Cross country schooling at Tweseldown (lots of pics!)

Paint it Lucky

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On saturday I went for a day out to do some schooling at Tweseldown with my lovely coloured horse Luca, and my friend came along too on my old horse Roscoe and even managed to persuade her boyfriend (who very helpfully happens to be a photographer!) to come along as well and take some pictures.

It was a beautifull day and both horses were excellent. Luca did a couple of small ODE's last year and I'd like to step him up a bit this season so wanted to try a variety of fences with him to test him a bit. Roscoe (the bay) is 23 now so didn't need to do much but enjoyed having a lovely hack round and popping some of the smaller fences :)

I have a tendancy to go on in my reports so I will try to let the pictures do the talking!

The two ponios!
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Over a nice brush to start
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Lu was very keen!
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I was pleased that he jumped nicely over the narrow fences (have been practising this lots at home)
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Ros had a go too :)
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Wanted to practise over corners as he's not done this much, he had one cheeky go where he tried to jump the tree rather than the fence but then got the idea and jumped it well.
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Then we moved onto the water, Luca doesn't have much experience with this so just practised trotting in and out down the banks and standing in it etc. I am a complete wuss when it comes to jumping into water which I'm sure didn't help! Roscoe was going to give us a lead in but after jumping in twice he decided he'd had enough and didn't want to do anymore so we had to abandon that. This was the smallest drop in there so I am going to try to find somewhere else more inviting to practise, and take some wellies and lunge line if ness!

My friend is much braver than me!
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Paint it Lucky

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Continued!

Arty shot
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Practising over the ditches, he was a little reluctant at first, he has done ditches before but they don't normally have water in! He soon got the idea though :)
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The very photographic owl hole! I was a little reluctant to jump this as it looked bigger than I remember and Lu has not done one before, needless to say he flew it like a pro :)
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Think this was the biggest jump of the day, Luca took off a mile from it hence my position!
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Had a quick sit on Roscoe to finish
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We took literally hundreds of photos but don't want to bore you with all of them! Had a great day and was very pleased with the horses. Have noticed my stirrups look quite long in these pics so might try to put them up next time. We are off to Munstead next week for a hunter trials and then have our first ODE of the year next month so fingers crossed he will continue to be good.

One more photo!
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Took Luca on a hack today to a ford nearby which had some helpfull small steps/drops into in and got him to practise going up and down these which he got the hang of quite quickly so hopefully we will sort the water problem thing which I'm sure is more to do with me than him!
 

Firewell

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They both look like brilliant horses :). I think your coloured will be flying this year, you both look very confident and happy. You are braver than me, I wouldn't jump some of those fences in cold blood :eek:. :)
 

JGC

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Lovely horses both - I especially love the way the coloured has closed his eyes to jump the ditch - so cute!
 

Paint it Lucky

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Thanks for all the lovely comments everyone :) Luca is lovely, he has given me so much confidence jumping, before him I had lazy naughty horses that would try to stop or run out all the time! Luca just goes for it and is great :) Saying that when I got him he wouldn't go near a pole on the floor and began jumping by going over everything at flat out gallop! But he has calmed down now and become very genuine. My old boy Roscoe is very sweet too, he was a dirty stopper when I got him so I took him right back to basics, no pressure and he has learnt to be a lot more confident and really enjoys jumping now. Just wish he was a few years younger as I worry about pushing him too much, but he still seems very keen and capable so will keep playing about with him until he decides he's had enough. :)
 

TableDancer

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Lovely horses both - I especially love the way the coloured has closed his eyes to jump the ditch - so cute!

I was going to say that too :D :D

Luca is a really really nice type and you look like you are having a great time together - I would definitely crack on and get him out competing :)
 

Marchtime

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I'm 99% certain I know your old boy Roscoe from many years ago (he would have been about 12 when I knew him). If it is him then it is lovely to see him so happy, relaxed and well - you've done a fab job with him :) Your coloured is also very gorgeous, it looks like a fun day out.
 
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