Baydale
Well-Known Member
I'm sure that those of you that have, if only in a cyber way, been through the highs and lows with me and the Huge One will not believe their eyes when they see this post, but yes it's true *excuse me a moment while I over-use smileys, capital letters and exclamations marks*
YAY
, finally HumungaHorse has realised where his feet are
, how to use his huge frame, energy and enthusiasm
, and in doing so has made me very happy, WOO HOO!!!
I'd planned to go to Manor Farm last week with him, but they cancelled due to lack of entries - thankfully I rang before I left home to check that - so I had Keysoe today in my sights. As usual my sense of urgency that applies to leaving for BE events always falls by the wayside when going BSJAing, so I was late. I'd planned to do the Discovery and 1.05m Open, but got there to find they were already on the 1.05m Open.....cue panic tacking-up, warming-up, learning of course etc. It was two phase (I think, the one where you jump the second half of the course against the clock?
), so what seemed like lots of fences in a small area (he's all of 17.3hh, so most arenas seems small
). I got my big, round, bouncy canter and set sail: magically every fence and every turn seemed easy, and even my more forward strides felt round and bouncy instead of flat and hollow. The related distances that looked to be riding short were spot on, and before I knew it we were at fence 11 without having touched one. Lots of pats from me and camp head-shaking in a "God I'm good" style from him, and then I spotted fence 12.
oops.
Thankfully my eventer can do angles and it wasn't so acute as to be impossible, and he left it up, clever boy. Pats and polos.
Buoyant with confidence I decided I hadn't gone all that way to just do one class, so we entered the 1.10m Blue Chip qualifer.
Yes, I know a horse of his experience should be able to do 1.10m tracks with his eyes shut, but we (trainer and I) have decided it's all in his confidence: he's not actually that careless, if he has one down he worries, gets tight, then normally has another one, and another one.....then he just gets disheartened and gives up trying. So we decided I had to do smaller classes to keep his confidence and see if that works.
I was slow getting my number down so had the benefit of watching 20 of the 38 entered before I had to get ready. I kinda wish I hadn't as there were lots of stops, don't ask me why, and not that many clears. I had a bit of a stress as the warm-up is tiny and you barely have two straight strides (make that one HH-sized stride
) before the fence, so I did three fences, decided it was destructive rather than constructive, then went in. Good old HH, he jumped as well if not better than the first round, and considering there were some tighter turns I was really chuffed with how balanced and easy he made it feel.
Even the one fence that he motorbiked round the corner too, causing me to check (aka hook) to, he didn't hollow and just popped it from a fairly deep spot. So, surprisingly enough, he jumped clear, therefore more pats and more polos for him. I decided not to do the jump-off as I wanted to build on our confidence and not spoil that, so came home looking like this
, texting anyone I could think of in that stupidly childish way that you do when you've had a good day.
I would have said red wine and kettle chips if you've got this far, but - and you know my posts are never going to be short - now that I've finished this it's more likely to be cocoa and cookies. Enjoy.
YAY
I'd planned to go to Manor Farm last week with him, but they cancelled due to lack of entries - thankfully I rang before I left home to check that - so I had Keysoe today in my sights. As usual my sense of urgency that applies to leaving for BE events always falls by the wayside when going BSJAing, so I was late. I'd planned to do the Discovery and 1.05m Open, but got there to find they were already on the 1.05m Open.....cue panic tacking-up, warming-up, learning of course etc. It was two phase (I think, the one where you jump the second half of the course against the clock?
Buoyant with confidence I decided I hadn't gone all that way to just do one class, so we entered the 1.10m Blue Chip qualifer.
I was slow getting my number down so had the benefit of watching 20 of the 38 entered before I had to get ready. I kinda wish I hadn't as there were lots of stops, don't ask me why, and not that many clears. I had a bit of a stress as the warm-up is tiny and you barely have two straight strides (make that one HH-sized stride
I would have said red wine and kettle chips if you've got this far, but - and you know my posts are never going to be short - now that I've finished this it's more likely to be cocoa and cookies. Enjoy.
