Early July weekend plans!

Oh that’s brilliant, ihatework! Clever giant pony! That was a beefy novice track.

Sadly I didn’t get to see him as we weren’t needed after the 4* (luckily though, as we had a 3.5hr drive home...). I had a fab weekend of volunteering though! Quiet but loooooooong Friday, then a much busier Saturday where we were on a stopping fence and I had to get the red flag out FIVE times, including for William Fox-Pitt and Pippa Funnell. Today we were in the main arena where fence 9 proved to be the killer fence of the day and we had one rider fall in the water and many many refusals/retirements/eliminations. Don’t think this photo does it justice in any way but it was huge and trickily positioned.

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Fiona said:
Lexi I saw a video of Imogen Murray falling at that fence 😲

Fiona
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She got up and muttered “F***ing Shetland Pony Grand National”

😂😂😂😂

(ETA - soz, am assuming everyone knows what it looks like there! The Shetlands were zooming round the other half of the main arena at the time...)
 
My day's volunteering consisted of herding tiny ponies and even tinier riders around a collecting ring for most of it. It was a big old fashioned show, the sort with jumping on grass and cups wih names dating back to the 60s for some classes, and I was helping out with the 'family' ring which was all unaffiliated showing and an afternoon programme of classes like 'best grey' and 'prettiest mare,' while everywhere else was full of people chasing qualifiers!

I had a lovely day, lots of the kids and parents were at their first show so we explained everything about a million times, and it wasn't my ring which got confused and ended up with cobs in the M and M in hand!

Lots of rosettes and smily happy kids; it was a bittersweet day as a year ago, I'd taken my beautiful Clyde along and we'd placed in the heavy horse and rare breeds classes before leaving early as it was too warm. He never made it to another show, and sadly there were no heavies at all this year so the class probably won't go ahead in the future. But I felt like I'd paid the show organisers back for that lovely day last year, so that's something.
 
I had a nice weekend! Over at Doune Show there were some lovely Shetlands forward then over in the M&M section in the afternoon it was entertaining! The ring was horrible - lumpy and full of holes. There were also cows penned along one side, a generator on the next side and then big veteran classes thundering along on the 3rd side. In the large breed novice class 1 pony left before it had completed a circuit of walk, another went out after the first canter before the change of rein. At least they took themselves out before I had to scrape them off of the floor! I also learnt a great new trick to stop competitors whinging that the judge has wandered off and left an empty ring for 15 mins when everyone is waiting to go - no matter whether the judge is young or old, male or female they are ALWAYS, from now on in - breast feeding their baby! Honestly! 5 people came up to me to ask where the judge was and what was taking so long, as soon as you mention that she was feeding her 12 week old kid (fair play to her for judging so soon after popping the sprog! She looked amazing!) everyone was incredibly understanding. One guy did ask why the father couldn't feed the kid but when you remind him that men can't produce milk he apologized and went beetroot!

Onto today where we took the Welsh Cob and a Shetland to a show just along the road. I figured we would be in the ring aprox 10.30-10.45am. Oh how wrong! The judge was going very slowly! It was just after midday when we went into the ring! Both ponies were entered in the same class but it did state that if there were more than 6 of anything they would split into Small/Large/Partbred M&M. When I got there I checked that they had split the class - yes, definitely split into smalls then large & partbred together. So in I tootle with the shetland. We walk round for a good 10 laps of the ring - waiting for someone from another ring. Then they decide that because not everyone had stated on entry which section they would be in in the case of a split everyone was to come into the ring at the same time. Well that didn't help me as I couldn't take 2 in at once! I was furious! Others who had been hanging around for an age and a day having been told the class was splitting were angry too. So my step dad brought the Welsh Cob into the ring with his hoody, shorts and boots on. We did a swop for the trotting as he has dodgy knees and can't run - apparently! By the time everyone was in the ring there were 6 small breeds, 3 large and 2 partbred. So it should have been split like they had said they had already done - retracted and then refused to split. The Welsh was pulled in 3rd to start with, the Shetland 7th. I took the Cob out and the judge asked if he was a C or a D and then commented that it was nice to see a D that was still a pony and not horse-like at all! She wasn't the biggest fan of shetlands. The Welsh Cob got brought up to win! Happy days! The Shetland came up to 6th!

We absolutely flew round the lap of honour doing a proper, proper Welsh trot! And straight into the Adult Handler class. Where the ring was tiny and I didn't even try to get a Welsh trot as there simply was no room! I stood 3rd ... behindsomeone who fell over trotting her horse up, wrongly attired for any form of horse showing - jods and short boots are for kids. The winner was deserved though. My wrist is covered in bruises where Gerry likes nibbling away whilst standing in line! He won't chew my cane which is what
it is there for annoyingly!

The championships where in the evening so I didn't bother going back. Given how disorganised and annoying the morning was the evening probably wouldn't have been much better! It's a shame because those guys normally run good shows but there were a lot of grumbles today!

Gerry:

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Lunar Fire:

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DabDab said:
Wow, fantastic, well done. She's really developed in her frame in the last couple of months from pics on here :cool:
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Thank you. I feel like it is really starting to come together now, although I came out of the test feeling that it definitely wasn’t anywhere near the level of work that she now produces at home on a daily basis, which is frustrating but at least gives us something to aim for. Because I know how it should feel, if I fail to replicate that in the test, I come out feeling a bit disheartened because she is capable of so much more. My mum came along and she kept saying it was a super test, but it wasn’t until I got home and watched the test back that I realised that what I feel underneath me as not perfect doesn’t actually show the majority of the time. The test actually looked really good, normally when I watch them back I get a bit hung up on the negative parts, but niggling things that I had felt underneath me couldn’t even be seen. The judge was quite a harsh marker as well, so I was even more chuffed. No-one in the previous class got out of the 50% range and I’d heard a few comments that the judge was quite harsh.
Although I found the feedback on my sheet absolutely spot on and extremely helpful.
 
We had a lovely day in the Dorset countryside at one of the nicest and best marked rides I have ever done. The views were fab and the tracks were gorgeous with good grass covering allowing plenty of cantering. It's the sort of ride that if we had had more rain you could go seriously quickly round. We went round at 12k an hour having had a few breaks and finished with a heart rate of 54, which in the heat I was happy with. He will probably end up being clipped again I suspect!!
He is now entered at Cirencester in two weeks where he will step up to do 40k and I will pray for some rain between now and then!
 
Sorry for the late update- had a busy weekend! Nice to read everyone’s updates.
Having whinged on last week’s thread that I can’t cope with mr H when XC schooling, as he gets worked up and I’m worried he is going to explode , I have sent him to livery for schooling and I’ve taken week off work so I can go every day and ride . On Saturday had a nice SJ lesson, just small jumps and working on balance and control up and down slopes. Then turned him out into his new home for the next week or 2 where he charged around in great excitement posturing at his new mates. I think he will enjoy summer camp even if I miss not being able to see him out the window.
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On Sunday I had a lesson in the Xc field, using his magic kineton noseband and a borrowed bit with a port which I haven’t tried before. He was so good, we started by popping over logs , then started to let him speed up in between jumps, but able to get him back to me when needed and by the end made a little course covering a fair part of the field. He didn’t get worked up and I came out of a Xc lesson with a smile on my face for the first time in months...
So hopefully I will be up there everyday for the rest of this week and I hope we might make a bit of progress.
Meanwhile, retired mare is at my friends so she has company so I’m backwards and forwards to see her 4 times a day to apply her eye drops (another eye ulcer- seems to be recovering nicely, the protocol of ablating it, atropine, antibiotics and blood serum drops is working well)
 
well done everyone :) sounds like a pretty good weekend for lots of HHOers.

We are just back from our trip out to a new venue, Kira had a spook attack at the judges huts (never seen one of them before, Ohhhhh Noooo, Never :rolleyes:) but despite being a complete twerp any time we were near C we managed to pull off all the movements without an error , yay. Felt like it took ages to get a clear round at PSG so it's nice to have got round the inter1 without a mistake :D still did a crappy rein back but it's her weak spot and we had to do it at C, having spook-halted 2m off the track beforehand so wasn't exactly set up for a good one.
Chuffed to bits with her though, 63% and a red frilly, plus that's her now qualified for area festivals as we had one sheet way back before xmas. Hopefully be able to get a bit more pizazz next time if she's a bit braver :p
 
milliepops said:
well done everyone :) sounds like a pretty good weekend for lots of HHOers.

We are just back from our trip out to a new venue, Kira had a spook attack at the judges huts (never seen one of them before, Ohhhhh Noooo, Never :rolleyes:) but despite being a complete twerp any time we were near C we managed to pull off all the movements without an error , yay. Felt like it took ages to get a clear round at PSG so it's nice to have got round the inter1 without a mistake :D still did a crappy rein back but it's her weak spot and we had to do it at C, having spook-halted 2m off the track beforehand so wasn't exactly set up for a good one.
Chuffed to bits with her though, 63% and a red frilly, plus that's her now qualified for area festivals as we had one sheet way back before xmas. Hopefully be able to get a bit more pizazz next time if she's a bit braver :p
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Well done good luck for the area festivals
 
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