How long from green and barely in work, to BE80?

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now_loves_mares

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Soo, as some of you know my mare broke her pedal bone in February, but as luck would have it, I happened to have, in true Blue Peter style, another horse idly waiting to be entertained.

She's way too clever for her own good! Just turned 7 now, she did plenty of baby stuff at 4/5 including jumping clinics and dressage; but then fractured her splint bone (yikes, too many broken bones around here!). I then damaged my knee several times so basically she had all of her 6th year off. I've started half-heartedly riding her again this year, "re-backed her" by which I mean lunged her then got on the same day. Recently went out for a very enjoyable first-ever hack, with FigJam and a borrowed pony, and my "baby" proved to be foot perfect and really unflappable and brave. Now I just want to crack on and have pencilled in the BE80 at Scone on 6th August.

So, bearing in mind that since being brought in to work she's done walk/trot school work, and one hack :rolleyes:. She's not jumped so far since back working, and never been XC schooling. She was however a very clever jumper as a baby, never spooked at fillers, managed to figure out distances easily, and is luckily only 15hh but TB, so seems to be able to make long or short strides. Her attitude to scary things tends to be "What's thaaaaatttt??" in a really nosey curious way and wonders straight up to said thing; always walks through puddles. But she's quite sharp and the prospect of a warm up still scares me a lot :eek:

I have next week off so have a flat lesson planned and was going to try to book a jump lesson too. So if I properly crack-on, Gamebird style (as opposed to my half-hearted attempt), does it sound do-able? FWIW I'm a bit out of practice recently, but used to do BE Novice years ago so not an eventing beginner myself.

Also, can Scottish peeps come up with any ideas of places I can hire to get lots of jumping practice in. I have no arena or even remotely suitable schooling area, which makes this plan considerably harder :rolleyes:

Feel free to tell me to not be so daft :)

A little vid of her aged 5, over a teeny fence, for reference. She was going through a bit of a gobby phase (and no CC please, I'm far too delicate for that!!) :rolleyes: (ETS, though I have been working very hard on that slumping in my lower back, so any tips on improving that are welcome!)

 
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Haha, did you sniff out your name-check?! You are more than welcome to have a shot, but you'd need rollerskates! Mind you, that'd keep her pretty straight :D

So should I just go for the PN at Scone then? That's ooooh, 9 weeks away?
 
Plenty of time - go for it. Rosie did an intro on Frodo within 3 months of getting him home at which point he'd been clear round SJ and XC schooling once. She did do an unaffiliated ODE after about a month where he'd stopped dead at the water so she did a lot of water practice before doing the BE comp because she didn't fancy wasting an entry.
Good luck - it'll be fine :)
 
Thanks Rosiefan :). Though I wouldn't exactly class myself in the same riding league as Rosie ;)

The unaffiliated event is a good idea, no point paying £80 in entries if she's going to throw a tantrum :eek:
 
Thank you, that's a kind thing to say but from what you've said, you're perfectly capable and it sounds as though she is too and u/a is so much cheaper if it all goes pear shaped. Frodo just planted and Rosie was allowed to get off and lead him through the water, then get back on and complete - another advantage of u/a comps :).

eta - didn't do her boots much good though :(
 
Honestly, what do I have to do to get a serious answer round here :rolleyes::p Just as well Rosiefan responded!

Less frivously KirstyHen, I did have Mally in mind when I posted! I have emailed someone about arranging a jumping lesson next week, so that's a start (if they can do it). Mally will be my benchmark, so the pressure is on for the star pupil to be a bit of a showcase :)

This is when I hate having my horses at home, having no facilities and no cheerleaders on hand to keep you going :( Though the benefits still outweigh the downsides!
 
Sounds perfectly doable to me presuming no confidence mishaps on the way. Not sure how far Fife would be from you but Lindores is fantastic for training. Nothing too huge but all sorts of fences starting at really tiny upwards. I find it a really useful place to take my boy out to at the start of the season as there is so much variety and at £15/hr a complete bargain!

http://www.lindoresxc.co.uk/gallery.htm
 
I'd definitely say a couple of months is plenty time! :p

There is a RC event at Fieldings on 10th July as well as the club nights coming up on Thursday evenings- good opportunity to get her out and doing things in a quieter environment before Scone? Flatwork and jumping available. We are also quietly considering a XC training day at Ecosse Equi-X (or similar) if we can find a suitable date, will keep you updated. :)

There is also St Gatherer training at Strathallan 2nd Aug which will set you up nicely for Scone. :D

I am likely to be able to borrow a pony of some sort again if we can find a weekend date to suit... in fact, I'm quiet on Sunday if you like?! Maybe Flying Coo would invite us over sometime and we can take HB, Baby Coo and Mr C out for a hack? :)
 
Olivio said:
Sounds perfectly doable to me presuming no confidence mishaps on the way. Not sure how far Fife would be from you but Lindores is fantastic for training. Nothing too huge but all sorts of fences starting at really tiny upwards. I find it a really useful place to take my boy out to at the start of the season as there is so much variety and at £15/hr a complete bargain!

http://www.lindoresxc.co.uk/gallery.htm
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I think Dabbs/Howe is about an hour from me, which I'm happy to do, so presume it's around about that distance. I've never been to Lindores but sounds good. Need to find a nanny to go with the first time though (volunteers??). Do you know how it compares to Edinburgh Equestrian at Dalkeith?

Now where are all the doubters? I'd like at least one person to say no, to give me an excuse to chicken out :rolleyes:
 
Think Lindores would take you a little over the hour (I'm pretty sure it was about an hour for me and I'm closer to the FRB than you), it is nice, but I'm not sure how much better it is than Dalkeith if that is any closer for you? Both are good. :)

And no doubters are allowed on the thread... it's much more fun nagging other folk to man up and do stuff! :p
 
FigJam said:
I'd definitely say a couple of months is plenty time! :p

There is a RC event at Fieldings on 10th July as well as the club nights coming up on Thursday evenings- good opportunity to get her out and doing things in a quieter environment before Scone? Flatwork and jumping available. We are also quietly considering a XC training day at Ecosse Equi-X (or similar) if we can find a suitable date, will keep you updated. :)

There is also St Gatherer training at Strathallan 2nd Aug which will set you up nicely for Scone. :D

I am likely to be able to borrow a pony of some sort again if we can find a weekend date to suit... in fact, I'm quiet on Sunday if you like?! Maybe Flying Coo would invite us over sometime and we can take HB, Baby Coo and Mr C out for a hack? :)
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Oh sorry, forgot to say, FigJams and FlyingCoos not entitled to opinions on this thread, as they are over-enthusiastic on the topic :p;)

I did spot the RC Thursday evenings, they'll be great. And also the St G training. He's doing a couple of lessons at SNEC before then too. I've also emailed Olivia about sorting a lesson, ideally next week whilst I'm off.

Sadly can't do this weekend as going away for a few days up West. Well, depending on what happens tomorrow due to M's wee colic blip last night/today :( (Gassy colic so hopefully a one-off due to warm/wet weather, rather than the other problem!). Could maybe do an evening hack next week if you could borrow a pony?
 
FigJam said:
Think Lindores would take you a little over the hour (I'm pretty sure it was about an hour for me and I'm closer to the FRB than you), it is nice, but I'm not sure how much better it is than Dalkeith if that is any closer for you? Both are good. :)

And no doubters are allowed on the thread... it's much more fun nagging other folk to man up and do stuff! :p
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Cross-post, but see my reply to you above :p
 
Now you can't say you miss having folk to give you a shove in the direction of doing stuff
poke.gif
and then try shush us! :p

Evening next week should be do-able (just not a Thursday as that's "Ice Prancing" night! ;) ), will suss out pony availability and let you know. Only problem is work being a bit manic at the moment so may be a last minute running late/call off risk... :(

Sounds like some good plans forming, look forward to seeing HB strutting her stuff at Fieldings soon. :)

Sorry to hear M had a relapse, although fingers crossed it was due to grass/weather and not the previous issues... she just doesn't want you thinking you might get any decent sleep, does she?!
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Oooh still Ice-prancing? Now that really is over to the dark side!

Depending on what time we get home on Tuesday, that might be the best night. Depends if/when I can arrange a lesson with Olivia too. No worries if you have to call off, totally understand that (work sooo gets in the way).

Poor M isn't being allowed any more food until tomorrow morning :(. Trying to get her to fart it out :eek:. But ironically that really means I could have a full night's sleep :rolleyes:
 
Oh dear... poor M indeed. Maybe that will teach her not to do it again?! Try make the most of the opportunity of some unbroken sleep if possible, fingers crossed she is feeling better again soon. :)

Yes, ice prancing still on the go, it's good fun and I'm hoping it's helping to keep some random muscles in action at least?! Will try arrange summat for Tuesday and will let you know on the day (should know mid afternoon) if it looks like I can't excape work on time. Will text/email next week. :) Hope you get to enjoy your weekend away. :)
 
Okay felt obliged to post as I heard my name mentioned!!!:D:D:D

N-L-M - Nah sorry you're not being allowed to wimp out!!

As for the XC training carry on my thoughts were going up to the Equi-X placey with the FC as nanny and treat it as a hack and play over the XC fences then progress onto somewhere else? Maybe we want to arrange a play date......Mmmm wonder who we could get to ride the FC as nanny???

I also have taken the Gamebird route and cracked on with it as Baby Coo had his SNEC SJ debut on Wednesday after learning to realise that blasty hacks are fun even if a lot of effort on his part as he is a very laid back Coo. As for flatwork lessons that's even a bit keen for us and will come eventually. We are even going for getting our back shoes on next week we are taking this seriously!!

You know at anytime please feel free to come over to mine to use school/hack etc now that Her Madjesty is perhaps allowing you some free time to yourself.
 
Def doable and if there are any shows on nearby bring her along for a pootle round the practice so she learns a bit about what is happening!
 
Ooh, thank you for pointing out there's a BE80 at Scone. Somehow totally missed my radar!I'm hoping to take the Ginger Princess eventing so would rather do a BE80 as her first one rather than a BE90 (someone said I should just start her off at BE100!).

Nothing to add to all the nagging at all, except for go for it!!!
 
now_loves_mares said:
I think Dabbs/Howe is about an hour from me, which I'm happy to do, so presume it's around about that distance. I've never been to Lindores but sounds good. Need to find a nanny to go with the first time though (volunteers??). Do you know how it compares to Edinburgh Equestrian at Dalkeith?
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I've never been to Dalkeith so couldn't say. Lindores has always been my first port of call and would love to nanny if I had transport which is sadly lacking ATM! It would only be another 10/15 mins from Dabbs so maybe a SJ in morning and XC in afternoon practice...? Sounds like you have plenty of supporters with FJ & FC though so I'm sure you will be absolutely fine! Best of luck.
 
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