Shrimp
Well-Known Member
Id never ever thought i'd say that our dressage was the best bit of the whole day and even that wasnt spectacular!
Shrimp had been off for most of the last week with a sore foot so his eyes were everywhere and took no notice of me most of the time!
Dressage - was really nice to do it on the polo fields but the arena I was in was the closest to all the marquees (sp?) and people were sitting on the bank watching so this was all very exciting to look at
Scored 39.6 which was fair for the test we did but it could have been better as every so often something/someone would catch his eye and he'd get distracted but the good bits were good (7's) and the bad bits bad (4's
)
Then had over three hours untill SJ so went and walked the course. It was rather large
especially the normandy bank (ex- intermediate fence) and there was a bounce and the drop into the second water was quite big aswell. I had already decided to take it slow because of him being off and would retire if he got tired (its quite a hilly course). It has a reputation for being a bit of a toughie so I can see why they use it for the final JRN trial.
Showjumping: he was an absolute swine (I used other words at the time but I wont repeat them on here). It was a fairly decent course with not many clears. As soon as he went in the ring I think he forgot I was on board, he stopped at fence three, jumped ok 2nd time, had a pole in the first double and then the treble. Jumped in fine over the first part and just didnt take off for the 2nd and off I came. I landed on the jump and took it down with me, luckily it was in slow motion so it didnt hurt (dad has a pic, its not very elegant...) Anyway, got back on a jumped through fine second time, cue a very frustrated me
Obviously having a week off before a competition is not a good idea. Total of 24 jumping and 13 time
XC: decided to go xc even if we only did the first few fences but first I had to get the all clear from the doctor to make sure my head didnt hurt (it didnt at the time but my god it does now!) or any other injuries. So off we went to XC, warmed up ok and we set off at quite a conserved pace to save energy. Had a stop at fence four, rider error so carried on. After fence 8 (large hedge then drop into water) he started to slow down and at fence 12 he stopped miles away and I knew he wouldnt jump anymore so retired.
Off home we went.
So really not a very good day but we're home safe and sound and its one big learning curve. Going to go to somerford before next event to get back some confidence so hopefully we'll be ok for Hutton in two weeks.
Thankyou for reading and putting up with my moaning, I shall put pics in the gallery so you can have a laugh!
Shrimp had been off for most of the last week with a sore foot so his eyes were everywhere and took no notice of me most of the time!
Dressage - was really nice to do it on the polo fields but the arena I was in was the closest to all the marquees (sp?) and people were sitting on the bank watching so this was all very exciting to look at
Then had over three hours untill SJ so went and walked the course. It was rather large
Showjumping: he was an absolute swine (I used other words at the time but I wont repeat them on here). It was a fairly decent course with not many clears. As soon as he went in the ring I think he forgot I was on board, he stopped at fence three, jumped ok 2nd time, had a pole in the first double and then the treble. Jumped in fine over the first part and just didnt take off for the 2nd and off I came. I landed on the jump and took it down with me, luckily it was in slow motion so it didnt hurt (dad has a pic, its not very elegant...) Anyway, got back on a jumped through fine second time, cue a very frustrated me
XC: decided to go xc even if we only did the first few fences but first I had to get the all clear from the doctor to make sure my head didnt hurt (it didnt at the time but my god it does now!) or any other injuries. So off we went to XC, warmed up ok and we set off at quite a conserved pace to save energy. Had a stop at fence four, rider error so carried on. After fence 8 (large hedge then drop into water) he started to slow down and at fence 12 he stopped miles away and I knew he wouldnt jump anymore so retired.
Off home we went.
So really not a very good day but we're home safe and sound and its one big learning curve. Going to go to somerford before next event to get back some confidence so hopefully we'll be ok for Hutton in two weeks.
Thankyou for reading and putting up with my moaning, I shall put pics in the gallery so you can have a laugh!
