First event, Overpelt, lessons learnt!

[tigers_eye]

By the end of this report (or possibly just after the dressage video!) you will understand why we pay 10 euros entry fees for these events whilst you lot pay £70+!

Lesson 1: When doing dressage in a ploughed field use your horse's Clydesdale heritage to your advantage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-trHQ0UOlKY



Lesson 2: Two reins xc is for clever people, not the likes of me. I think it's a good idea to show-jump in them, and to school, but as we came off a whopping drop yesterday I was mighty grateful there wasn't a skinny on a turn just after it!

Lesson 3: It would be a good idea to go and have an xc lesson before the start of the season where I can practise xc strides, and have someone shout at me about ditches. I have got very ditchy, poor William is starting to think there must be monsters in them as his mum gets so scared! Especially when fence 2 is a ditch-away, 3 a trakhener, 6 a ditch-towards, 12 a trakhener with a very deep, concrete lined ditch.....

Lesson 4: Don't doubt my horse's fitness, he's fit ;-)

Lesson 5: Having 2 lessons in a row does not magicly mean the show-jumps will now stay up

Need to go to work now but if someone tells me how I put pics up now I'll do that later!

 

[_April_]

OMG at the ground! Your horse looks absolutely gorgeous and seems to cope well though.

 

[Chloe_GHE]

When you said ploughed field you weren't joking! He did seem to be trying his best though despite the conditions, deffo get the pics up asap we love images

 

[icestationzebra]

We want pictures!
We love William

 

[BBs]

What a good boy.
That looked hard work! and full marks to him.
Pics please, in fact I demand it! we never get enough William

 

[siennamum]

Well at least the dressage arena is flat!! Did you do any good, sounds like a fine start to the season.

 

[Baydale]

We know William is fit , now we want photographic evidence of that please! And since when have you been ditchy? Anyone that has done the TNT Flyer at Blenheim should have no fear of any lesser ditches.

 

[MegaBeast]

Jeepers, you weren't joking about the ploughed field!!! Were the sj and xc as bad? Lovely horse by the way

 

[tigers_eye]

I thought the above might distract from me actually having to tell you how we did. He got a good dressage mark for him - 53.3, which is around the 65% - as he had to engage his hindquarters due to the mud! Two people (in a class of 21) actually retired during the dressage.

I came back from the cross country rather despondant as I felt I'd ridden shockingly the whole way round, and at a BE event certainly would have been spoken to (if not worse) afterwards. It got so bad that by the time I came to the last combination, a road crossing of triple bar (over a ditch...) to an upright I couldn't see a stride for the umpteenth time and circled away incurring 20 penalties. I had a long chat with a friend on the way home, a rider who I repsect very much, and said I was very concerned about this as I have NEVER done that in a competitive situation before and fear it could be the start of a slippery slope. She told me to get a grip and that after last week's events, coupled with the fact that if I say there was no stride there there probably wasn't, and it was a big unforgiving combination, better to have circled than for him or me to have become a statistic. I think I've come round to her way of thinking. And then on the way home I went round the course again in my head and actually I had good shots to more than half the fences, but I'm right to be concerned as I saw shockers at most of the big tests, and gave him astronomical amounts to do. One thing that might be a factor is that due to the ground (also bog like, and we the 300th horse round give or take) and it being our first run I "schooled" round, and in hindsight I just don't think that was particularly wise when it wasn;t an easy course by any stretch of the imagination, and I have only done that a few times on him always resulting in mediocre runs. Some people went round 90 seconds quicker than us which shows how slowly we were going!

In the show-jumping we had 2 down, one coming out the double where I just don't know what else I should have done for him to be able to reach the back bar, and an upright late in the course that he was a bit deep to and felt wasn't really worth tucking up for!

Does this work?

 

[tigers_eye]

Oh it works! Right, well that was part b of fence four, part a having been a skinny, then we had to turn on top of that bank (hence me hauling his teeth out) and jump c:

Worryingly there are some much worse pictures of us going through here, which I'm not inclined to share funnily enough!

Then our show-jumping, look at the clever man rounding his back!

And something I forgot to mention - despite all the woe, I was REALLY proud of the fact that I got round a 4km course without being out of breath at all (last year that was NOT the case), because I am a smug ex-smoker as of 1st Jan!

 

[BBs]

I am so proud of you being off the fags, I didnt think you'd ever give up!
As for the rest of it, bloody hell :shocked: sounds like it was really difficult and not very inviting.

He looks super over the show jumping!

Love William 4 eva lol

ps I hate not knowing how to use these fecking smilies... grrr!

 

[deskbound]

OMG that's some serious bogginess!!! And there I was thinking that life in your part of the world was all arena porn, indoor schools and sunshine

Clever you & William for dressage & showjumping in such a mud-pit, & don't be too hard on yourself XC

 

[BBs]

Its okay, Ive found them.

 

[Santa_Claus]

Well I personally think you had a good run.

Firstly you deserve a medal for doing the dressage and SJ in that ground, can't imagine many went clear SJ in those conditions!?

As for the xc if you were going for a schooling round and the ground was holding (which it looks like it was) then he would have shortened his stride even further so meaning any mortal who hadn't schooled in the same conditions would struggle finding a good stride as it would be notably different from his standard stride, (might as well put you on a strange horse). Had you been moving a more forward (ie not schooling pace) you would have had a gear (or several!) to drop back to to shorten him up to adjust, whereas the pace you were at it is infinitely harder without ending up in ultra pingy short SJ canter, and somehow I don't think he would have done that out XC especially in that mud Does that make sense!? (it does in my head but that means very little LOL )

Also I would say good on you for circling, far rather ride a circle and meet it 2nd time on a good stride, so not knocking either of your confidences or at worst causing injury especially when the going is doing you no favours. You finished the event with a decent dressage, an acceptable SJ given the conditions and a schooling round XC where W did what he was asked and proved himself fit. That to me is a good start to the season which you can work on now

Oh and blooming well done to you on the fags front. Very impressed, and must be saving you fair bit as well!! Well done all round girl

And completely aside this is my 10,000th post (well it my second time to 10,000 but i lost a load with the migration to the new forum )

 

[Baydale]

Its okay, Ive found them.

That made me chuckle so much BBs. Simple things.

 

[Baydale]

Ditto deskbound, those conditions were horrendous so don't be so hard on yourself. You and William are class xc and finished so well last season, so of course this was going to feel average by comparison. Next time normal service will be resumed, I'm quite sure of that. If not, a lorry load of HHOers will be over there to kick your butt...oh, and go shopping, drinking, partying etc etc.

 

[jules89]

well I'm impressed anyway, that mud is horrible! Congratulations, W looks awesome anyway

 

[tigers_eye]

I just found them too BBs!

Oi deskbound, we do mud here too you know (though it's actually deep wet sand, so organisors have a very "never say die" attitude)!

Santa - very wise words of yours there, thank you so much. I think, and hope, you hit the nail on the head there. So, we'll carry on in flat-out-as-usual mode from now on .

 

[tigers_eye]

Thank you Baydale and Jules. We may have to bring that date forward! Brugge clashes with Hartpury btw......

 

[Weezy]

Blooming Nora...I cannot get over the ground! If it is sand then do you even bother to stud up? 2 down in those conditions isn't bad at all. I am giggling to myself about what would have happened if I had tried to do dressage on that ground on Ted, he would have been on his nose LOL!

 

[Fiona]

Can'y offer any better advice than already given, except to say that if William and you hadn't been XC schooling, then that sort of ground was a major test in itself, so well done for a very acceptable result.

I'm sure you will both be the better for it next time out.

Love the pics.

Fiona

 

[lizzieb]

I thought you were joking when you said ploughed field but obviously not! He looks fab as always I always find it really hard to school round and constantly see shocking strides so I just let them run on now instead.

 

[tigers_eye]

Fiona, I can only say what noticable sang-froid you show about the ground compared to the other nancies on here . I'm sure you have photographic evidenc of far far worse. Karin Donckers packed up and went home, but a few contenders for this year's WEG ran their horses, so it wasn't too awful.

Louise I didn't stud for the dressage but did put some in for the xc and sj. Not sure they did anything xc but they would have done in that sj arena.

Lizzie, yes, it's back to "if in doubt go flat out".....