Rambo
Well-Known Member
We took the horses to Golden Cross for some BSJA on Good Friday. When we arrived at the yard at about 9am it was snowing
but we decided to carry on getting ready anyway. The weather did clear and by the time we arrived for the Discovery it was actually quite sunny, if rather windy (aka blowing a bl**dy hooley
)...
The Discovery was a 2-phase class, and the course walked okay so i was quite hopeful of a good result with the Trike monster
OH got on him to start walking him around while i relaxed and watched a few go. There were a lot of poles falling as it turned out, and a few horses were stopping at one particular oxer which seemed to have a pool of light right in front of it from the sky lights. No matter, Trikey is careful so i thought our luck might be in. Went to find OH who at the time appeared to be going sideways across the warmup on a bunking bronco
Sooo...on i hopped and put my leg on....which was met with a rather large series of bucks
Try again...leg on....buck, buck, buck
Okay, so leg on harder....and more bucking but more leg this time and eventually we got some forward motion to go with the upwards motion
He did start to work better, and when we came to jump was going very high...but also reasonably forward too......cool ! Our turn came (we usually jump right near the end with him if possible as it gives maximum warm-up time) and off we went. Was jumping in a lovely forward rhythm and giving everything miles.....until we reached the penultimate fence...the oxer with the light in front of it.....and right at the last minute he saw the light and slammed the brakes on
Gave him a smack and came again....witha growl...and although he took a good look he did jump it second time round, then round the final double which he pinged through nicely. So, a hugely disappointing result really as he was going so well. There were only 6 clears in the class, and only 2 DC's so an opportunity missed there really...but hey ho
So, onto Bo, and the 1.05m/1.10m Handicap. Bo was in the 1.10m section and one of the nice things about these classes is that you get to walk the course when it's nice and small, so was very happy with everything we saw. They finished the 1.05m section and raised the fences...but by this time i was on Bo so looking down on them they didn't really look any different
He had warmed up well in the outdoor, and i was confident of a good round again (i should learn something here shouldn't i
). So we started off and jumped the 1st phase perfectly....a really nice flowing round and he never touched a thing....and into the JO phase and i decided to move him on a bit. Jumped the first fence, then went 4 strides to a decent oxer where Bo took a little look before throwing a huge jump in
Unfortuantely he caught me completely unawares and i lost both stirrups and laned in a heap on his shoulders
Would have been fine as i was getting myself back together, but Bo was still in JO mode and so made the turn to the next fence whereby i rapidly exited stage right
Managed to land on the steel girder that was holding the school up as well, so gave myself an almighty whack on the arm and landed in a heap under Bo. Good boy that he was though, he just stood there and waited for me to get back up as if to say....what you doin' down there dad !?
After the fall and feeling a little bruised i decided to withdraw from the 1.15m Open and call it a day.
The day didn't quite end there though unfortunately as when we got hom and after (fortunately!) we had unloaded the horses...i was standing on the ramp cleaning the back up, when the hinge sheared and the ramp partially detached itself from the lorry ! Could have been worse i guess and happenned away from home, but i now have to find someone to come out and fix it in a hurry...
The Discovery was a 2-phase class, and the course walked okay so i was quite hopeful of a good result with the Trike monster
So, onto Bo, and the 1.05m/1.10m Handicap. Bo was in the 1.10m section and one of the nice things about these classes is that you get to walk the course when it's nice and small, so was very happy with everything we saw. They finished the 1.05m section and raised the fences...but by this time i was on Bo so looking down on them they didn't really look any different
After the fall and feeling a little bruised i decided to withdraw from the 1.15m Open and call it a day.
The day didn't quite end there though unfortunately as when we got hom and after (fortunately!) we had unloaded the horses...i was standing on the ramp cleaning the back up, when the hinge sheared and the ramp partially detached itself from the lorry ! Could have been worse i guess and happenned away from home, but i now have to find someone to come out and fix it in a hurry...
