Hunter trials Novice

[rockinghorse]

My daughter wants to take her pony to the local hunter trials tomorow but is concerned that as she never done this with her pony. I have told her to go, enjoy and if he doesnt jump everything then miss out & take onto the next jump, but she is worried that she will make a fool of herself. Please confirm that she is not alone and that it is better to get a few confident jumps rather that miss out on the oppotunity. thanks.
She has hunted him before & he jumps most things, couloured poles, ditches & water. I think this is more her than the pony,

 

[Acolyte]

That is exactly how I started hunter trialling on my Welsh Section D - and I was 30-something

The pony had a mind of his own about what he would and wouldnt jump, and I was a wimp, so we tended to go around down hill jumps and drop fences

But the ones I DID jump were great, our confidence grew, and things got better and better

So your daughter certainly wont be unusual for doing that

 

[JHawes]

It might be as well to alert the organiser first or you might have an enthuastic fence judge trying to stop her going on!

Its a sensible approach and one most organisers will accomodate. My daughter took her youngster around HC at the end of the class as well for a second look at the fences. It was priceless and it saved on transporting her back for a schooing round!

Hope you enjoy your day out

 

[sachak]

i plan to take my novice horse and will most definately be picking and chosing what fences i jump whether ppl think i am a fol or not as long as me and my horse are having fun thats all that matters and chances are your daughter wil preserve her confidence and build up slowly whilst most of those who will think she is silly will probably be overfacing both themselves and their ponies

x

 

[PennyJ]

Hopefully the starter person will be kind enough to radio through as she starts the course to the fence judges to explain the situation. Can you not find a miminus course (about 1'9 for them to go round first, just to give her a bit of confidence. I went through this with my daughter and her pony last week - neither of them had ever done XC course of any kind before, and after the 1'9 round they were both full of themselves with the fun of it. They won a 1'9 ODE event yesterday, so it worked for them! Now we need to start on the higher ones.

 

[blackcob]

[ QUOTE ]
That is exactly how I started hunter trialling on my Welsh Section D - and I was 30-something

The pony had a mind of his own about what he would and wouldnt jump, and I was a wimp, so we tended to go around down hill jumps and drop fences

But the ones I DID jump were great, our confidence grew, and things got better and better

So your daughter certainly wont be unusual for doing that

[/ QUOTE ]

LOL - that is pretty much identical to what I would have replied, including the exact same breed of horse. It must be a Welsh Cob thing

On our first hunter trial we missed out all the downhill fences and anything that I knew she would really baulk at like ditches and brush. She refused first time at all the fences I did actually present her at and then sailed over on the second go. On the home straight going back towards the other horses waiting at the start we actually broke into a gallop and flew over the last four fences which was a real confidence booster (plus you couldn't see the start of the course so everyone thought we'd been flying round like that the whole time!!)

She will certainly not be the first to miss out half the course if necessary.

Is there a pairs class by any chance? My confidence went through the roof when we went round with another horse as she'll jump anything in company.

 

[RoughcutDiamond]

Hope your daughter had fun! She won't have done worse than my first attempt - I took my 5 yr old to a mini-xc on our yard on Fri eve. He got overly excited in the warm up and dumped me! Didn't like the look of 1st fence (blue barrels) so I elected to miss and go onto the mini rustic fences that followed. Half way to fence 2 he got majorly spooked by the first competitor galloping up the field towards us out of the shadows, did a 180 in mid-air and left me eating mud again! I'm sore but can't wait to try again!