CaleruxShearer
Well-Known Member
I thought I would just do a quick post rounding up the 2010 season with Billy as I dont post on here much anymore and feeling some what miserable about broken beast (he got kicked in the field a couple of weeks back and has fractured his leg 
) If anybody is able to stretch their minds back to February/March time they may recall I posted on here about my new beasty, Billy. He was pretty unfit and under conditioned when I bought him, due to his previous owners work commitments/lack of time etc so I was pretty surprised at how quickly he put on condition etc. It was something of a shock for me when I first got him as I had gone from a 15.1hh 'pony' Welsh D to a 16.2hh Warmblood who can be pretty sharp when he wants!
(please excuse the jumping saddle I was still have my dressage saddle altered)
It took me a little while to work out how to really get him going on the flat, I had been used to Pit Pony who would only work forward and round on his own terms, and suddenly I had a big shiny wb who did forward and round and fast trot and slow trot and such like
I took him xc schooling for the first time and it was obvious from the outset who knew exactly what he was doing and he thought I was totally incapable and he could quite clearly see he was going to have to take over, which is partially true, I did buy him as a schoolmaster!
We also did a lot of showjumping, he's got about £800 BS winnings so he knows what he's doing, which he often points out to me when I try and alter a stride Several times I have ended up on the floor looking up at him when I went to go on a long one or put a short one in and he has said 'er not from there we dont!' But after a couple of lessons with my fab instructor (the first time she sat on him she said she'd give us double what we paid for him there and then ) we worked out he jumps much better the deeper you get him to a fence, if you just fling him at them he starts to panic and it all gets a bit too much for his small belgian brain to cope with!
And so with great excitement I entered Milton Keynes(2) BE90. However when I came down to the yard the morning before I found a pony with a very fat knee. He'd obviously managed to knock himself somehow in the night, not sure how, but his knee was rather big and he was looking rather sorry for himself and so I rang and withdrew from MK (although it still shows up on my record as a NS on BE?)
However, not to be put off I entered Upton House BE90. After a lovely 4am start (Dad was very jolly about this on his day off) we headed to Upton. We did a fair test for 33.5, I was pretty happy with the mark, it wasn't a bad test but plenty to work on. The show jumping was horrific. He napped going in to the show jumping and then once in the ring he became a raging beast. I had literally no clue what so ever. All I could do was hold on tight and steer in the vague direction of the fences. So after that somewhat character building round we came back to the box and swiftly changed bits in prep for my xc. I was absolutely bricking it by this point, and fellow HHO'er Brushingboots had to give me a bit of a talking to and calm me down!
I can't remember where I was placed after the dressage, I think about 6th, but either way I then totally overcompensated for my speed in the sj'ing on the xc. It was painfully slow. Seriously painfully slow, this was not helped by me totally forgetting where I was and so we got 25.6 time. Yes that is correct, 25.6 time, at BE90. Either way we finished 14th with plently to work on.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cbVOk1e7OM - Video from Upton just so everyone can have a good laugh at the SJ - how we didnt have a shocking accident I don't know.
We then spent a month at my instructors yard (she is a pro event rider, ridden for GB etc) and we managed to actually get a grip and by the end of it we were looking fairly smart, we had sorted out the show jumping, got to grips with the cross country and the dressage was getting there.
I entered the BE100(opn) at Milton Keynes(3) where I spent too long warming up for my dressage due to various judges tea breaks etc and so got 33.5 again, fairly happy, thought it was marked very fairly. Showjumping was a wonderful miracle! My instructor was there competing so she gave me a hand warming up and we managed a much more civilised clear round than we had at Upton. On to the cross country. I was adamant that I was not going to have time faults for this one! I was however slightly bricking it as the cross country was pretty meaty for a PN, had quite a few of the Novice fences in it and a hideous right angled turn over a skinny barrell into the quarry for those who know it (urgh). Anyway into the start box, 5, 4 , 3 , 2 and Billy decides actually he's going the other way, he whipped round and cantered off the other direction! got my act together, hauled him round and booted him in the correct direction and through the start box, much to the amusmant of brushingboots who has become a very loyal groom! Best cross country round ever! He flew round, through everything, only had one slightly dodgy moment at a pair of angled hedges (entirely my own fault, cr*p line) to finish inside the time! We would have finished 2nd but my friend was just a couple of seconds closer to the OT! So we finished 3rd I was absolutely elated as Alex Hua Tian was in the class (think he finished 17th) and I got my name in H&H for the first time
In september we went to Keysoe where I was aiming to go two better than MK in the BE100 again! However it was not be, not sure what it was but neither me nor Billy were really in the right frame of mind, it was the day after my birthday, my boyfriend was there, the rest of the family were there, we were late, I got flustered, you get the idea. So we did a 39.5 dressage, lucky to get that tbh, Billy beast wouldnt go down one side of the arena (scary scary hedge), I forgot a movement, it all a bit horrendous. Show jumping was equally horrendous, had fence 1 and fence 5 down, he didn't really feel like he was focused, I came out of the show jumping and didnt really want to run xc but dad wanted me to. XC was actually quite frightening, I was once again totally out of control. We wasn't listening to me at all and I had to circle about 4 times and even considered pulling up because I was quite scared we were going to hit a fence and have an accident. We finished 17th, so a day to forget, especially as when I got back to the yard I was told a good friend of mine had died that morning, went into Billys stable and I think both me and Billy had a bit of a cry!
Somewhat apprehensivley I entered Little Downham BE100+, as we had got ourselves together and he was going better than ever. He did a fab dressage in our first Novice test for 35 which I was thrilled with, and then show jumped the best he has ever jumped for me, this time trying out a grackle noseband instead of a stronger bit, it worked wonders and we actually got a time penalty showjumping!! It was one of those rounds where I could feel myself smiling
We had a lovely cross country round inside the time, apart from one dodgy moment at the angled trakenher where he spooked at dad with the camera on the approach to finish in 5th place, so a very good end to the season.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D52iJlKcAyQ&feature=related (please excuse fathers music)
http://www.facebook.com/settings/?tab=privacy&ref=mb#!/album.php?aid=313029&id=633731281 - All our comp pics from this year
So I think we had apretty succesful first season, fingers crossed he mends quickly for next season as I would love to step him up to Novice. If you've managed to get this far without dying of boredom you shall be rewarded with either Jacques fruit cider or tea and I can do dark, white or milk chocolate fingers CC is more than welcome on the videos, the pictures have done something odd, I believe you need to click on them to enlarge them. Happy New Year
If you
) If anybody is able to stretch their minds back to February/March time they may recall I posted on here about my new beasty, Billy. He was pretty unfit and under conditioned when I bought him, due to his previous owners work commitments/lack of time etc so I was pretty surprised at how quickly he put on condition etc. It was something of a shock for me when I first got him as I had gone from a 15.1hh 'pony' Welsh D to a 16.2hh Warmblood who can be pretty sharp when he wants! 
(please excuse the jumping saddle I was still have my dressage saddle altered)It took me a little while to work out how to really get him going on the flat, I had been used to Pit Pony who would only work forward and round on his own terms, and suddenly I had a big shiny wb who did forward and round and fast trot and slow trot and such like
I took him xc schooling for the first time and it was obvious from the outset who knew exactly what he was doing and he thought I was totally incapable and he could quite clearly see he was going to have to take over
, which is partially true, I did buy him as a schoolmaster! 
We also did a lot of showjumping, he's got about £800 BS winnings so he knows what he's doing, which he often points out to me when I try and alter a stride
Several times I have ended up on the floor looking up at him when I went to go on a long one or put a short one in and he has said 'er not from there we dont!' But after a couple of lessons with my fab instructor (the first time she sat on him she said she'd give us double what we paid for him there and then ) we worked out he jumps much better the deeper you get him to a fence, if you just fling him at them he starts to panic and it all gets a bit too much for his small belgian brain to cope with! 
And so with great excitement I entered Milton Keynes(2) BE90. However when I came down to the yard the morning before I found a pony with a very fat knee. He'd obviously managed to knock himself somehow in the night, not sure how, but his knee was rather big and he was looking rather sorry for himself and so I rang and withdrew from MK (although it still shows up on my record as a NS on BE?)
However, not to be put off I entered Upton House BE90. After a lovely 4am start (Dad was very jolly about this on his day off) we headed to Upton. We did a fair test for 33.5, I was pretty happy with the mark, it wasn't a bad test but plenty to work on. The show jumping was horrific. He napped going in to the show jumping and then once in the ring he became a raging beast. I had literally no clue what so ever. All I could do was hold on tight and steer in the vague direction of the fences. So after that somewhat character building round we came back to the box and swiftly changed bits in prep for my xc. I was absolutely bricking it by this point, and fellow HHO'er Brushingboots had to give me a bit of a talking to and calm me down!
I can't remember where I was placed after the dressage, I think about 6th, but either way I then totally overcompensated for my speed in the sj'ing on the xc. It was painfully slow. Seriously painfully slow, this was not helped by me totally forgetting where I was and so we got 25.6 time. Yes that is correct, 25.6 time, at BE90. Either way we finished 14th with plently to work on.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cbVOk1e7OM - Video from Upton just so everyone can have a good laugh at the SJ - how we didnt have a shocking accident I don't know.
We then spent a month at my instructors yard (she is a pro event rider, ridden for GB etc) and we managed to actually get a grip and by the end of it we were looking fairly smart, we had sorted out the show jumping, got to grips with the cross country and the dressage was getting there.
I entered the BE100(opn) at Milton Keynes(3) where I spent too long warming up for my dressage due to various judges tea breaks etc and so got 33.5 again, fairly happy, thought it was marked very fairly. Showjumping was a wonderful miracle! My instructor was there competing so she gave me a hand warming up and we managed a much more civilised clear round than we had at Upton. On to the cross country. I was adamant that I was not going to have time faults for this one! I was however slightly bricking it as the cross country was pretty meaty for a PN, had quite a few of the Novice fences in it and a hideous right angled turn over a skinny barrell into the quarry for those who know it (urgh). Anyway into the start box, 5, 4 , 3 , 2 and Billy decides actually he's going the other way, he whipped round and cantered off the other direction! got my act together, hauled him round and booted him in the correct direction and through the start box, much to the amusmant of brushingboots who has become a very loyal groom! Best cross country round ever! He flew round, through everything, only had one slightly dodgy moment at a pair of angled hedges (entirely my own fault, cr*p line) to finish inside the time! We would have finished 2nd but my friend was just a couple of seconds closer to the OT! So we finished 3rd
I was absolutely elated as Alex Hua Tian was in the class (think he finished 17th) and I got my name in H&H for the first time In september we went to Keysoe where I was aiming to go two better than MK in the BE100 again! However it was not be, not sure what it was but neither me nor Billy were really in the right frame of mind, it was the day after my birthday, my boyfriend was there, the rest of the family were there, we were late, I got flustered, you get the idea. So we did a 39.5 dressage, lucky to get that tbh, Billy beast wouldnt go down one side of the arena (scary scary hedge), I forgot a movement, it all a bit horrendous. Show jumping was equally horrendous, had fence 1 and fence 5 down, he didn't really feel like he was focused, I came out of the show jumping and didnt really want to run xc but dad wanted me to. XC was actually quite frightening, I was once again totally out of control. We wasn't listening to me at all and I had to circle about 4 times and even considered pulling up because I was quite scared we were going to hit a fence and have an accident. We finished 17th, so a day to forget, especially as when I got back to the yard I was told a good friend of mine had died that morning, went into Billys stable and I think both me and Billy had a bit of a cry!
Somewhat apprehensivley I entered Little Downham BE100+, as we had got ourselves together and he was going better than ever. He did a fab dressage in our first Novice test for 35 which I was thrilled with, and then show jumped the best he has ever jumped for me, this time trying out a grackle noseband instead of a stronger bit, it worked wonders and we actually got a time penalty showjumping!! It was one of those rounds where I could feel myself smiling
We had a lovely cross country round inside the time, apart from one dodgy moment at the angled trakenher where he spooked at dad with the camera on the approach to finish in 5th place, so a very good end to the season.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D52iJlKcAyQ&feature=related (please excuse fathers music)
http://www.facebook.com/settings/?tab=privacy&ref=mb#!/album.php?aid=313029&id=633731281 - All our comp pics from this year
So I think we had apretty succesful first season, fingers crossed he mends quickly for next season as I would love to step him up to Novice. If you've managed to get this far without dying of boredom you shall be rewarded with either Jacques fruit cider or tea and I can do dark, white or milk chocolate fingers
CC is more than welcome on the videos, the pictures have done something odd, I believe you need to click on them to enlarge them. Happy New Year If you
