTF?!). A good sign if I do say so. He was very relaxed for our dressage warm up and he worked well.



Our test was not as relaxed, he got tense on the straight lines and from being away from the other horses. We need to work more on getting him into the contact and I need to make sure he is in front of my leg! The test had some nice moments though and he got the correct canter leads both ways, I'll take it. He will improve as he gets more exposure, and the arena was pretty spooky. We did the right things in the right places and I know where we need to improve. He was third after dressage, 0.1% behind the horse in second.



Next I tidied him up for the in hand section, making sure he was perfect and spick and span. We presented to the judge and he did a very nice in hand work out. I was very pleased with how calm he was about it all. We got a 9 for presentation, and a 9 for the halt and rein back. Very good pony. He was second in the in hand section, 2 points behind first.


We went right onto jumping from in hand after tacking him up. He was on board from the get go, very willing although he did think about stopping at the warm up oxer for some reason but he didn't when I closed my leg and supported him. Good boy!


Our round was BEAUTIFUL. Henry was responsive, calm and maintained the same rhythm. He landed on the correct canter lead after all but 2 jumps. He wasn't spooky, he was forward and he left all the poles up. We took off from good spots at every jump too. It was really lovely. It wasn't speedy and we were slower than optimum time so I wasn't very surprised to see all the time penalties we had.


Over all we came third!

I was so impressed with Henry, he was relaxed about everything that happened all day. Horses galloping past weren't a problem, a tiny warm up space with horses being ridden at him weren't an issue, he listened even when he was unsure and we had a perfect show jumping round. This was a totally new place for him and he acted like he was an experienced, grown up horse. Pretty big win if you ask me.
 

Accidental Eventer

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Wow sounds like a fab event, and for free?!
Is it like an ROR showcase? Sounds great. Congratulations on your result, you must be chuffed.
Very impressive you must be really pleased. Can just see me asking our local council can you put on something like that for free!!!

Thanks!

Our state government has a program that encourages people to give horses a chance after they retire from racing. They put on free events and clinics to help people educate their horses. They also sponsor a heap of awards at other events to really encourage everyone with an off the track horse across all disciplines.

Not quite sure what ROR is, similar idea I imagine, but we don't have to qualify for this competition or anything.
 

Accidental Eventer

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Great write up and lovely pics. He was a superstar!
Huge congrats! And that's just for his behaviour before you get to the actual results!

Thanks you!

I spent a very long time looking for a horse like him, and have spent the better part of 2 years working slowly on getting him out new places. He came to every competition my other horse went to and just stood in a yard taking it all in for quite a while and it has definitely paid off. He's getting to the point in his training now where we can really just get on with things!
 

DabDab

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Ah, lovely lovely Henry. You've done such an amazing job with him.

Congrats on your result, absolutely fab. Great report write up too!

Are you eventing him this year?
 

Accidental Eventer

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Ah, lovely lovely Henry. You've done such an amazing job with him.

Congrats on your result, absolutely fab. Great report write up too!

Are you eventing him this year?

Thank you, he tries so hard for me so i can't ask more than that!

Hopefully, but I am letting him tell me when he is ready (that sounds a bit airy fairy I know!). We need to get out XC training a bit more to get him really confident but I have a few events in mind :cool:
 
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