kerilli
Well-Known Member
Up bright and early for last run of the season, BE90 at ND, thanks to them for stepping us down without a quibble. 
No vids sorry, pics coming when I get the digital versions from the lovely David Saunders Photography, who were doing '3 for 2' (at £10 each) and who will send me the digital version gratis because I bought some. Excellent service, wish all togs would do this! He was doing very well I think, there seemed to be lots of sales...
Anyway, back to Daisy. Got there early, walked course, trying to take the orange-numbered fences seriously. Walked 1, set off for 2, nice arc. I thought "that's fine, it's a bit bigger than fence 1 though", then noticed the yellow number. ffs. Rewalked line to orange fence. Sigh. Nice course, educational. Very sticky going, they'd rolled loads of it so done their absolute best, all credit, but it was a bit of a bog in front of some fences. Concentrated REALLY hard on learning the correct course, following the orange numbers. Funny how orange and pink are so similar, huh? Why couldn't PN be violet fgs?!?!?
Got ready, put big dome studs in, went off to do dressage. Still v foggy but she could hear and then see the xc... ooops. Rapid switch to Warmup Plan B, which is basically lots of lateral work in walk followed by 20-30 mins of trotting with short canters, without any walking at all, to try to tire her out enough to relax. It sort of worked, although I ended up doing SO much lateral work in sitting trot too (as excitement meant she was determined to trot like a sewing machine stuck on ff) so she couldn't escape, that she then decided Everything Sideways was obv the order of the day...! Her shoulder-in is quite posh now so that is our comfort blankie, and it worked pretty well...
Went in and did a nice enough test - she let me ride her, she didn't run off in canter. Unforch it was the same test as last weekend and after a perfectly nice 1st canter to trot aid and transition, she decided to tell the judge that last week i'd removed her molars at that point! We got 6s and 7s the whole way through, no blips lower (1st time I can say that!), and 7s for last canter, which I was v chuffed about. Most of the 6s could easily have been 7s if she'd been more rideable, she just tightened, argued for a second, had a bit of an opinion. They'd moved the arena slightly from yesterday and I made the totally rookie error of coming down the final line on the old track then realising... damn. 6 for that too. No excuse in WALK fgs! 7 for paces, which considering she hadn't really let go, I was happy with. 37, which I didn't find out until I'd been xc!
SJ time, didn't get to walk it. Argumentative in warm-up despite being in a bit she was perfectly happy jumping in at home on Friday. Sigh. I think she's going to be one of those who has to have a 'just for comps' bridle... BIG Thank You to Kirstyhen and her friend for doing the upright biggish for me just before we went in, which D proceeded to hit behind, and then rub in front. We then had THE ropiest round yet, but somehow clear. Bizarre. We had a MAJOR disagreement about striding at 1 parallel, I'd definitely seen another nice stride when she just took off straight out of my hands, UGH, I thought she was going to dive right through it and slipped my reins as I went into the back seat but she somehow left it up. Loads of wrong leads and corrections, nothing like as nice as last week's 4 fault round.... oh well. Last few were nice enough I guess. As we all know, sometimes the scores on the doors are not a true reflection... to be fair she didn't touch one, but it wasn't a smooth round at all!
Back to lorry, stripped her, was washing her off when a horse went behind her on the xc (a few hundred yards away) and she launched forward straight onto my foot. Never been leapt on by a studded horse before. My poor Sarm Hippiques are obv a LOT tougher than they look - the stud has made a big permanent dent, and it hurt for a moment, but my foot seems to have escaped unscathed...
To be continued... hope you've got a coffee and a comfy chair.
No vids sorry, pics coming when I get the digital versions from the lovely David Saunders Photography, who were doing '3 for 2' (at £10 each) and who will send me the digital version gratis because I bought some. Excellent service, wish all togs would do this! He was doing very well I think, there seemed to be lots of sales...
Anyway, back to Daisy. Got there early, walked course, trying to take the orange-numbered fences seriously. Walked 1, set off for 2, nice arc. I thought "that's fine, it's a bit bigger than fence 1 though", then noticed the yellow number. ffs. Rewalked line to orange fence. Sigh. Nice course, educational. Very sticky going, they'd rolled loads of it so done their absolute best, all credit, but it was a bit of a bog in front of some fences. Concentrated REALLY hard on learning the correct course, following the orange numbers. Funny how orange and pink are so similar, huh? Why couldn't PN be violet fgs?!?!?
Got ready, put big dome studs in, went off to do dressage. Still v foggy but she could hear and then see the xc... ooops. Rapid switch to Warmup Plan B, which is basically lots of lateral work in walk followed by 20-30 mins of trotting with short canters, without any walking at all, to try to tire her out enough to relax. It sort of worked, although I ended up doing SO much lateral work in sitting trot too (as excitement meant she was determined to trot like a sewing machine stuck on ff) so she couldn't escape, that she then decided Everything Sideways was obv the order of the day...! Her shoulder-in is quite posh now so that is our comfort blankie, and it worked pretty well...
Went in and did a nice enough test - she let me ride her, she didn't run off in canter. Unforch it was the same test as last weekend and after a perfectly nice 1st canter to trot aid and transition, she decided to tell the judge that last week i'd removed her molars at that point! We got 6s and 7s the whole way through, no blips lower (1st time I can say that!), and 7s for last canter, which I was v chuffed about. Most of the 6s could easily have been 7s if she'd been more rideable, she just tightened, argued for a second, had a bit of an opinion. They'd moved the arena slightly from yesterday and I made the totally rookie error of coming down the final line on the old track then realising... damn. 6 for that too. No excuse in WALK fgs! 7 for paces, which considering she hadn't really let go, I was happy with. 37, which I didn't find out until I'd been xc!
SJ time, didn't get to walk it. Argumentative in warm-up despite being in a bit she was perfectly happy jumping in at home on Friday. Sigh. I think she's going to be one of those who has to have a 'just for comps' bridle... BIG Thank You to Kirstyhen and her friend for doing the upright biggish for me just before we went in, which D proceeded to hit behind, and then rub in front. We then had THE ropiest round yet, but somehow clear. Bizarre. We had a MAJOR disagreement about striding at 1 parallel, I'd definitely seen another nice stride when she just took off straight out of my hands, UGH, I thought she was going to dive right through it and slipped my reins as I went into the back seat but she somehow left it up. Loads of wrong leads and corrections, nothing like as nice as last week's 4 fault round.... oh well. Last few were nice enough I guess. As we all know, sometimes the scores on the doors are not a true reflection... to be fair she didn't touch one, but it wasn't a smooth round at all!
Back to lorry, stripped her, was washing her off when a horse went behind her on the xc (a few hundred yards away) and she launched forward straight onto my foot. Never been leapt on by a studded horse before. My poor Sarm Hippiques are obv a LOT tougher than they look - the stud has made a big permanent dent, and it hurt for a moment, but my foot seems to have escaped unscathed...
To be continued... hope you've got a coffee and a comfy chair.
