Early June Weekend Plans

Semi successful weekend for us. I ended up taking daughter's horse for a hack on Saturday as she has been doing long shifts at work to try to save up for heading off to university. I hadnt ridden for a long time (maybe over 6 months) but i had a very enjoyable hack. We did just over 5 miles, it was a bit windy at the top of the hill but was nice and sunny.
Today I took daughtet and horse to xc practice to tackle their nemesis - the water!! Horse tends to be fine with water in training sessional but stops at competitions. So plan was to warm up then ride as if they were doing a competition including coming out of start box. He cantered straight into the water so fingers crossed that has been a help! Then the blighter wouldn't load for over an hour afterwards. We even had a friendly lorry driver give up his pear to entice him on but no luck. We were still there trying to load when the people thar had hired after us came back and after they sorted themselves out they gave us a hand and we got him loaded.
Starting to become a bit miserable though. Not sure who to get to help? He doesn't appear stressed in any way, just stands half on ramp and chills out but is also unmovable!
Enjoyed reading what everyone else has been up to and seeing photos too 😍
 
Lottie was mega in her jump lesson on Sunday. Warmed up then jumped a short course which included braving the giddy heights of a 75cm oxer. That felt MAHOOSIVE as I really need to jump regularly to stay confident. So an 8 week layoff was very unhelpful for me. But small steps... we will get back to form. Lottie was less wild and felt very good. So eyeing up a qualifier in the 85 next weekend….. eek.

RI says she is looking fantastic - much looser and stronger looking over her back, moving freely, and she is certainly giving me a good feel over the fences.
 
Ambers Echo said:
Lottie was mega in her jump lesson on Sunday. Warmed up then jumped a short course which included braving the giddy heights of a 75cm oxer. That felt MAHOOSIVE as I really need to jump regularly to stay confident. So an 8 week layoff was very unhelpful for me. But small steps... we will get back to form. Lottie was less wild and felt very good. So eyeing up a qualifier in the 85 next weekend….. eek.

RI says she is looking fantastic - much looser and stronger looking over her back, moving freely, and she is certainly giving me a good feel over the fences.
Click to expand...
Well done! 85cm qualifier will be easy peasy - it’s much easier at a show!

I am exactly the same re height. Set up a grid in the school yesterday, got the oxer at the end up to 1m and I thought it was about 1.30! Why is it that when you don’t jump for a while everything suddenly looks so big?!
 
I had a lovely weekend camping in Thetford forest, and Amber was very good. We did get in the river, but it needed a lot of help from Hollie to get her in, in-hand and get her calm about it. It finished with me being able to ride her in and out without bother.
I'm sure she'll need more practice sessions, but it was an excellent start.
She was very bold with the Working Equitation obstacles all one-handed, the varra was no bother, and she did everything completely relaxed and happy; I'm so proud of her. She really enjoys obstacle work.
She wasn't sure about the formation riding; she gets a little worried about horses she doesn't know being close, but she settled to it and worked really nicely. We could do it all one-handed, which proves the steering is there. She did get a bit cheeky when the horse in front started stopping; her cow face came out, and she was trying to herd him like a cow! Thankfully she listened to me when I said that wasn't appropriate.
Her only blip was hacking out. She had a little nap at the start and caught her tail on the fence, which soon sent her forward. Then she settled, but she got tense coming home again. Freddy gave me some useful tools to use and permission to trot, so I think we can crack on at home and hopefully get back to where we were last summer.
 
I took the Spanish Bean out again for another low key dressage outing (just walk and trot for now).

Really pleased with her loading and travelling, she is getting really good at this now.

Slight mishap with a horse in the warmup meant I went leaping around the warmup for a bit 🤣.

Went in to do my test and wasn't sure how it would go but was pleasantly surprised! She stayed with me through the test and listened. She is also starting to find her balance and self carriage but is still a bit intermittent for now. I also thought I managed to ride the test and support her.

I know it might not seem that good yet and I'm sure a pro would be doing a much better job but I am happy with the way it is going :)

 
Isaac got his second and third petplan sheets at elementary on Saturday - 67.2% in E40, which is a boring test, and then 67.5% in E57 which is a very very busy test! Now need to pick which area festival we go to. Choice of vale view, Northallerton or Onley if anyone has any intel as to which is most likely to be outdoors and not too spooky?!

Vid of E57 - it's far from perfect, but I feel like everything is going in the right direction at the moment...

 
We took Satin out for a bit of in-hand showing to continue her education, and she was an absolute star. A few baby moments, but they were (a) expected, and (b) easily forgiven, they were so minor, in the whole she was so chilled for a youngster. Considering she hasn’t left home on the box since I bought her 18 months ago, she’s still only just 4, is a fairly chunky 15.2 now and was mostly being handled by an 11 year old child, it was a great, educational day out. Two 2nds in the novice classes and a win in junior handler were just the icing on the cake, along with qualifications for the Sunshine Tour at Hickstead in September (if I’m feeling brave enough to take her!). I’m really excited to see what the future holds for them, they’re forging such a bond now.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_8934.jpeg
    IMG_8934.jpeg
    883.6 KB · Views: 14
  • IMG_8935.jpeg
    IMG_8935.jpeg
    875 KB · Views: 14
Last edited:
Enormosaurus was a good girl for our competition, with no front feet leaving the ground except for jumping!
We did a couple of lovely jumps in the warm up that have given me the feeling of what I'm aiming for when jumping with her. Now I need to figure it out so that we can jump that way more consistently.
The actual course was quite technical for a young horse I found (a right angle away from the gate from jump 1 to 2; a line of jumps where you didn't actually jump the one in front of you but turned on an angle towards the next). We had one pole down because we came into it disunited and a bit of a nappy tantrum between jump 8 and 9 because she would have much rather jumped number 5 back to front than turn away from it. So not as good as we have done before, but also a lot more technical than we have been doing up till now. I'm still really happy with outcome and we just need more experience out and about now.
Enormosaurus' owner was there and he's still happy with her overall progress (just generally more relaxed in life) and how we're doing together, so all good.
 
@RachelFerd I would think Vale View would be indoors - whenever I have been there for associate champs it is indoors, with outdoor warm up. 2 outdoor warm ups, lots of rooms, indoors not spooky. Onley has lots of arenas and not been there for affiliated dressage so don't know. The older outdoor as polo fencing around it so the horses can't see anything though there can be noises off that they can't see, so machinery moving for example. Mine doesn't find it spooky at all though but he doesn't particularly like the indoors as there are galleries high up with glass in front of them and so quite reflective. Haven't been to Northallerton.
@WelshHoarder Lovely photos and what a good girl.

Would love to comment on loads of the posts as so many good outings
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top