Sarah_Jane
Well-Known Member
Well in case anyone has missed it I have a new horse (we will ignore the resulting financial crisis). I bought Pippa (ex Measles dobbin) who I have been riding off and on for a friend. She decided she wasnt for her and although she is not my type and a bit big I decided to gamble and buy her. This was only a week ago and she is not actually living with me yet so probably not the wisest move to put a late entry in for the BE100 at Mount Ballen having jumped her twice since February! First BE event as well having done one PC event at 90cm level.
The course at Mount Ballen was nice with a few questions but nothing too difficult, the ground was very firm and I was little disappointed that more effort had not been made to help ease it. Saying that as one of the shorter courses I felt a steady round would not be too much. Dressage wasn't until 3pm so a nice leisurely day walking the course and catching up with friends before we had to get in gear. Typically by this point my hectic lifestyle was catching up and all I felt like was a good snooze! The dressage warm up probably was the hardest ground of the lot so I went and found an empty warm up surfaced area (of which there is many) to do the majority of my warm up. I just did 5 minutes in the main warm up area to get her used to the atmosphere (next to cross country) before starting our test. I was pleased with the test in time when we know each other better I will need to attack more but for the moment it was as nice as I could of hoped for.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foGtzOQbtqE
(Thanks to Nick Perry for the ridden pictures)
A score of 33.5 was very pleasing and certainly offers a promise of more to come. The show jumping was quite a straight forward course on the lovely all weather arena, it was well up to height. She actually listened to me and jumped in a better rhythm than she has in the past, we unfortunately tipped the rail coming out of the double but otherwise it was a pretty good round.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5n_7etxzfg
A quick change and we were down at cross country start, I only popped the practice jump twice as no point doing extra on the hard ground. We were soon in the start and away. I went out with intention of letting her go at nice pace within herself and she took the first simple ones comfortably and confidently out of her stride.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oyY9kTJpvc
The combination of brushes on the corner at 4 and 5 she did easily and we were soon at the first difficult combination a decent dog kennel, 4 strides to a step up and two to a narrow dog kennel.
My intention was to pop the first element then maybe even drop back to trot to keep my line. Well Pippa had other ideas ad jumped big over the first element and just kept coming making the distances short but never wavering on her line. A bit of a ski jump followed where we appeared to land half way down the hill before we came to the double of brushes with a piece of sharp rising ground between them.
Again very bold and actually took a stride out (might need better brakes in time). This was the intense part of the course with the water next. Pippa has never minded water and jumped the dog kennel boldly in but did hesitate at the puddle (maybe Sarnie had mentioned the Longleat crocs?) but there was never any intention of her stopping before bounding over the rail out.
There was another sunken road type combination which we took a bit of a flyer in but she was very clever with her feet and popped down the drop before focusing on the skinny out. The final combination was a flower upright rails to a ditch turn to a corner which again was easily accomplished.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XQ9WiTXvzA
We finished with 4.4 time which seeing the time was tight and I wasn't rushing her shows what a big stride she has. I have to say she could potentially be one of the best horses I have sat on across country so it is very exciting. We finished 11th which was far higher than I expected on our first attempt although me being me a place higher and a rosette would have been better! She will next go to West Wilts for the BE100 before deciding whether to move up to Novice or not straight after.
A quick update on Rosie she won her first BS money on Saturday with a 3rd place in a decent British Novice
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wk5Fu7_qAbA
She and Pippa are both having a week off while I focus on Sarnie. So lastly can everyone keep there fingers crossed for our CIC*** at Houghton. We leave on Wednesday and providing ground not too bad I am trying at the 3rd attempt to complete a 3* (it would be progress to start cross country!) So good luck and good health vibes would be gratefully received!!
The course at Mount Ballen was nice with a few questions but nothing too difficult, the ground was very firm and I was little disappointed that more effort had not been made to help ease it. Saying that as one of the shorter courses I felt a steady round would not be too much. Dressage wasn't until 3pm so a nice leisurely day walking the course and catching up with friends before we had to get in gear. Typically by this point my hectic lifestyle was catching up and all I felt like was a good snooze! The dressage warm up probably was the hardest ground of the lot so I went and found an empty warm up surfaced area (of which there is many) to do the majority of my warm up. I just did 5 minutes in the main warm up area to get her used to the atmosphere (next to cross country) before starting our test. I was pleased with the test in time when we know each other better I will need to attack more but for the moment it was as nice as I could of hoped for.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foGtzOQbtqE
A score of 33.5 was very pleasing and certainly offers a promise of more to come. The show jumping was quite a straight forward course on the lovely all weather arena, it was well up to height. She actually listened to me and jumped in a better rhythm than she has in the past, we unfortunately tipped the rail coming out of the double but otherwise it was a pretty good round.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5n_7etxzfg
A quick change and we were down at cross country start, I only popped the practice jump twice as no point doing extra on the hard ground. We were soon in the start and away. I went out with intention of letting her go at nice pace within herself and she took the first simple ones comfortably and confidently out of her stride.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oyY9kTJpvc
The combination of brushes on the corner at 4 and 5 she did easily and we were soon at the first difficult combination a decent dog kennel, 4 strides to a step up and two to a narrow dog kennel.
My intention was to pop the first element then maybe even drop back to trot to keep my line. Well Pippa had other ideas ad jumped big over the first element and just kept coming making the distances short but never wavering on her line. A bit of a ski jump followed where we appeared to land half way down the hill before we came to the double of brushes with a piece of sharp rising ground between them.
Again very bold and actually took a stride out (might need better brakes in time). This was the intense part of the course with the water next. Pippa has never minded water and jumped the dog kennel boldly in but did hesitate at the puddle (maybe Sarnie had mentioned the Longleat crocs?) but there was never any intention of her stopping before bounding over the rail out.
There was another sunken road type combination which we took a bit of a flyer in but she was very clever with her feet and popped down the drop before focusing on the skinny out. The final combination was a flower upright rails to a ditch turn to a corner which again was easily accomplished.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XQ9WiTXvzA
We finished with 4.4 time which seeing the time was tight and I wasn't rushing her shows what a big stride she has. I have to say she could potentially be one of the best horses I have sat on across country so it is very exciting. We finished 11th which was far higher than I expected on our first attempt although me being me a place higher and a rosette would have been better! She will next go to West Wilts for the BE100 before deciding whether to move up to Novice or not straight after.
A quick update on Rosie she won her first BS money on Saturday with a 3rd place in a decent British Novice
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wk5Fu7_qAbA
She and Pippa are both having a week off while I focus on Sarnie. So lastly can everyone keep there fingers crossed for our CIC*** at Houghton. We leave on Wednesday and providing ground not too bad I am trying at the 3rd attempt to complete a 3* (it would be progress to start cross country!) So good luck and good health vibes would be gratefully received!!
good luck for Houghton, 3rd time lucky 
