Accidental Eventer
Well-Known Member
So this event has been on the books for a while, we have been gradually working towards getting Henry out eventing. I have taken the slow road with him, focusing on his foundation and making him a confident young horse. I got him off the track as a 3yo in 2017 and we have been taking things as they come. This year he has progressed beyond where I thought we would be and so this weekend it was time to test the training!
Here we split events over 2 days, so Saturday was dressage and SJ with XC on Sunday. The event was local to us so Henry got to go home in between. I pre-rode Henry at the event early before our dressage and it worked a treat, he came out for our warm up ready to work and he did a sweet test. It was accurate and he was with me the whole time. We scored a 26.6 and I could have cried. I have been eventing for a while and have never had a score that good! We have been working so hard and the work he did on the day was less than what he is capable at home so I know it wasn't a fluke!
Onto SJ and it was a small arena and a tight space. He was bold and confident, jumping really nicely but we came in a bit quiet to a related line and had the last jump down. We were a bit slow too so added a few penalties to our dressage score but not to worry, it's easy to fix these little mistakes.
Finally on Sunday it was time for the good bit, but the bit where he has the least experience. The warm up proved to be a very big deal for him, with horses on XC galloping right past. That got his adrenaline pumping and I wasn't quite sure how we would get around. We got to the start box ok, and we were off!
He flew the first 2 jumps and I managed to check in with him before 3 to set him up a bit because it was a tight turn to the fence which a few people before me had come unstuck on. He didn't look twice though and we carried on to 4 which was an innocuous looking log in the middle of no where a bit. He was very wiggly coming in and it was a wrestle to get him over but he jumped it first time and we carried on. He trotted though the water and got wiggly to a bank combination, but stayed straight to a very skinny roll top two strides from the bank. He jumped the rest of the course confidently, including a second combination I thought might give us trouble, and a ditch that he peered at but jumped when I put my leg on.
We came home clear but with quite a bit of time. I thought we were flying but actually we slugged around! The time penalties dropped us out of the placings but it doesn't matter. We finished our first event and he felt so solid, we can get faster as he gets more confident!
I am so proud of my little horse. He was so grown up all weekend, and he is turning out to be a solid sidekick. Onwards and upwards, we have our second event in a few weeks and lots of homework to do before then.
Here we split events over 2 days, so Saturday was dressage and SJ with XC on Sunday. The event was local to us so Henry got to go home in between. I pre-rode Henry at the event early before our dressage and it worked a treat, he came out for our warm up ready to work and he did a sweet test. It was accurate and he was with me the whole time. We scored a 26.6 and I could have cried. I have been eventing for a while and have never had a score that good! We have been working so hard and the work he did on the day was less than what he is capable at home so I know it wasn't a fluke!
Onto SJ and it was a small arena and a tight space. He was bold and confident, jumping really nicely but we came in a bit quiet to a related line and had the last jump down. We were a bit slow too so added a few penalties to our dressage score but not to worry, it's easy to fix these little mistakes.
Finally on Sunday it was time for the good bit, but the bit where he has the least experience. The warm up proved to be a very big deal for him, with horses on XC galloping right past. That got his adrenaline pumping and I wasn't quite sure how we would get around. We got to the start box ok, and we were off!
He flew the first 2 jumps and I managed to check in with him before 3 to set him up a bit because it was a tight turn to the fence which a few people before me had come unstuck on. He didn't look twice though and we carried on to 4 which was an innocuous looking log in the middle of no where a bit. He was very wiggly coming in and it was a wrestle to get him over but he jumped it first time and we carried on. He trotted though the water and got wiggly to a bank combination, but stayed straight to a very skinny roll top two strides from the bank. He jumped the rest of the course confidently, including a second combination I thought might give us trouble, and a ditch that he peered at but jumped when I put my leg on.
We came home clear but with quite a bit of time. I thought we were flying but actually we slugged around! The time penalties dropped us out of the placings but it doesn't matter. We finished our first event and he felt so solid, we can get faster as he gets more confident!
I am so proud of my little horse. He was so grown up all weekend, and he is turning out to be a solid sidekick. Onwards and upwards, we have our second event in a few weeks and lots of homework to do before then.
look forward to hearing about his next outing!
