rara007
Well-Known Member
First time trucking (I passed my HGV last summer but so far have continued to use the trailer for long journeys!)= success- packing is so much easier...., and first time in a 'proper' championship class- the ponies(UK) confined novice winter championship. We also did 2x RI amateur rider classes and the home produced class in the evening performance on the saturday night. We had a great time-partly thanks to my two travelling super grooms!
The saturday morning he woke up (for him) decidedly fresh! Fortunately a canter or two and that was forgotten about and he was nicely the most forwards he's been in a class in the novice championships. Class was about 18 strong and we weren't pulled in this time but we still collected our finalist rosette. Quickly onto the RI class that we did in the snaffle again as I am so keen to encourage the forwards at this stage for him. Similar size class and same result. Our go round was much the same but the show even better in this class. Pulled off canter-walk-canter right infront of the judge as had nothing to lose as wasn't pulled in at the start
Leading the class across the change of rein!
The sun shone!
And then onto the evening performance- we loved the experience!:
Time for bed and a lie in!
So not a great result on paper, but at this stage it's far more about the journey than the result- we're never going to be flat show people He was almost foot perfect all weekend- just getting 1 wrong canter lead, was easy to deal with stabling away from home again and stabled next to a mare without the slightest issue. He coped with 4 busy classes perfectly and I managed the lorry. Now we have time to work on the jumping and driving to try to minimise the effect of our somewhat narrow front end and can plan for the rest of the year accordingly. Next outing for him is a local PC arena eventer trial on the 10th April where we are hoping to stay a little closer to the fences than our WH debut! After that it's an NPS show for the novice WH. Big brother Pip has the fun of a driven ODE this sunday but shouldn't be long before C gets to join in on that fun too.
The saturday morning he woke up (for him) decidedly fresh! Fortunately a canter or two and that was forgotten about and he was nicely the most forwards he's been in a class in the novice championships. Class was about 18 strong and we weren't pulled in this time but we still collected our finalist rosette. Quickly onto the RI class that we did in the snaffle again as I am so keen to encourage the forwards at this stage for him. Similar size class and same result. Our go round was much the same but the show even better in this class. Pulled off canter-walk-canter right infront of the judge as had nothing to lose as wasn't pulled in at the start
Leading the class across the change of rein!
The sun shone!
And then onto the evening performance- we loved the experience!:
Time for bed and a lie in!
So not a great result on paper, but at this stage it's far more about the journey than the result- we're never going to be flat show people
He was almost foot perfect all weekend- just getting 1 wrong canter lead, was easy to deal with stabling away from home again and stabled next to a mare without the slightest issue. He coped with 4 busy classes perfectly and I managed the lorry. Now we have time to work on the jumping and driving to try to minimise the effect of our somewhat narrow front end and can plan for the rest of the year accordingly. Next outing for him is a local PC arena eventer trial on the 10th April where we are hoping to stay a little closer to the fences than our WH debut! After that it's an NPS show for the novice WH. Big brother Pip has the fun of a driven ODE this sunday but shouldn't be long before C gets to join in on that fun too.
