rosiesowner
Well-Known Member
Oh dear me. Chilli and I had thoroughly prepared for our first BE90... She has of course competed under BE in the past but it was to be my first ever attempt. It was a massive goal of mine to tick off the list and it was with that in mind that I walked my cross country the day before with much attention on exactly which routes I would take and where I would make up time for slowing down for more technical fences. I was so looking forward to jumping it.
So at 7am this morning (a lovely late start compared to those who will have had to load up at 6am or earlier!) we popped Chilli on the box and set off to Bishop Burton. Here she is all ready to go in the lorry.
We got to BB, and she was quite content to stand on the lorry munching hay while I went to get my helmets tagged and walk the SJ course. I chose BB as our first event together as I knew that the SJ is in a lovely big arena which I thought would suit Chilli well. It was a fair, flowing course I thought would ride well.
Back to the lorry for a drink and to tack up for dressage. We borrowed some sparkles from a friend!
She warmed up feeling reasonably sweet. She was excited to be out and about but soon settled a little more. So, in we went. Immediately, her eyes were on stalks and every single letter had to be observed and almost shied away from as we completed our test. It was very hard work to keep her on the track and felt like riding a grenade that could go off at any second. However, we managed it-though our score was nothing but dire!
Then another change of saddle and bridle for the showjumping.
Her owner warmed us up for the jumping, and she felt absolutely brilliant. Honestly, she felt on fire. Owner purposefully put the warm up fences up bigger than they would be in the ring (we put them straight down once we'd jumped them a couple of times-promise!!
) and she jumped them without a care in the world. She felt scopey and fabulous. And so in we went.
The buzzer went as soon as we entered the (rather large) arena and so I didn't have quite enough time to show her all the fences I wanted if I also wanted to make it through the timers and over the first fence (right at the other end) in time. Off we went, cantering and feeling good up to the first fence, an ascending oxer. She had the smallest of looks at the fillers but jumped it with no problems, though I managed to get tense through my arms and peck on landing-an old habit of mine-which soon woke me up to actually ride. Fence two now, another oxer which she jumped well. Then straight on for a few strides to a vertical. I purposefully waited and then buried her into the bottom a little to make sure she actually jumped up and over instead of going flat. Fence four, another vertical which she took no problems. Then five, an oxer which she jumped like a lovely grey unicorn (who says she isn't?).
Fence 5:
Then round to fence six; a one stride double of verticals. We had a great forward rhythm and I thought we would meet in on a good stride. There was no reason to believe she would suddenly, two strides out, slam on the breaks and drop her head looking at something and promptly dump me into the sand! She proceeded to show off and have a little canter around the perimeter of the arena. After she was caught by a steward (who also happens to be one of my tutors, how embarrassing!) I hopped on and went back for a second go. However, Chilli just was not entertaining the idea of jumping the fence. Eventually I had one refusal left, knew she wasn't going to jump it and so elected to end it on my terms-so as to preserve what little dignity I had left.
Here's a video of my round and fall:
[video=youtube;h3aYZ4CuHbs]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3aYZ4CuHbs[/video]
And here's a far better view of me eating sand!:
[video=youtube;3AlERQJGgVQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AlERQJGgVQ[/video]
Her owner said that she thinks there was no real reason for that stop, apart from suddenly spotting the shadows cast by the box fillers in front of the fence. Either way blaming either myself or the horse will get us nowhere-what's to do now is go home and work even harder so next time we can pull out the clear round I know she's capable of and so thoroughly deserves!!
Quite honestly, it broke my heart to lift my hand and retire. She had felt so excellent up until that fence and the competitive streak within me was telling me to have one last crack, but truly it wasn't going to happen. So I had to accept that the potential achievement of one of my longtime goals was a big old flop. My heart sank even more when they announced over the tannoy "Unfortunately number 413 has retired". I hate 'giving up', but in this situation it seemed the better option...
I so badly wanted to jump that cross country course. It was the perfect mix of technical fences and galloping opportunities that I know Chill's would have loved. I genuinely believe she would have done that course justice.
Please, no criticism-I am still licking my wounds a little! But soon it is time to be off to the pub with a few friends to cheer myself up. Big cheers if you got through all this without a) getting fed up or b) rolling your eyes at my blatant self pity.
Harriet and (The Currently Disgraced With Her Owner) Chilli.... Xx
So at 7am this morning (a lovely late start compared to those who will have had to load up at 6am or earlier!) we popped Chilli on the box and set off to Bishop Burton. Here she is all ready to go in the lorry.
We got to BB, and she was quite content to stand on the lorry munching hay while I went to get my helmets tagged and walk the SJ course. I chose BB as our first event together as I knew that the SJ is in a lovely big arena which I thought would suit Chilli well. It was a fair, flowing course I thought would ride well.
Back to the lorry for a drink and to tack up for dressage. We borrowed some sparkles from a friend!
She warmed up feeling reasonably sweet. She was excited to be out and about but soon settled a little more. So, in we went. Immediately, her eyes were on stalks and every single letter had to be observed and almost shied away from as we completed our test. It was very hard work to keep her on the track and felt like riding a grenade that could go off at any second. However, we managed it-though our score was nothing but dire!
Then another change of saddle and bridle for the showjumping.
Her owner warmed us up for the jumping, and she felt absolutely brilliant. Honestly, she felt on fire. Owner purposefully put the warm up fences up bigger than they would be in the ring (we put them straight down once we'd jumped them a couple of times-promise!!
) and she jumped them without a care in the world. She felt scopey and fabulous. And so in we went.The buzzer went as soon as we entered the (rather large) arena and so I didn't have quite enough time to show her all the fences I wanted if I also wanted to make it through the timers and over the first fence (right at the other end) in time. Off we went, cantering and feeling good up to the first fence, an ascending oxer. She had the smallest of looks at the fillers but jumped it with no problems, though I managed to get tense through my arms and peck on landing-an old habit of mine-which soon woke me up to actually ride. Fence two now, another oxer which she jumped well. Then straight on for a few strides to a vertical. I purposefully waited and then buried her into the bottom a little to make sure she actually jumped up and over instead of going flat. Fence four, another vertical which she took no problems. Then five, an oxer which she jumped like a lovely grey unicorn (who says she isn't?).
Fence 5:
Then round to fence six; a one stride double of verticals. We had a great forward rhythm and I thought we would meet in on a good stride. There was no reason to believe she would suddenly, two strides out, slam on the breaks and drop her head looking at something and promptly dump me into the sand! She proceeded to show off and have a little canter around the perimeter of the arena. After she was caught by a steward (who also happens to be one of my tutors, how embarrassing!) I hopped on and went back for a second go. However, Chilli just was not entertaining the idea of jumping the fence. Eventually I had one refusal left, knew she wasn't going to jump it and so elected to end it on my terms-so as to preserve what little dignity I had left.
Here's a video of my round and fall:
[video=youtube;h3aYZ4CuHbs]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3aYZ4CuHbs[/video]
And here's a far better view of me eating sand!:
[video=youtube;3AlERQJGgVQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AlERQJGgVQ[/video]
Her owner said that she thinks there was no real reason for that stop, apart from suddenly spotting the shadows cast by the box fillers in front of the fence. Either way blaming either myself or the horse will get us nowhere-what's to do now is go home and work even harder so next time we can pull out the clear round I know she's capable of and so thoroughly deserves!!
Quite honestly, it broke my heart to lift my hand and retire. She had felt so excellent up until that fence and the competitive streak within me was telling me to have one last crack, but truly it wasn't going to happen. So I had to accept that the potential achievement of one of my longtime goals was a big old flop. My heart sank even more when they announced over the tannoy "Unfortunately number 413 has retired". I hate 'giving up', but in this situation it seemed the better option...
I so badly wanted to jump that cross country course. It was the perfect mix of technical fences and galloping opportunities that I know Chill's would have loved. I genuinely believe she would have done that course justice.
Please, no criticism-I am still licking my wounds a little! But soon it is time to be off to the pub with a few friends to cheer myself up. Big cheers if you got through all this without a) getting fed up or b) rolling your eyes at my blatant self pity.
Harriet and (The Currently Disgraced With Her Owner
) Chilli.... Xx
