Titchy Reindeer
Well-Known Member
First time out competing on my own! I felt it needed sharing with someone.
This was actually totally unexpected. I live in France and over here, most riding schools take their horses and riders out competing. Little Madam and I were signed up for a 95cm showjumping round today and the plan was for her to hitch a ride on the RS lorry (10 horse spaces) and for me to car share. It turns in to a long day because everyone competes at different levels, but it seems to be more cost effective and eco friendly. However my riding instructor and driver of the lorry got an eye infection and was unable to drive, so I decided than rather to waste the entry fee, I would go one my own: one of the perks of having my own pony, a trailer and the license to tow it!
It didn't start out under the most auspicious conditions, I managed to run my car battery flat defrosting the windscreen. Luckily, my parents came to the rescue and jump started the car and my neighbour lent me a battery-pack in case I ran into difficulties coming home.
Pony luckily loaded and traveled like a dream. In fact, for all I could tell from the car, I may as well been towing a bunch of straw bales. This is my longest journey towing a horse so far, so I'm stupidly proud of myself. I normally only take her 5km down the road to the riding school and I picked up her companion a whole 30 min away.
I met a friend from another RS who let me tag along for the course walk, which was very kind of them and a friend from my RS was there riding ponies for her work experience (different yard) and kindly put the poles up in the warm up for me.
Little madam was really good. We're not used to indoor (this will most likely be our only one this season) and the going is tight with not much space in the run up to the first jump. She had a tiny "Oh, we're jumping NOW?" second and then got on with her job. We still need to work on oxers (we tend to get a little sticky in front of them) but she jumped the last one perfectly, and doubles (two strides instead of one - my excuse is that we were preparing for the sharp turn after for the timed section). But the turning is definitely doing OK: we won! And I won my first ever horse rug! A very pretty navy blue fleece rug in Little Madam's size. Totally useless for a field kept pony, but she'll look smart next time we're out, and it's made my day.
I even took the dog. I'm not sure it was the most interesting outing for him as he spent most the time in his crate in the car with a kong, but he got two outings on the longline (not anywhere near any horses) a sniff of somewhere new and to meet a few people. I even took him into the gallery while they were course building between rounds (we exited before any horses started as I don't trust him not to bark at the worst possible moment). I'm hoping to take him a bit more often if things go well.
Only my poor Old Lady got left behind, but she seemed quite contented with her head in a bucket as we left.
I'm now hoping for some more solo outings. I want to go to the beach this year (I have been saying this for (covid) years) and I also would like to start up ODE again, but no one at the RS is really interested, so it will have to be on my own. So many possibilities!
This was actually totally unexpected. I live in France and over here, most riding schools take their horses and riders out competing. Little Madam and I were signed up for a 95cm showjumping round today and the plan was for her to hitch a ride on the RS lorry (10 horse spaces) and for me to car share. It turns in to a long day because everyone competes at different levels, but it seems to be more cost effective and eco friendly. However my riding instructor and driver of the lorry got an eye infection and was unable to drive, so I decided than rather to waste the entry fee, I would go one my own: one of the perks of having my own pony, a trailer and the license to tow it!
It didn't start out under the most auspicious conditions, I managed to run my car battery flat defrosting the windscreen. Luckily, my parents came to the rescue and jump started the car and my neighbour lent me a battery-pack in case I ran into difficulties coming home.
Pony luckily loaded and traveled like a dream. In fact, for all I could tell from the car, I may as well been towing a bunch of straw bales. This is my longest journey towing a horse so far, so I'm stupidly proud of myself. I normally only take her 5km down the road to the riding school and I picked up her companion a whole 30 min away.
I met a friend from another RS who let me tag along for the course walk, which was very kind of them and a friend from my RS was there riding ponies for her work experience (different yard) and kindly put the poles up in the warm up for me.
Little madam was really good. We're not used to indoor (this will most likely be our only one this season) and the going is tight with not much space in the run up to the first jump. She had a tiny "Oh, we're jumping NOW?" second and then got on with her job. We still need to work on oxers (we tend to get a little sticky in front of them) but she jumped the last one perfectly, and doubles (two strides instead of one - my excuse is that we were preparing for the sharp turn after for the timed section). But the turning is definitely doing OK: we won! And I won my first ever horse rug! A very pretty navy blue fleece rug in Little Madam's size. Totally useless for a field kept pony, but she'll look smart next time we're out, and it's made my day.
I even took the dog. I'm not sure it was the most interesting outing for him as he spent most the time in his crate in the car with a kong, but he got two outings on the longline (not anywhere near any horses) a sniff of somewhere new and to meet a few people. I even took him into the gallery while they were course building between rounds (we exited before any horses started as I don't trust him not to bark at the worst possible moment). I'm hoping to take him a bit more often if things go well.
Only my poor Old Lady got left behind, but she seemed quite contented with her head in a bucket as we left.
I'm now hoping for some more solo outings. I want to go to the beach this year (I have been saying this for (covid) years) and I also would like to start up ODE again, but no one at the RS is really interested, so it will have to be on my own. So many possibilities!
