Expecting an exciting delivery...

[CanteringCarrot]

My youngster (nice but dim ?) will just stand in the gateway politely waiting while you sink into the mud rather than walk on a few steps. We did some practice in the field and he was fine. At the actual gateway though = does not compute

LOL, my rising 2 year old was a bit like this at first. I taught him to lunge (just a few big circles at walk and trot) and the whole sending him in front of me just naturally fell into place at the gates after that. I mostly taught him to lunge so he got the concept of me sending him away/staying in motion away from me/in front of me/or beside me at a distance.

It's not strenuous, we usually walk 3 or so rounds, and trot 1 or 2 rounds each direction.

Then it was just repetition of taking him through the gate every other day and showing him what I wanted. Now he gets it. Between the very light lunging and other groundwork, he's more in tune to my body language now.

 

[Ambers Echo]

Haven't updated here for ages. After the last update I had a tech XC lesson in Jan with minimal control , followed by a lesson with Joe Midgley who said she had not idea how to stay soft and listening at faster gaits. So with his help, I decided to rebuild her canter to get her out of the habit of believing canter/jump = tank off at speed and blow through the bridle. Jumping took a back seat for a couple of months. Then in March we did a gird session and we had a couple of SJ lessons in April. The flatwork has translated over which is fab. She is calm and listening. Much more connected.

I had no chance to get her onto grass before our first event of the season as a camp and 2 Howden Way XC sessions were cancelled. But I trusted her enough to head for Norton Disney anyway and do the 90 there. Clear and calm in SJ. (So much so that we had time-faults!) Gave me a fantastic feeling all round the XC till she was approaching the corner which looked totally straightforward, having happily answered much tougher questions earlier in the couse. So I was flummoxed when she started going sideways from 30m away. On reviewing the video you can see she catches sight of a horse head sculpture from a mile out and is totally transfixed. She stops, I turn her and re-present but she won't go near it. All through the video you can see her staring at it! So I then let her sniff the fence as she clearly had an issue with it even though I could not understand why. On the video you an see I am looking at the flowers and the fence - she is still staring fixedly at the head! But once I let her have a sniff she relaxed and accepted it. P Then popped over nicely and no issues with the rest of the course. so 60 pens was a shame - did not feel like that reflected how good she felt at all.

This weekend she has done an endurance ride, so endurance can go on her expanding CV too now. As can riding with a garrocha which I have now bought. And I am entering a Cat 1 SJ show on Saturday to try and qualify for the National Amateur Championships. She is such a fab allrounder. Just turns her hand to anything really. Love her so much.

 

[splashgirl45]

Great report, no pics??? Shame about the faults but sounds like you are doing well with the training and blips are to be expected

 

[Ambers Echo]

What the…..!!??!!

Oh it’s fine.

 

[Ambers Echo]

Time for another roundup...

We have now done 2 National Championship qualifiers at 85 and gone DC in both. Just 3 more needed to get to Aintree. Fingers crossed.
We entered a dressage comp and got 2 red frillies and high 60s scores. It felt a million times nicer.

Another ODE - Stafford BE90 and this time a lovely double clear. But awful dressage. So that has not translated from the pure dressage work.

As the jumping has ramped up after a winter of flat work, her flatwork rideability has become less good. She is getting strong and keen again. It is easy to feel like it's 3 steps forward, 2 steps back but actually we have made progress everywhere. But when things get exciting or difficult for her, she reverts to old habits, which makes sense.

To maintain perspective, I am separating out her progress into categories to try and make sure I am working across all areas that need work. And also not losing sight of the bigger picture. Which is pretty positive overall.

* Strength and Conditioning: Hacks at least twice a week on varying terrain. Very fit and strong. Need to do more core work though - poles.
* Flatwork/dressage: Glimpses of real promise and some lovely work at times. BUT not consistent. When at an ODE she stops paying attention and she can get triggered into old habits in new environments or after an exciting few days.
* SJ - super happy with this. Calm, focused and consistent. I need to ride forward more when the fences get bigger instead, of getting tentative.
* XC - happy with this too. She is great. I need to get better at getting back into balance much quicker after fences for combinations. And she needs to come back to me quicker if I need her to steady up for a coffin or whatever. At the moment I bring her back too early because I am not confident of how quickly she will respond - which is costing me time.
* Foundational work: currently working on no reins steering/back up/ feeling each leg/ soft feel and garrocha work. Competing has distracted me a but from it, but I will refocus afrter Epworth BE90.
* Groundwork - next step is to teach her to ground tie. Other areas feel good.

And a general breakthrough moment this week when she let me into her stable when she was lying down. And tolerated a pat. That felt significant

 

[splashgirl45]

Sounds pretty positive to me lots of progress

 

[Ambers Echo]

Awesome Lottie was DC again at Epworth which means she has gone DC in both her BE runs this year. And THAT means we are through to the regional championships. Yikes. So suddenly my season has gone from 'meh not much to go for, think I'll mainly show-jump' to 'OMG I'm doing the Regional Champs'. Which means I now need to prepare for them. And my season has suddenly got a whole lot more focused!

So the plan is:

DRESSAGE! I really want a decent result and I have till Sept to get the work I know she is capable of produced at a competition. That is my Joe project.

XC! It will be a big course and iirc, you are allowed 5 more cm on Championships courses? So it will be a 95. My RI has suggested doing a 100 to prepare. Eek. But I think it is a good idea to have both seen bigger fences. I can school over them of course, but when your blood is up things feel very different. And 20+ jumping efforts in a row is a much more daunting prospect than a few tricky lines or bigger fences in a lesson. So I am going to Kelsall in July for that.

SJ: That really should not be an issue, as we are already out competing at a higher level in pure SJ which are built bigger, and the courses are longer. But I don't want to be complacent. And also I still want to get to Aintree so I will carry on competing regularly in pursuit of those DC rounds to qualify. Plus I want to set her up as well as I can to avoid any careless poles. So the more ring experience I get, the better that should be, hopefully.

Excited. She is a star.

 

[Annagain]

Fabulous, well done! I know it's changed a bit this year but I have quite a few friends who have done regional finals under the old system and they're usually a section within the normal 90 competition so I'm not sure you would necessarily see bigger fences XC as all the 90 sections run together. I've had a quick look at a few of the dates and they're all running a normal 90 as well so that might put your mind at rest about the size of the XC!

 

[Ambers Echo]

Fabulous, well done! I know it's changed a bit this year but I have quite a few friends who have done regional finals under the old system and they're usually a section within the normal 90 competition so I'm not sure you would necessarily see bigger fences XC as all the 90 sections run together. I've had a quick look at a few of the dates and they're all running a normal 90 as well so that might put your mind at rest about the size of the XC!

That is reassuring. Though I did the normal 90 at Frickley last year the same weekend as the Champs, having missed out on qualficaiton - and they built a Championships course to run alongside. A lot of the fences were the same but there were a few bigger fences on the Championship course. I assumed all venues would do something similar?

 

[Annagain]

That is reassuring. Though I did the normal 90 at Frickley last year the same weekend as the Champs, having missed out on qualficaiton - and they built a Championships course to run alongside. A lot of the fences were the same but there were a few bigger fences on the Championship course. I assumed all venues would do something similar?

I suppose it's possible but I would think that would be a logistical nightmare given that 4 or 5 dressage arenas usually feed into the one showjumping and XC course. It would mean very long waits for the first dressage riders if they had to wait for the course to be changed after normal 90 riders had been round.

 

[Singing Dawg]

Delete

 

[Ambers Echo]

Love this pic

 

[Ambers Echo]

I missed the GOTCHA day! Lottie arrived in England from Ireland on 4th August 2021. I did not meet her till 20th August so I'll do a proper write up then. But what a 2 years we have had! Love my lovely Lottie.

 

[Ambers Echo]

I missed the 2nd anniversary (again) so here is my Year 2 Round Up.

It's very long, but it covers a full year. I doubt anyone will be interested enough watch all this, but I like having it all in one place! I can really see the progression from last year.

So the season ended with our first 90 over the Brigante Cup course at Frickey. She stormed round and was fab!



We then had an end of season camp to consolidate gains, and even to step up a bit in height for SJ.

Then she had a decent break. After which I decided to focus on flatwork and rideability. She was good XC, when she was allowed to bowl on, but got strong SJ and VERY strong dressage. In January I had a lesson with Joe Midgley and this became 'The Year of Joe'.

He utterly transformed how I rode and the way she went, almost overnight. We rebuilt her canter from the ground up and taught her to carry herself instead of leaning and tanking off. This was not a schooling issue but simply a problem caused by confusion. She thought canter was meant to involve being bitted up to the eyeballs and ridden with hard hands!



That new rideability was taken into showjumping, and all of a sudden we had steering! That opened BS up to us, as the courses are generally twistier.

With eventing having been rained off for most of the early part of the season, I switched to SJ, aiming to make it to the National Amateur Championships at Aintree. That meant we needed 5 DCs.....

And Lottie did not disappoint with 5 out of 5!

https://www.tiktok.com/video/7251693005818711322

In the meantime, the weather improved and I finally went BE, starting at BE90. Lottie was awesome and went DC both times at Epworth and Stafford qualifying for the Regional Champs.



And she carried on being fab in training too: Getting bigger and braver! She gives me so much confidence.

But as with all good runs, it was too good to last!

We stepped up to 100s but she was eliminated for refusals in the first HT, which I blamed on my riding, and then for refusals during the SJ of my first BE100 - which I then decided was VERY unlike Lottie.

Ouch!



I went down the vet route immediately, and it turned out to be hocks. They were jabbed just before our 2nd GOTCHA day, so we ended the year with good news for an easy, quick fix.

What an amazing horse she has been in the 2 years I have had her. She has been a dream to compete. Little Miss Reliable. Such a willing, honest horse.

I need to rebuild my confidence after this blip, as hitting the deck always sets me back a bit. But I am confident we will get back to where we were pretty quickly, and then hopefuly move on again. I WILL do a BE100 one day and I can't wait to see what we get up to over the next 12 months.