DressageCob
Well-Known Member
Hello!
My big cob and I did our first BE80T event last Saturday, in the searing heat of the hottest day of the year so far.
I went with very low expectations because (a) it was our first proper event, (b) I was ridiculously nervous and (c) big cob is black and absorbs the heat so always drops in performance in hot weather.
I walked the XC course the day before so that I wouldn't have to arrive too early on a hot day with my horse. I did the walk with the trainer, which was good in some ways and damaging in others. For example, we walked up to fence 2 with the trainer saying "this is big, this is wide, it is in your face and spooky, people will have stops and run outs". I know that is probably accurate, but what I needed was someone saying "ride positively, commit to it and it will jump ok".
Anyway, we arrived on the morning and got tacked up. Toby thinks eventing is the best because you park on grass and can eat all you like until your bridle goes on.
Warmed up for dressage ok, but we find collecting rings traumatic. Big cob used to panic whenever someone cantered up his backside or whenever they would come towards him and would mini bolt (only a split second of losing his head but then a few seconds to return to what we were doing!) and while he doesn't do that any more, I'm still always on edge, which I need to get over.
He did a sweet test. He spent the last test he did at Eland gawping at the show jumping so I was happy just to keep his mind on the job! But it felt obedient and fairly accurate so I was hoping for a score in the 30s.
We then had nearly 2 hours before show jumping so I put Toby back on the lorry and my friend and I went to watch some cross country.
Just before the SJ course walk I went to check the dressage score and we got 24.8 and were in first place. I couldn't believe it. I knew it was a nice test but I didn't realise it was quite *that* nice 😄
The course walk was as expected, but I hung back because I was getting more nervous with the talk about how spooky some fillers were and how the light might catch the fence and scare the horse. My horse isn't generally spooky so I decided to zone out those warnings.
We went to work in for SJ and it was traumatic. the SJ working in is tiny! They capped it at 6 people in at a time but it was still incredibly cramped. To the point that when I jumped an upright, despite shouting I was coming in and my horse's hooves thundering on approach, I still had to land and halt because some numpty was wandering across the landing side of the fence. I decided to jump everything once then go in.
We did a nice SJ round, but had 3 poles down. Better than we have been doing, because there was a time when we just demolished everything in sight. Two poles were entirely my fault. The first was the second part of a related distance and I'd let the canter get a bit fast and flat. Whenever that happens the hind toe doesn't get out of the way. The second I took the most appalling line to. It was a miracle we didn't destroy the thing at the base, because my poor horse didn't stand a chance. I don't know what I was thinking.
The final pole was at the final fence. I had come back to trot to sort my lead out after the double. I was cantering past the working in when a pole picking volunteer ran out in front of me. I had to canter - halt - canter to avoid killing her and my canter just wasn't good enough. This happened 2 strides from the fence so there wasn't space to sort it and it all happened too quickly for me to think to put a circle in. He still just rolled the pole though, so that's progress.
please forgive my position in the photos. I was nervous and it shows 😄
I was still really happy with Toby's performance and after the show jumping we were still 5th.
I would say and then it went wrong. But in fairness to my super cob we did go clear cross country. And we had moments of going at a reasonable speed. But we were far too slow. Primarily because after the corner fence my armband was falling off, I slowed to put it on (it was flapping on my reins so distracting) and got asked to pull over to let someone past who was properly motoring. I was always going to be a few seconds over, but I was nearly 2 minutes over once we had stopped, let the person past (who was a good 25 seconds away) and let them get sufficiently far away. I was stopped for 1 minute 35 seconds in total. But it worked quite well because for the final few fences we were chasing another horse so we picked up some proper speed and flew the final hill and four fences.
I was really pleased with the cross country. My horse jumped confidently, but we haven't established the land and gallop thing, which is where we were a bit slow. Funnily enough, I was told the person who went after me got penalties for being too quick, so maybe it would have been better for them to wait for me rather than the other way round 😄
In the end we finished mid table, which I was pleased with. Given the height and look of fences don't seem to be a problem, we just need to work on going fast now! To be fair, on most of my video we look like we are going for a nice canter on a hack, rather than galloping against the clock so I was always going to be over time and out of the placings ðŸ˜
I also need to work on pushing my hands forwards over a jump. I do it at home now, but the nerves get the better of me out and about. I will improve that ðŸ˜
you can see from the photos that Toby was happily cantering away looking at the lovely boat fence up ahead. I was clinging on, dreading the scary boat fence up ahead. I need to be more like Toby 😄
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Thanks for reading!
My big cob and I did our first BE80T event last Saturday, in the searing heat of the hottest day of the year so far.
I went with very low expectations because (a) it was our first proper event, (b) I was ridiculously nervous and (c) big cob is black and absorbs the heat so always drops in performance in hot weather.
I walked the XC course the day before so that I wouldn't have to arrive too early on a hot day with my horse. I did the walk with the trainer, which was good in some ways and damaging in others. For example, we walked up to fence 2 with the trainer saying "this is big, this is wide, it is in your face and spooky, people will have stops and run outs". I know that is probably accurate, but what I needed was someone saying "ride positively, commit to it and it will jump ok".
Anyway, we arrived on the morning and got tacked up. Toby thinks eventing is the best because you park on grass and can eat all you like until your bridle goes on.
Warmed up for dressage ok, but we find collecting rings traumatic. Big cob used to panic whenever someone cantered up his backside or whenever they would come towards him and would mini bolt (only a split second of losing his head but then a few seconds to return to what we were doing!) and while he doesn't do that any more, I'm still always on edge, which I need to get over.
He did a sweet test. He spent the last test he did at Eland gawping at the show jumping so I was happy just to keep his mind on the job! But it felt obedient and fairly accurate so I was hoping for a score in the 30s.
We then had nearly 2 hours before show jumping so I put Toby back on the lorry and my friend and I went to watch some cross country.
Just before the SJ course walk I went to check the dressage score and we got 24.8 and were in first place. I couldn't believe it. I knew it was a nice test but I didn't realise it was quite *that* nice 😄
The course walk was as expected, but I hung back because I was getting more nervous with the talk about how spooky some fillers were and how the light might catch the fence and scare the horse. My horse isn't generally spooky so I decided to zone out those warnings.
We went to work in for SJ and it was traumatic. the SJ working in is tiny! They capped it at 6 people in at a time but it was still incredibly cramped. To the point that when I jumped an upright, despite shouting I was coming in and my horse's hooves thundering on approach, I still had to land and halt because some numpty was wandering across the landing side of the fence. I decided to jump everything once then go in.
We did a nice SJ round, but had 3 poles down. Better than we have been doing, because there was a time when we just demolished everything in sight. Two poles were entirely my fault. The first was the second part of a related distance and I'd let the canter get a bit fast and flat. Whenever that happens the hind toe doesn't get out of the way. The second I took the most appalling line to. It was a miracle we didn't destroy the thing at the base, because my poor horse didn't stand a chance. I don't know what I was thinking.
The final pole was at the final fence. I had come back to trot to sort my lead out after the double. I was cantering past the working in when a pole picking volunteer ran out in front of me. I had to canter - halt - canter to avoid killing her and my canter just wasn't good enough. This happened 2 strides from the fence so there wasn't space to sort it and it all happened too quickly for me to think to put a circle in. He still just rolled the pole though, so that's progress.
please forgive my position in the photos. I was nervous and it shows 😄
I was still really happy with Toby's performance and after the show jumping we were still 5th.
I would say and then it went wrong. But in fairness to my super cob we did go clear cross country. And we had moments of going at a reasonable speed. But we were far too slow. Primarily because after the corner fence my armband was falling off, I slowed to put it on (it was flapping on my reins so distracting) and got asked to pull over to let someone past who was properly motoring. I was always going to be a few seconds over, but I was nearly 2 minutes over once we had stopped, let the person past (who was a good 25 seconds away) and let them get sufficiently far away. I was stopped for 1 minute 35 seconds in total. But it worked quite well because for the final few fences we were chasing another horse so we picked up some proper speed and flew the final hill and four fences.
I was really pleased with the cross country. My horse jumped confidently, but we haven't established the land and gallop thing, which is where we were a bit slow. Funnily enough, I was told the person who went after me got penalties for being too quick, so maybe it would have been better for them to wait for me rather than the other way round 😄
In the end we finished mid table, which I was pleased with. Given the height and look of fences don't seem to be a problem, we just need to work on going fast now! To be fair, on most of my video we look like we are going for a nice canter on a hack, rather than galloping against the clock so I was always going to be over time and out of the placings ðŸ˜
I also need to work on pushing my hands forwards over a jump. I do it at home now, but the nerves get the better of me out and about. I will improve that ðŸ˜
you can see from the photos that Toby was happily cantering away looking at the lovely boat fence up ahead. I was clinging on, dreading the scary boat fence up ahead. I need to be more like Toby 😄
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Thanks for reading!
