TGM
Well-Known Member
So four years ago I bought this little two year old (Louis) for my daughter to bring on to event. We've bought him on slowly, partly due to lack of time due to daughter being away at university for three years, and partly because he needed time to grown, which he has certainly done a lot!
She has backed and schooled him herself and his weekend we took him to his first BE90. Early times meant getting up at 5am and the rain was torrential which was rather concerning. Thankfully it did eventually dry up and the event was on a well-draining site. Daughter took Louis down to the dressage warm-up where he stuck his tail in the air and began to snort and prance in a disconcerting fashion. Thankfully he calmed down by the time he was due to do his test and was fairly obedient albeit a little tense and wobbly. Really pleased to find he got 35.5 for this phase.
We were worried he might be distracted by all the marquees and tradestands around the showjumping arena but he was fine and jumped a confident clear round.
Finally the cross country, and I must admit my heart was in my mouth beforehand! Had a bit of a hairy moment on the way to the start when he was passed by an eliminated horse and decided to spin and run! Thankfully daughter sat tight and then he returned to normal mode and walked calmly to the startbox and went off nicely. Couldn't see much of the course from where I was but was reassured to hear the commentator say that they were receiving lots of praise from the fence judges all around the course! Soon they were back in sight and sailing over the last two fences to finish clear. Too soon, in fact, as it turns out they got several time penalties for going too fast which cost them a top ten placing. Daughter had deliberately ridden without a stopwatch because she wanted to let him go at his natural pace the first time and as he has such a ground-covering stride he was faster than he felt.
But really rosettes are unimportant in the scale of things - just totally thrilled to have a confident double clear at their first BE event.
I didn't get any flatwork photos as the weather was atrocious but this is him the previous weekend at his first unaffiliated ODE. I know he is BTV and short in the neck but he found it quite exciting and daughter wanted to make sure she was in control!
She has backed and schooled him herself and his weekend we took him to his first BE90. Early times meant getting up at 5am and the rain was torrential which was rather concerning. Thankfully it did eventually dry up and the event was on a well-draining site. Daughter took Louis down to the dressage warm-up where he stuck his tail in the air and began to snort and prance in a disconcerting fashion. Thankfully he calmed down by the time he was due to do his test and was fairly obedient albeit a little tense and wobbly. Really pleased to find he got 35.5 for this phase.
We were worried he might be distracted by all the marquees and tradestands around the showjumping arena but he was fine and jumped a confident clear round.
Finally the cross country, and I must admit my heart was in my mouth beforehand! Had a bit of a hairy moment on the way to the start when he was passed by an eliminated horse and decided to spin and run! Thankfully daughter sat tight and then he returned to normal mode and walked calmly to the startbox and went off nicely. Couldn't see much of the course from where I was but was reassured to hear the commentator say that they were receiving lots of praise from the fence judges all around the course! Soon they were back in sight and sailing over the last two fences to finish clear. Too soon, in fact, as it turns out they got several time penalties for going too fast which cost them a top ten placing. Daughter had deliberately ridden without a stopwatch because she wanted to let him go at his natural pace the first time and as he has such a ground-covering stride he was faster than he felt.
But really rosettes are unimportant in the scale of things - just totally thrilled to have a confident double clear at their first BE event.
I didn't get any flatwork photos as the weather was atrocious but this is him the previous weekend at his first unaffiliated ODE. I know he is BTV and short in the neck but he found it quite exciting and daughter wanted to make sure she was in control!
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