Cullohill
Well-Known Member
As you may know Henbury was a bit of a nightmare yesterday, we were on late which was good in some ways but not in others......
Bit chaotic with times as they were running behind but with so many withdrawals it was just a case of show up when you're ready!!
Dressage - Bud was rather over excitied and the warm up was horrendous deep sticky and after short time wasn't really getting anywhere so went over for test Bud got coiled up about ready to explode, just managed to settle him alittle and went in. He did an ok test struggled a bit in the really deep places but he tried and didn't explode it was just not his best as couldn't warm in properly.
SJ - it was carnage poles flying everywhere, it was short course but the going was just not good. Warm up was also horrendous. Bud was again rather over excitied but was pinging out of the mud did just slip into one. Went in and he just coiled up into a tight ball and wouldn't take bridle forward, in hindsight i should have kicked him on abit and gone on more forward strides to help him get out the mud instead of trying to really sj as he bangs off the floor to jump he had nothing to bang off and i just think he didn't know how to cope. Being overexcited and tight and not coming off floor well things didn't go well and we got 5 down
I've watched video 5 times and last two he got down he just tipped them off which is so unlike him, he is usual so careful so i think i need to adjust the way i ride in deep ground and maybe try and practise on grass/mud still now i am so disapointed but the ground was bad......
XC - i decided to run as the ground on the course had dried up and actually wasn't too bad and there were quite a few fences we'd not seen before and quite a few questions to ask of him. I decided not too push too hard for time but just kick on where i felt happy as i didn't want him to run out of petrol at end jumping out deeper going.
Well he was outstanding
he is such an amazing horse xc he went when i asked, came back when i asked (new bit worked perfect!!) jumped water jumps great which he has hesitated at before, bounce, ditch palisade, ditch onto bank (where while walking course intermediate horse got stuck on bank back legs in ditch, was quite distressing but eventually swung front end round and off bank and walked off with just cuts and scrapes) there was an alternative for novice but as he was going so well i went for direct and he was ace popped up and over skinny..... saw some cracking xc strides and he just flew esp into a big corner after a skinny behive. So all in all just a great xc round, and great confidence boost. Also he was still full of running and recovered really quickly so i think he's pretty fit and sure we could have gone faster if we'd wanted.
We ended up with 38 dressage so pleasing considering conditions, 20 sj
, clear xc with 9.6 time which was really cuffed with as fastest had around 4 and i didn't push too hard.
We ended up 9th
out of my section of 41 only 14 completed, it really was an unusal day and the conditions were pretty crazy, i am glad i ran as was good learning experience for us both and we can work on what let us down.
Thanks for reading sorry for waffle
i forgot to go look at photos
does anyone know who it was or if they have email/website.... it was after 7pm by time we'd finished so was rather in a rush to get home.
IN next at Winkburn so hopefully get lots sj practise in before then!! And then hopefully Weston CCI* - que very excited face smiley
Bit chaotic with times as they were running behind but with so many withdrawals it was just a case of show up when you're ready!!
Dressage - Bud was rather over excitied and the warm up was horrendous deep sticky and after short time wasn't really getting anywhere so went over for test Bud got coiled up about ready to explode, just managed to settle him alittle and went in. He did an ok test struggled a bit in the really deep places but he tried and didn't explode it was just not his best as couldn't warm in properly.
SJ - it was carnage poles flying everywhere, it was short course but the going was just not good. Warm up was also horrendous. Bud was again rather over excitied but was pinging out of the mud did just slip into one. Went in and he just coiled up into a tight ball and wouldn't take bridle forward, in hindsight i should have kicked him on abit and gone on more forward strides to help him get out the mud instead of trying to really sj as he bangs off the floor to jump he had nothing to bang off and i just think he didn't know how to cope. Being overexcited and tight and not coming off floor well things didn't go well and we got 5 down
I've watched video 5 times and last two he got down he just tipped them off which is so unlike him, he is usual so careful so i think i need to adjust the way i ride in deep ground and maybe try and practise on grass/mud still now i am so disapointed but the ground was bad......
XC - i decided to run as the ground on the course had dried up and actually wasn't too bad and there were quite a few fences we'd not seen before and quite a few questions to ask of him. I decided not too push too hard for time but just kick on where i felt happy as i didn't want him to run out of petrol at end jumping out deeper going.
Well he was outstanding
We ended up with 38 dressage so pleasing considering conditions, 20 sj
We ended up 9th
Thanks for reading sorry for waffle
IN next at Winkburn so hopefully get lots sj practise in before then!! And then hopefully Weston CCI* - que very excited face smiley
