Finally! Trev does something right! Dr comp report

catembi

catembi

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We've decided to retire from showjumping as Trev finds the warm-up far too stressy, so today we had a trip out to Manor Farm for P18.

The day did *NOT* get off to a good start - Trev is pretty well impossible to plait. He fidgets, swings around, stamps about, shakes his head...was driving me absolutely insane. I got knocked off the mounting block a few times, nearly got trampled on more than once, etc, etc, etc. I eventually got a half-decent set in, despite his best efforts.

On the way there, I decided that this would probs be our last ever comp as if he behaves like that being plaited at home, God only knows what he'd be like competing. I also warned o/h that I might have to retire if we started the airs above the ground.

Anyway, he didn't put a foot wrong in the warm-up. Luckily there were only 2 or 3 other people in there & no gallopy ponies, altho everyone looked a lot more polished than me. Trev's forelock plait was standing up on end as he really, really, REALLY didn't want it plaited & that was the best I could do under trying circumstances, but it was irritating him so he was trying to shake it out. Not helping!

We went in & did our test, which was okay except that he came right up & hollow in the canter trans on each rein due to being a little tense & not quite through. It's his 2nd time inside & with white boards & flowers etc, & he was a lot less tense than our last effort.

I went back to see how he'd done, hoping for maybe 58 point something...and he was in the lead with 70.4%! To be fair, I think it was marked 'encouragingly', but even so, at the 2/3 stage, we were winning by 2%! Not sure how we did overall as we didn't wait, but OMG!! My cheap, scatty, brainless ex-racer has scored *70.4%* & was *winning*...& he's all my own work! I have spent most of my life bringing up the rear on various horses, so this really has been the most tremendous confidence boost.

So...our biggest issue now is plaiting! Can you hog a TB...??

T x
 
Well done no wonder you are chuffed.

My suggestions are tying up short, travel boots and feeding while you plait. Its amazing how the combination are very nice soft options but work really effectively! Feed loads of fibre (chaff etc) so if you have to keep topping it up you do not mind so much. If the horse is being very tricky I will try and do the forelock in the trailer/lorry as they cannot move so much.
 
Well done - you must be really pleased - its not easy to give up on the discipline you really enjoy but looks like he has a bright future as a dressage diva :)

2nd Lec about plaiting the forelock in the lorry, in fact I took to arriving in time to plait the whole horse in the lorry - he stood so much better - not that he had much choice!
 
Wow! That is amazing, sounds like he's taking to his new career with a flourish :D

Reg is a prize tw!t to plait on the day- no amount of food or calmer can placate him, he just has to spin and twirl... We now either plait up the night before and put on a hood or don't plait at all. Amazingly, despite living out 24/7 and being a hippo cunningly disguised as a horse I've never had to redo one :D
 
Well done you!! :)

I had my first dr outing today in 18 months and got a 1st and 2nd so well chuffed, although my scores weren't quite as fab as yours

I'm lucky that my girl is hogged, so total prep time this morning was a grand total of 20 mins, most of which was putting tack boots and haynet in the lorry lol :) :)
 
I have to say that I totally *love* not having a grey. My last 2, Catembi & Adrian, were greys, and I do NOT miss the joys of getting up 1.5 hours earlier to bath & scrub. Our soil here is orange, & it was pretty well impossible to get the tango tint out of a field-kept grey...but it doesn't show up at all on a bay.

Trev isn't placated in the least by food or calmer, which is suprising as he is normally extremely greedy. He ignored most of his breakfast this morning, and then stamped in it. He was bribed with polos to get his forelock done.

Perhaps I will try plaiting the day before next time...he is at his crossest in the mornings & gets more laid back as the day goes on. I'm still liking the hogging idea...!!

Well done, Flo_Bell!
 
*******************update********************

Just checked the results and...WE WON...!!

Can't believe it...I haven't won anything for ages n ages n ages, & to think that I was planning on throwing the towel in altogether this morning...!!
 
Well done! When I want them to keep still to let me pull manes, I tie up as normal then clip the leadrope to the string - severely restricts movement!
 
catembi said:
I have to say that I totally *love* not having a grey. My last 2, Catembi & Adrian, were greys, and I do NOT miss the joys of getting up 1.5 hours earlier to bath & scrub. Our soil here is orange, & it was pretty well impossible to get the tango tint out of a field-kept grey...but it doesn't show up at all on a bay.

Trev isn't placated in the least by food or calmer, which is suprising as he is normally extremely greedy. He ignored most of his breakfast this morning, and then stamped in it. He was bribed with polos to get his forelock done.

Perhaps I will try plaiting the day before next time...he is at his crossest in the mornings & gets more laid back as the day goes on. I'm still liking the hogging idea...!!

Well done, Flo_Bell!
Click to expand...

TBH I am only back out competing my ginger girl, as I had lost my little white arab (in my siggy) a couple of months ago. I loved spending loads of time on Roo, and regularly had big polishing sessions to make him sparkly - but we had never got as far as going to a show, so I didn't have the joys of arriving in the morning to big poo stains before we left! Ginger ponies do have a very good poo stain hiding ability i have found - and now my girly is hogged, tail pulled & banged, feathers trimmed, everything can be done the day before, with just a quick flick off on the morning :) :) Happy days in deed.

And well done to you for winning - and I hope you should do with a score like that! I only scored measly 65.7% - rubbish compared to yours!!! :)
 
Yay!!! Horses eh, just when you think about giving up they pull something out of the bag :p

I NEVER plait on the morning of a show. The horse fidgets, i'm stressed, not good!

I always plait the night before and clean tack and load up lorry. I do this so I have as little as possible to do on the day and I find this helps it to run more smoothly.

I also usually plait after horse has munched his dinner and he's in the evening soft and sleepy mode munching on a haynet.

I always find these clever types just *know* when it's a show day and start getting excited the moment I walk on to the yard lol.

Well done though, that's a fab Mark. It's really hard to win a test and you are right, all your hard work paid off!

I'm sure you will go out SJ again, doing dressage for the foreseeable future will probably really help calm you both down and when you do eventually go out jumping again it will probably be fine :).
 
Good tip re doing everything the night before. I will try plaiting the night before next time.
We were a bit more frantic than usual as we 'sold' the lorry last w'end (to a tyre-kicker/timewaster who didn't want it in the end) so we'd spent a couple of hours emptying out all my bits n bobs & getting it really clean. Therefore all my comp stuff which usually lives in the box was scattered around the house and yard, which didn't really help, esp cos I only remembered about 5 mins before we were due to leave.

I'm also beginning to wonder if we might have part-qualified for something or other, as the people doing P10 could 'qualify' for doing P18... I am clueless about how it all works as I'm normally v pleased just to have made it from one end of the test to the other without major incident. Not sure how I'd find out.

Apparently he not only won but also got the highest score of the day! Can't believe it. A big thank you is due to Princess_Sparkles who 'picked' him for me from a selection of photos of ex-racers.
 
Well done! Don't plait! Far too much to do anyway, without plaiting! I have steadfastly refused to plait, ever since I realised it was not obligatory in the BE rulebook.....
 
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