blood_magik
Well-Known Member
Isn't it funny what a difference a day (and a quietly supportive trainer) can make?
I'd asked New Trainer (NT) if he wouldn't mind giving me a hand with Blue today as I wanted to make we had a nice experience after our last not-so-good outing (rode like a lemon, let Blue get long and ended up with 12 faults).
Well, he appeared just as I was about to give Beau one final jump and very kindly gave me a few last-minute tips when I was standing at the gate waiting to go in.
Beau had been drawn early again (5th) so I'd stuck with giving him a quick warm-up while it was still quiet as it's been working pretty well for us. He didn't feel quite as strong as he had yesterday so I was quietly confident that I would actually get a say in the striding/take-off points once we got into the ring.
The course was a little tougher than the yesterday's with a triple combination coming off of a dogleg and a one stride, five stride combination just off a corner. Beau started off well but got a little unbalanced through the turn to number four (the combo just off the corner) and went disunited, and just tapped the first rail. Unfortunately it fell so that was that but I'm not too bothered by the four faults, to be honest, because overall, I felt he was a lot more rideable and it was my fault for not bringing him back to trot (his flying changes are a bit iffy still).
Posing in his new Equiport bonnet:
Then it was Blue's turn. I've changed his feed recently as he's been consistently behind my leg and it appears to be having a positive effect - he's more forwards in general and a little bit brighter so I'm guessing I wasn't quite feeding him enough. For the first time, I managed to warm up without getting left behind. That said, I ran close to the oxer pretty much every time I jumped it so my foot perfect warm-up yesterday was obviously just a fluke.
NT said that under no circumstances was I to ask Blue to change should he go disunited around the corner to fence 4 even though his changes are well established. We were to come back to trot and strike off again. If I saw a long one, I was to half halt to get Blue back along the related distances so with those instructions ringing in my ears, I tossed my phone to a friend who had kindly offered to video my round and headed into the ring.
We had a look at the filler under number ten for my own peace of mind before the bell went and then we were off.
I got a good shot to the first three and then kicked on when I heard NT clicking at us from the sidelines.
Kept my leg on around the turn to the five-one combo at four and five but landed on the wrong lead so came back to trot and sorted the canter before six.
Seven was the triple of one strides so kicked on a bit as I wanted to get it over with and then I used the full arena as NT had said to to get Blue back before 8. We had opened up a bit by that point so after 9 I had to really half halt to get the six strides to the scary filler at 10. 11, 12 and 13 were all stand-alone fences and got a pretty good stride to all of them, then it was six strides on a dogleg to the final fence near the gate to finish clear in our first BN.
We ended up coming fourth in the open section but they only placed to second again so no rosette for Blue this time. He was happy enough with a few strong mints and some of my Irn Bru but even so, it would have been nice to have another addition for the rosette board in my office. Next time, hopefully...
Video here (my friend at the end):
[video=youtube;pB2jxKHAhQ0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pB2jxKHAhQ0[/video]
I think we're getting better.
Next weekend we're attempting dressage on the Saturday and Sunday we're hopefully going to be jumping again as it's pretty obvious that I need to be out and about regularly to keep my nerves in check. On the plus side, I already feel like Blue and I could probably get round a Discovery just now so definitely moving in the right direction.
Thanks for reading.
I'd asked New Trainer (NT) if he wouldn't mind giving me a hand with Blue today as I wanted to make we had a nice experience after our last not-so-good outing (rode like a lemon, let Blue get long and ended up with 12 faults).
Well, he appeared just as I was about to give Beau one final jump and very kindly gave me a few last-minute tips when I was standing at the gate waiting to go in.
Beau had been drawn early again (5th) so I'd stuck with giving him a quick warm-up while it was still quiet as it's been working pretty well for us. He didn't feel quite as strong as he had yesterday so I was quietly confident that I would actually get a say in the striding/take-off points once we got into the ring.
The course was a little tougher than the yesterday's with a triple combination coming off of a dogleg and a one stride, five stride combination just off a corner. Beau started off well but got a little unbalanced through the turn to number four (the combo just off the corner) and went disunited, and just tapped the first rail. Unfortunately it fell so that was that but I'm not too bothered by the four faults, to be honest, because overall, I felt he was a lot more rideable and it was my fault for not bringing him back to trot (his flying changes are a bit iffy still).
Posing in his new Equiport bonnet:
Then it was Blue's turn. I've changed his feed recently as he's been consistently behind my leg and it appears to be having a positive effect - he's more forwards in general and a little bit brighter so I'm guessing I wasn't quite feeding him enough. For the first time, I managed to warm up without getting left behind. That said, I ran close to the oxer pretty much every time I jumped it so my foot perfect warm-up yesterday was obviously just a fluke.
NT said that under no circumstances was I to ask Blue to change should he go disunited around the corner to fence 4 even though his changes are well established. We were to come back to trot and strike off again. If I saw a long one, I was to half halt to get Blue back along the related distances so with those instructions ringing in my ears, I tossed my phone to a friend who had kindly offered to video my round and headed into the ring.
We had a look at the filler under number ten for my own peace of mind before the bell went and then we were off.
I got a good shot to the first three and then kicked on when I heard NT clicking at us from the sidelines.
Kept my leg on around the turn to the five-one combo at four and five but landed on the wrong lead so came back to trot and sorted the canter before six.
Seven was the triple of one strides so kicked on a bit as I wanted to get it over with and then I used the full arena as NT had said to to get Blue back before 8. We had opened up a bit by that point so after 9 I had to really half halt to get the six strides to the scary filler at 10. 11, 12 and 13 were all stand-alone fences and got a pretty good stride to all of them, then it was six strides on a dogleg to the final fence near the gate to finish clear in our first BN.
We ended up coming fourth in the open section but they only placed to second again so no rosette for Blue this time. He was happy enough with a few strong mints and some of my Irn Bru
but even so, it would have been nice to have another addition for the rosette board in my office. Next time, hopefully... Video here (my friend at the end
):[video=youtube;pB2jxKHAhQ0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pB2jxKHAhQ0[/video]
I think we're getting better.
Next weekend we're attempting dressage on the Saturday and Sunday we're hopefully going to be jumping again as it's pretty obvious that I need to be out and about regularly to keep my nerves in check. On the plus side, I already feel like Blue and I could probably get round a Discovery just now so definitely moving in the right direction.
Thanks for reading.
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