juliehannah58
Well-Known Member
On Sunday I took my new ride to the East Essex Hunt XC in Braintree. Poor little lad was thrown in the deep end a bit, I have only sat on him 3 times and he's only 4yrs old and never even seen a XC jump so i was a little shocked when I walked the 'novice' course we were entered in! It was well 'up to height' in fact a few of the fences were at least 3'! It wasn't exactly the piddly logs I was hoping for (I'm a XC wimp and not afraid to admit it!
) with a huge deep water complex, great big horrible ditches, steps, skinnys, and loads of combinations including a treble! Anyway, we were doing the pairs so he had his big brother to give him some encouragment so I thought we'd treat it as schooling.
He was very excited as it was only his 3rd show (bless him) so I found a quiet corner in the lorry park to warm up away from the crowds. Despite an explosion when he spied a pair of horses galloping past (!!) he settled in very well. We ambled over to the warm up which was very small and busy but we needed to have a jump. I was a bit worried as the practise fences were only logs, not a pole in sight and he's never seen anything but a pole before but he jumped it and jumped my glasses off my face in the process of making sure he cleared that scarey log good!! LOL! I was PMSL, I defo need a flying mask next time or at least some duct tape!! LOL! Anyway, all set and off we went following big bro but waited behind very patiently, although we actually ended up taking the lead half way round, it was his big boy moment! One of the fences I was majorly worried about was a very narrow big sleeper set thing at no.4 it was surrounded by trees and so uninviting, typically he sailed over that then stopped at a skinny wide log up a hill LOL! Anyway this was only fence no 6 so we kicked on and he did everything except the ditch. Can't say I blame him it was so huge and nasty, he didn't even want to look in there so we missed it out (ditch schooling here we come). He did eventually go through this huge water complex and we did a step in which was great! So well pleased, he did steps and skinnys all brilliantly and took strides out everywhere! He was ballooning me out of saddle all the time and I almost lost my glasses on several occasions, so he was feeling very confident about it all! Even though I dislike XC have to admit I came back beaming, it was great and I love riding him. But he was doing such a lovely collected canter in between fences I was thinking 'this is a showjumper not an eventer!', he is defo comig to me to SJ next Spring, roll on! LOL
So there you have it, the little man is doing very well and it was the first XC I have really enjoyed in a long long time!
Pics to follow shortly, when photographer puts them up
Thanks for reading
x
He was very excited as it was only his 3rd show (bless him) so I found a quiet corner in the lorry park to warm up away from the crowds. Despite an explosion when he spied a pair of horses galloping past (!!) he settled in very well. We ambled over to the warm up which was very small and busy but we needed to have a jump. I was a bit worried as the practise fences were only logs, not a pole in sight and he's never seen anything but a pole before but he jumped it and jumped my glasses off my face in the process of making sure he cleared that scarey log good!! LOL! I was PMSL, I defo need a flying mask next time or at least some duct tape!! LOL! Anyway, all set and off we went following big bro but waited behind very patiently, although we actually ended up taking the lead half way round, it was his big boy moment! One of the fences I was majorly worried about was a very narrow big sleeper set thing at no.4 it was surrounded by trees and so uninviting, typically he sailed over that then stopped at a skinny wide log up a hill LOL! Anyway this was only fence no 6 so we kicked on and he did everything except the ditch. Can't say I blame him it was so huge and nasty, he didn't even want to look in there so we missed it out (ditch schooling here we come). He did eventually go through this huge water complex and we did a step in which was great! So well pleased, he did steps and skinnys all brilliantly and took strides out everywhere! He was ballooning me out of saddle all the time and I almost lost my glasses on several occasions, so he was feeling very confident about it all! Even though I dislike XC have to admit I came back beaming, it was great and I love riding him. But he was doing such a lovely collected canter in between fences I was thinking 'this is a showjumper not an eventer!', he is defo comig to me to SJ next Spring, roll on! LOL
So there you have it, the little man is doing very well and it was the first XC I have really enjoyed in a long long time!
Pics to follow shortly, when photographer puts them up
Thanks for reading
x
