Felbridge Combined Training Report - 04/08

[AandK]

There is a lack of reports in here of late, and I know I enjoy reading them so thought I'd share my report from the weekend!

Quick bit of recent background, Andy is a 21yo TB who I have owned for 16yrs. In February this year, he had to have his left eye removed due to a cancerous tumour and this was his first one eyed competition!

We were in the 80cm class, and luckily had an early dressage time so it hadn't had chance to heat up too much by 9.24am! One of my major downfalls is my inability to arrive anywhere on time, especially when horse competition related. I thought I had allowed plenty of time but still managed to leave the yard 30mins later than planned, which left me with approx 5 min to warm up for the dressage... Andy did an obedient test, but due to lack of warm up he was just lacking suppleness, and we scored a very fair 36.25, which put us 11/25 in the class.
Then on to the SJ. I'm not worried about the height now, 80/85cm seems to have shrunk slightly for me this year (phew!) so it was more a case of seeing what he thought about a full SJ course with fillers/flowers etc, from a one eyed perspective. I needn't of worried, he was a dude! He knocked the first fence, and then we had some extreme drifting issues over the next 4 fences (assume due to vision, as he always drifts slightly, but not this much), which meant I took out 2 more fences by catching the wing with my foot! Oops... I had a word with myself and changed the approach (and actually rode properly) and he jumped fences 6-10 beautifully! No prizes due to our SJ demolition, but absolutely thrilled to be out and about having fun on my old one eye'd boy :biggrin3: Here is the old dude in all his glory!

 

[Bernster]

Oh fantastic well done to you and the one eyed boy! Lovely that you got him out and about. Pity about the sj start but sounds like you got some good experience and sorted it for the later parts.

I’m the same, am terrible for being late and horsey time makes that even worse. I always leave later than planned but I build in so much time that we are usually ok provided the traffic is as planned. I have to get up 4 hours before my start time! Those morning sessions can be a challenge.

I agree there aren’t enough reports. I was just thinking that, so thanks for keeping this section alive! I assume hot weather, hard ground and hols might be getting into the way. In my case I feel like a low level unaff outing doesn’t warrant a full report so I am sticking to the weekend plans thread until we do something more exciting hah.

ETA as someone who’s struggling to step up in height, what’s worked for you to start getting comfortable at 80/85?

 

[AandK]

Oh fantastic well done to you and the one eyed boy! Lovely that you got him out and about. Pity about the sj start but sounds like you got some good experience and sorted it for the later parts.

I’m the same, am terrible for being late and horsey time makes that even worse. I always leave later than planned but I build in so much time that we are usually ok provided the traffic is as planned. I have to get up 4 hours before my start time! Those morning sessions can be a challenge.

I agree there aren’t enough reports. I was just thinking that, so thanks for keeping this section alive! I assume hot weather, hard ground and hols might be getting into the way. In my case I feel like a low level unaff outing doesn’t warrant a full report so I am sticking to the weekend plans thread until we do something more exciting hah.

ETA as someone who’s struggling to step up in height, what’s worked for you to start getting comfortable at 80/85?

Thank you! With regards to the height, it is more of a step down for us. In the distance past when we were both younger and braver, we did event at BE100 level (or Pre-Novice as it was back then!). Since Andy had an op on his leg 3yrs ago, we have only done competitions at 80cm level to keep it easy for him (and me!). When we first came back to jumping last year, 80/85 did look big to me but as he has been so great to jump since his comeback (he has been a toad with spooking at fillers in the past), my confidence has grown and therefore so has my ability to ride him properly. It has been a case of getting out and about and practicing! He is different to ride in a SJ ring than at home, so more comp practice is better for us, but I still do off-site lessons as well.

ETA, you should share your reports, 'low level' or not! :smile3:

 

[milliepops]

Oh brilliant. How fab that you're still both able to get out and enjoy yourselves after all that, what a lovely pic
Here's to many more nice times (and now you know about the drifting, perhaps some nice results too )

 

[AandK]

Oh brilliant. How fab that you're still both able to get out and enjoy yourselves after all that, what a lovely pic
Here's to many more nice times (and now you know about the drifting, perhaps some nice results too )

Thank you! :smile3: Yes, hopefully there will be no more extreme drifting, fingers crossed!

 

[Embo]

Wonderful report, I love reading about Andy! He's so cool

Sounds like you had a fab day, despite the slight mishaps lol I'm sure next time you won't drift so much

Looking forward to the next report!

 

[AandK]

Wonderful report, I love reading about Andy! He's so cool

Sounds like you had a fab day, despite the slight mishaps lol I'm sure next time you won't drift so much

Looking forward to the next report!

Thank you! He is such a dude :cool3: hopefully there will be some more reports to come over the next few months!

 

[alexomahony]

Oh he's lovely - ace report!

I also agree that there aren't enough reports - they're my fave thing to read on the forum.

I hope to do some more once I can actually afford to, and have the time to get out and about again.

 

[AandK]

Oh he's lovely - ace report!

I also agree that there aren't enough reports - they're my fave thing to read on the forum.

I hope to do some more once I can actually afford to, and have the time to get out and about again.

Thank you :smile3: