BunnyDog
Well-Known Member
Hello again from the USA!!!
It's taken a while but yesterday Cudo and I managed to not only go to a show but also avoided any loose horses and didn't have any dramatic escapes from our trailer due to horse flies. 11 months, and 3 days since our last show (where I got run over by a loose horse) and roughly 10 days more since the last time we competed in the ring together. Most of that was extended vacation that I chose to give the boys and myself while my country is figuring out how to exist with Covid. But we started working and riding again on July 9th. So we're around a month back in work.
Realistically that alone made the day a huge success. But we also managed to put together 2 lovely rounds at only 1m (Because that's what made the most sense) and Cudo was just so lovely and wonderful as he always is.
I didn't care about placings and was prepared to compete unjudged so that we didn't usurp the successes of those who are working hard to compete at that level and be competitive, but ultimately going a notch slow and ticking the first fence of the second course provided the leveling factor so that we were down the list anyway. I couldn't care less!!! I was SO happy with him.
This was a big deal for us since he has reverted a bit in our schools at home to the same kind of approach he had with schooling jumps at home in 2018. Way more forward, less adjustable and altogether a different ride than what we normally experience at shows. Now realistically I know he still has to work on improving his muscle and body strength to carry himself, and I appreciate that this is likely playing a big role in how he feels right now. We have time, we're marching on and he's improving weekly. Today he's got the biggest, fluffiest straw stall in the world (almost) and I am hoping that he will lay down and rest for a while. It's a nice cool day here and he's been outside yesterday to today for 18 hours. So I am hopeful that he succumbs and is able to enjoy a much quieter day of relaxing and chilling out on a pleasant Sunday. I'm attempting to do the same here.
We have videos. I re-uploaded them as separate courses since for reasons unknown when I loaded the video last night of both courses, it took off all the sound. So now you can hear all the "good boy" on these videos.
Couple notes:
Course 1: I purposefully asked him to add to the oxers. He had been pulling me to the oxers at home and been a tad aggressive. So calming things down and adding seemed like a better plan.
Yes, my shoulders are rocking and my upper body pumped a couple times when I saw move up distances. I am rusty too after 7 months off, so I need to get my own self working to improve on my form as well.
Course 2: I totally forgot which fence was the last fence of the course after the in and out. I remembered after 7 strides or so, but that is why we took a very long route to get back to the final oxer.
And just for comparison purposes so you can see what I am talking about, I am including a link to our school at home the night before the show. He'd jumped a couple things Tuesday night and was even more aggressive to the fences. I opted to jump him again the night before to see if we could calm him down a bit more. And it worked. He'll have a lighter week of flatwork and hills this week to balance out the increased jump efforts this past week.
Videos:
Course 1:
Course 2:
Friday night school:
Thanks for following us and I hope you all are enjoying a lovely summer and getting to ride plenty. I'm told that it's been very hot, that sucks. We have that all the time here.
All my best,
Em
It's taken a while but yesterday Cudo and I managed to not only go to a show but also avoided any loose horses and didn't have any dramatic escapes from our trailer due to horse flies. 11 months, and 3 days since our last show (where I got run over by a loose horse) and roughly 10 days more since the last time we competed in the ring together. Most of that was extended vacation that I chose to give the boys and myself while my country is figuring out how to exist with Covid. But we started working and riding again on July 9th. So we're around a month back in work.
Realistically that alone made the day a huge success. But we also managed to put together 2 lovely rounds at only 1m (Because that's what made the most sense) and Cudo was just so lovely and wonderful as he always is.
I didn't care about placings and was prepared to compete unjudged so that we didn't usurp the successes of those who are working hard to compete at that level and be competitive, but ultimately going a notch slow and ticking the first fence of the second course provided the leveling factor so that we were down the list anyway. I couldn't care less!!! I was SO happy with him.
This was a big deal for us since he has reverted a bit in our schools at home to the same kind of approach he had with schooling jumps at home in 2018. Way more forward, less adjustable and altogether a different ride than what we normally experience at shows. Now realistically I know he still has to work on improving his muscle and body strength to carry himself, and I appreciate that this is likely playing a big role in how he feels right now. We have time, we're marching on and he's improving weekly. Today he's got the biggest, fluffiest straw stall in the world (almost) and I am hoping that he will lay down and rest for a while. It's a nice cool day here and he's been outside yesterday to today for 18 hours. So I am hopeful that he succumbs and is able to enjoy a much quieter day of relaxing and chilling out on a pleasant Sunday. I'm attempting to do the same here.
We have videos. I re-uploaded them as separate courses since for reasons unknown when I loaded the video last night of both courses, it took off all the sound. So now you can hear all the "good boy" on these videos.
Couple notes:
Course 1: I purposefully asked him to add to the oxers. He had been pulling me to the oxers at home and been a tad aggressive. So calming things down and adding seemed like a better plan.
Yes, my shoulders are rocking and my upper body pumped a couple times when I saw move up distances. I am rusty too after 7 months off, so I need to get my own self working to improve on my form as well.
Course 2: I totally forgot which fence was the last fence of the course after the in and out. I remembered after 7 strides or so, but that is why we took a very long route to get back to the final oxer.
And just for comparison purposes so you can see what I am talking about, I am including a link to our school at home the night before the show. He'd jumped a couple things Tuesday night and was even more aggressive to the fences. I opted to jump him again the night before to see if we could calm him down a bit more. And it worked. He'll have a lighter week of flatwork and hills this week to balance out the increased jump efforts this past week.
Videos:
Course 1:
Course 2:
Friday night school:
Thanks for following us and I hope you all are enjoying a lovely summer and getting to ride plenty. I'm told that it's been very hot, that sucks. We have that all the time here.
All my best,
Em
