henryhorn
Well-Known Member
For a minute there I forgot where we went, the ground was so terrible.
We arrived to a hard road in then a morass everywhere else, and I sussed if I drove up the hard road then sort of slewed sideways down the field I would end up near the gate for leaving and facing downhill. luckily I drive the 4 x 4 round our steep slopes all winter so the slidy bits din't scare me at all.
Now we had no great hopes for Flyn,, he has done 4 XC in his entire life, several sessions of SJ and some indoor dressage. He is 14 years old and was a stallion prior to being gelded very late, so in terms of experience think four year old..not 14.
I spent the first hour with a cup of coffee watching numerous smart boxes arrive, get stuck attempting to drive on to the fields and end up all over the place.
It was so wet that when you stepped out onto the grass water appeared in your footprints..
The dressage arenas were as expected, muddy, but the SJ was on a superb surface.
CCJ warmed Flyn up and they went off to do their test, mistake number one, "Don't take a horse to do dressage without showing it tubs of flowers at the entrance, he started fine after a slight deviation going past them then stopped dead for a stride when faced with them at A !
He changed legs twice in canter, did some reasonable work (he always looks fairly good as regards outline) but wasn't really going foward enough because of the slippery ground . (he was studded)
It wasn't the best test but I guessed a 42/44 and she got a 47.9...
Off to the SJ and he had a problem at the double, he jumped in so big he was wrong for the seceond element so she turned him out and did them both again, but got time faults.
By now the rain and almost 1000 horses over three days had taken their toll on the ground, some jumps had been removed, (guess which one wasn't used today, yes, number 4 where Choc fell..) by the time C was due to go they removed another three and tried to make it easier.
Flyn set off ok, did numbers 1-5 ok, then got a fright when he refused the Owl Hole and got his front leg stuck in the hole. C had a moment of deja-vu and admitted she thought "OH hell, I'm about to fall off again!" but he got his leg back and jumped it the next time, only to decide he wasn't prepared to jump the next one and got eliminated.
She wasn't that displeased because the course despite being shortened by removing jumps was still a very hard Intro. The people who sneer at Intro should go and look at this one, we felt a lot of the fences were normally in the Pre N section yet this year appeared in Intro which seems odd.
Yesterday's PN appeared more difficult in some cases of problems than the Novice, C said she would far rather have tackled the Novice version of her faller fence than the PN one.
Jumping today was hampered by the ground, and nothing SL could have done would have helped, the rain fell and the place turned to mush but being horsy we all carried on!
The horse, the rider, the tack, the boots, the inside of the box, everything is now covered in liquid orange clay. It's going to take days to get clean again.
CCJ is 19 today, and I could think of a better way to celebrate her birthday...
Chocx seems fine today apart from a little soreness where the cuts are, he has had bute and the ice boot which have helped keep everything down.
Didn't get to meet Coedcae yesterday, be good to know if her dressage was lower than usual too.
The annoying thing is CCJ's fall was recorded over by mistake today, so can't put it up on here. The starter remembered however, and joked he hoped she wasn't going to repeat her performance of yesterday..
We're hoping both horses are ok for Winkleigh, Flynn has done the XC course there in a HT so he should be ok, and it's just the place for regaining Chocx confidence as he loves it there. (it's the course pictured in lots of the vids of him on here in gallery)
If the rain doesn't stop however, we will be facing another cancelled event...
Fingers' crossed
We arrived to a hard road in then a morass everywhere else, and I sussed if I drove up the hard road then sort of slewed sideways down the field I would end up near the gate for leaving and facing downhill. luckily I drive the 4 x 4 round our steep slopes all winter so the slidy bits din't scare me at all.
Now we had no great hopes for Flyn,, he has done 4 XC in his entire life, several sessions of SJ and some indoor dressage. He is 14 years old and was a stallion prior to being gelded very late, so in terms of experience think four year old..not 14.
I spent the first hour with a cup of coffee watching numerous smart boxes arrive, get stuck attempting to drive on to the fields and end up all over the place.
It was so wet that when you stepped out onto the grass water appeared in your footprints..
The dressage arenas were as expected, muddy, but the SJ was on a superb surface.
CCJ warmed Flyn up and they went off to do their test, mistake number one, "Don't take a horse to do dressage without showing it tubs of flowers at the entrance, he started fine after a slight deviation going past them then stopped dead for a stride when faced with them at A !
He changed legs twice in canter, did some reasonable work (he always looks fairly good as regards outline) but wasn't really going foward enough because of the slippery ground . (he was studded)
It wasn't the best test but I guessed a 42/44 and she got a 47.9...
Off to the SJ and he had a problem at the double, he jumped in so big he was wrong for the seceond element so she turned him out and did them both again, but got time faults.
By now the rain and almost 1000 horses over three days had taken their toll on the ground, some jumps had been removed, (guess which one wasn't used today, yes, number 4 where Choc fell..) by the time C was due to go they removed another three and tried to make it easier.
Flyn set off ok, did numbers 1-5 ok, then got a fright when he refused the Owl Hole and got his front leg stuck in the hole. C had a moment of deja-vu and admitted she thought "OH hell, I'm about to fall off again!" but he got his leg back and jumped it the next time, only to decide he wasn't prepared to jump the next one and got eliminated.
She wasn't that displeased because the course despite being shortened by removing jumps was still a very hard Intro. The people who sneer at Intro should go and look at this one, we felt a lot of the fences were normally in the Pre N section yet this year appeared in Intro which seems odd.
Yesterday's PN appeared more difficult in some cases of problems than the Novice, C said she would far rather have tackled the Novice version of her faller fence than the PN one.
Jumping today was hampered by the ground, and nothing SL could have done would have helped, the rain fell and the place turned to mush but being horsy we all carried on!
The horse, the rider, the tack, the boots, the inside of the box, everything is now covered in liquid orange clay. It's going to take days to get clean again.
CCJ is 19 today, and I could think of a better way to celebrate her birthday...
Chocx seems fine today apart from a little soreness where the cuts are, he has had bute and the ice boot which have helped keep everything down.
Didn't get to meet Coedcae yesterday, be good to know if her dressage was lower than usual too.
The annoying thing is CCJ's fall was recorded over by mistake today, so can't put it up on here. The starter remembered however, and joked he hoped she wasn't going to repeat her performance of yesterday..
We're hoping both horses are ok for Winkleigh, Flynn has done the XC course there in a HT so he should be ok, and it's just the place for regaining Chocx confidence as he loves it there. (it's the course pictured in lots of the vids of him on here in gallery)
If the rain doesn't stop however, we will be facing another cancelled event...
Fingers' crossed
