Highclere update

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seabiscuit

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after last night's dressage Owen just wasnt himself this morning- he was not moving well at all.Shouldnt have carried on riding him but thought he might have been tired as well and he does get flat like this when he has done a lot so carried on to see if the jumping woke him up.Was very surprised to find the showjumping warm up in a similarly sticky and gluey state, tho not half as bad as it was in the dressage arena. Owen seemed to have lost confidence in himself and he hardly wanted to move at all. He did perk up when we started jumping so carried on.Jumping the practise fences we had perfect strides coming in but when he got to the actual fence where it was very very sticky where everyone had been taking off, he completly floundered and simply could not jump himself out of it. He jumped the worse he has ever jumped and was screwing over everything and landing very awkwardly- even over the cross pole.

However the ground in the SJ arena *looked* great- no obvious sign of mud at all so thought I would go in and jump him and see how he went, unfortunately under the lovely grass covering it was still just as marshy and sticky- he jumped horribly, I rode like absolute crap,. so retired after 4 fences! Really should not have carried on at all.

Seems like Owen was the only one suffering so much in the ground, other horses seemed to cope fine.
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Have a dressage photo of him yesterday and it shows him cantering in mid stride, with 3 of his feet firmly dissapearing into ground right over his pasterns and with one hind leg submerged in the marsh half way up his cannon bone
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bad luck u had the same sort of day as me!!! then i agree the dressage was awful very boggy.. my boy who never stops stooped twice at the sj warm up then went in n had two down (which is normal i have to say ) but decided i would go x country jumped practice fence fine went out of the start gate got to the first fence n he said NO
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which again very un like him so i gave up and went home
will have his back checked just to make sure as soooo un like him even in bad ground n then see what happens : well done to all thoses who got round
 
Nope, not just you, I thought the SJ was very holding and had I not jumped in similar conditions last week at Dorset I suspet I wouldn't have got much further than fence 4 either. Luckily horse now realises that sometimes I do know what I am doing and he got his arse into gear after an awkward jump over the first.

In all honesty, the XC caused carnage, and was just as deep before the fences, so you did not miss much. The commentator kept saying how perfect the going was, and it looked it until you tried to actually do anything in it!

Seriously, I would not be disheartened by it, I even saw some pros come to grief XC, and frankly the SJ was not pretty from anyone.
 
I'd definitely get his back looked at if I were you, slewing over a fence means they are trying to save a sore place by keeping it still and just moving the back end..
That damned dressage may well have pulled something yesterday, let's face it, trotting and cantering down a muddy bridlepath you would have stopped and gone round or at best walked wouldn't you? Not a lot of choice when the arena is dreadful and you have paid so much money to enter..
Feel quite angry on your behalf they didn't move the arenas..
 
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I'd definitely get his back looked at if I were you, slewing over a fence means they are trying to save a sore place by keeping it still and just moving the back end..
That damned dressage may well have pulled something yesterday, let's face it, trotting and cantering down a muddy bridlepath you would have stopped and gone round or at best walked wouldn't you? Not a lot of choice when the arena is dreadful and you have paid so much money to enter..
Feel quite angry on your behalf they didn't move the arenas..

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Do you know HH, as I got further through my test, I toyed with the idea of pulling up as normally I would very gingerly walk through ground like that, I certainly would not risk his tendons by trotting or cantering through it. If I had been doing it as a 'normal' PN not needing the SJ and XC run to set us up for Novice, I am not convinced I would have even finished the dressage...
 
Yeah it's easy with hindsight though isn't it. I ran my horse on very slippery going at Borde Hill in the spring. It's taken me until now to get his confidence back. Some horses revel in the soft, others hate it. I know I'll never run mine on that sort of going again. Hope your horse recovers quickly.
 
Golly your boy does sound as though he really was not happy either
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sorry to hear that. Hope he will be OK am going to be begging the physio and the osteopath as well to come and see my boy asap tomorrow morning!What type of horse is yours, just out of interest? Mine is a slight TB with long pasterns and small feet. It seemed to me that the stockier/the more substance the horse had- the better they jumped, do you think?
it was such a shame as it was such a lovely event with beautifull fences.
 
Thank you S-C that really cheered me up! Its great to hear more about the whole picture like that. Am so relieved we werent the only ones. The ground was a nasty shock becayse as you say it looked perfect until you rode on it!
Have never encountered such bad ground!!

Were you the one on the big dark bay?number 16 or something? I wasnt sure if it was you- think I saw you by the entrance into the arena....then watched you go in first fence bit sticky but rest of the round was super! lovely lovely horse!
 
I was 23, big dark bay, as you say, first fence he was not going forwards enough, but we both got into gear after that! I think when I asked for a bit more canter he did not quite believe me until he had jumped the first, then he went 'oh, ok then, that's why'! As the horse you saw was lovely, I think we will assume it was me if that's ok?
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I sat and took pics at the 'trakhener' type fence and OMG it caused carnage. How something that was little more than a rail with ground line could cause so much trouble, I have no idea! The fence judge was the nicest block, had a god chat to him, and he was stamping down the ground after every horse.
 
Feel furious too and dont know why I did not retire him in that dressage arena. All so easy to say in hindsight tho. Am going to be begging physio and osteopath to come out asap tomorrow!
 
PMSL- definately you in that case !
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He is such a dude and you guys make a great partnership.
Cannot believe that about the trakehner it looked perfectly rideable and had a great ground line!!
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Thanks LoneRanger- so sorry to hear about your horse tho
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Its soul destroying as you put so much money and time ( years) into these animals and it can all go pete tong in a flash.
 
Have been in the "stuck in the ground" scenario with Ben before now (a v muddy deep practice fence), and is v scary when horse can't seem to get feet out of mud.
Hope you manage to get Owen's back checked soon and he is OK.
Fiona
 
dtd he is a tb too ....crap feet not as slight as some tb's but still.. will def get him checked just hoping it will not be on going as he had 2 yrs off he had an op 2yrs ago to have a bone chip removed n then ihad a baby so this was only 2nd event in2yrs he went round west wilts intro fine so fingers crossed it is back n not him just deciding he doesn't want t do this anymore!!! good luck with owen hope he is ok too
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i don't usually comment on these pages but i feel i have to after my experience at Highclere too..!!
i was in section A (day before dressage) and was not due to go until half past four.. i have to say the warm up area was okay, a bit deep tho and my boy managed to pull off half his shoe after only being on him 10 min.!! luckly the farrier was still around so we managed to get it sorted and he said he would be fine to carry on and do his test.. the stewards had said when we first got there that the judge said we could ride to the left/right of the c/l as the ground was so bad.. didn't think much of it but it was only when i was trotting around the arena beofre going in that i realised how bad the ground was.. really sticky, deep, big holes.. being a TB with typical TB feet (thin soles/walls e.t.c) he is usless when the ground is really uneven.. but i thought i'd give it a go... went up the c/l (to the right) and he broke into canter as we hit the edge of the mud patch that was X.. he was really finding it hard, and broke into canter through the muddy bits on the way to the first 15m circle at E, thats it i thought, he's not happy at all so i retired.. just didn't want to make him carry on and risk injury after all he has been through over the years...
absolutely gutted as we have done Highclere in 2005 and 2006 and have had no problems, it's such a lovely event...
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luckily Andy is fine and we managed to get in a last minute entry to Munstead to have a fun run round the intro...
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Very disappointing for all concerned.
I love Highclere, and was gutted not to be competing there this weekend.
DtD i do hope Owen is okay now
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poor love.
 
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