saz5083
Well-Known Member
After having nothing to compete for 18months Im currently loving filling up my weekends again, all be it with baby comps (but hey its cheaper, less stressful and there is less travelling involved!). So the little grey dude has been out on a couple of adventures since my last update. He completed his first ever hunter trials in fine style with just a silly green stop (at the last fence on the course!) but took everything else on with gusto 
As he is being produced with eventing in mind I thought we should prob throw some dressage into the mix so toddled off to a local RC comp for his first ever prelim test! Having done the wall of death canter in our flatwork lesson the day before I wasnt too confident but he warmed up nicely and put in a lovely first test, a little spooky and wobbly at times but I was really pleased. Went to check scores and discovered he was 6th in a big class and had 3 nice big fat 8s on his sheet
Warmed up even better for the second test, went into the arena and started trotting round. Got just about level with the judges car when I can only assume he spotted either his reflection in the windscreen or that it was a different car and went up and spun
Hmph, thought we had a handle on that as he hasnt done it in a while (he came to me with this nice little 'habit' but we have been slowly getting over it). Asked again and up he went again. Tried to get his attention with a couple of circles and was just considering one last 'fly by' the judges car when the bell went. Knew by this point getting through the test was going to be damage limitation but was determined he wasnt getting away with that nonsense so we gave it a go! Everything at the bottom of the arena was pretty nice but anything near the judge was tense, spooky and at one point in the canter movement involved prop-rear-spin out the arena (which Im pretty sure is not required at prelim! 
) Needless to say we had a horrendous mark but hey ho On one hand am slightly annoyed with him as it was a total overreaction to something that any other day really wouldnt have bothered him, but on the other if that had happened 10weeks ago he would have gone into total meltdown and we wouldnt even have made it up the centre line so I guess its still an improvement! Once we get a handle on the spooking he is going to be super though, am planning plenty exposure over the next few months! May even be forced to wash my car so it is super shiney and can be parked at the bottom of our arena
Nothing planned this weekend as plan on vegging on the sofa watching Badders but have a few more little hunter trials lined up and some more stressage and SJ over the next few weeks to keep him entertained then he will have a little holiday
As he is being produced with eventing in mind I thought we should prob throw some dressage into the mix so toddled off to a local RC comp for his first ever prelim test! Having done the wall of death canter in our flatwork lesson the day before I wasnt too confident but he warmed up nicely and put in a lovely first test, a little spooky and wobbly at times but I was really pleased. Went to check scores and discovered he was 6th in a big class and had 3 nice big fat 8s on his sheet
Warmed up even better for the second test, went into the arena and started trotting round. Got just about level with the judges car when I can only assume he spotted either his reflection in the windscreen or that it was a different car and went up and spun
Hmph, thought we had a handle on that as he hasnt done it in a while (he came to me with this nice little 'habit' but we have been slowly getting over it). Asked again and up he went again. Tried to get his attention with a couple of circles and was just considering one last 'fly by' the judges car when the bell went. Knew by this point getting through the test was going to be damage limitation but was determined he wasnt getting away with that nonsense so we gave it a go! Everything at the bottom of the arena was pretty nice but anything near the judge was tense, spooky and at one point in the canter movement involved prop-rear-spin out the arena (which Im pretty sure is not required at prelim! ) Needless to say we had a horrendous mark but hey ho On one hand am slightly annoyed with him as it was a total overreaction to something that any other day really wouldnt have bothered him, but on the other if that had happened 10weeks ago he would have gone into total meltdown and we wouldnt even have made it up the centre line so I guess its still an improvement! Once we get a handle on the spooking he is going to be super though, am planning plenty exposure over the next few months! May even be forced to wash my car so it is super shiney and can be parked at the bottom of our arena Nothing planned this weekend as plan on vegging on the sofa watching Badders but have a few more little hunter trials lined up and some more stressage and SJ over the next few weeks to keep him entertained then he will have a little holiday
