kerilli
Well-Known Member
Okay, it was only unaff, but we had to start somewhere. This was Daisy’s first xc comp, first time dressage and first time sj on grass (and only the 2nd course she’s ever jumped). They squeezed in a late entry for us at Gt Witchingham (BIG Thankyou!!!). I opted for the 2’6”-2’9” class, as at this stage the fences need to be small enough to pop from a wibble, as you’ll see. Daisy is my homebred who had a v wonky pelvis/sacro-iliac as a 4-5 yr old, and then decked me disastrously, so we’ve both had a while recuperating. But she feels as if she’s got it a lot of promise, now we’ve got it together. 
Dressage - warmed up very nicely, ignoring being on grass (sometimes intoxicating) and warming up with other horses. After our last (indoor) tests where she got behind the leg and a bit doggy and silly, today’s mantra was purely FORWARD and I knew I was totally chucking the test... we did BE95 in about 3 mins so that tells you how forward it was! But she did everything in the right place, sweetly and energetically, boggled at then ignored the boards, boggled at the molehills in canter but kept cantering through them, and didn’t duck behind the vertical at all, so I was very very happy with it. I won’t post the vid of it as it is not exactly our finest most polished effort - it was a schooling exercise with a specific aim, and I don’t want to give more ammunition to the charming person who a friend has told me is sending people links to my youtube vids as proof that I can’t ride!
The judge was not a fan, got some 6s, a couple of 4s for rather disorganised transitions when my half-halts were ignored, and mostly 5s, but that’s okay. Now the mare knows that she needs to stay forward in a test situation we can work on the rest more effectively.
Walked the XC course, a little surprising. Fence 1 was BIG, an almost-parallel of rails with potted trees lined up between the rails and poking over the top by 4”-6”. Fence 2 slightly smaller, then fence 3 was a tiny inviting log, perfect (as a first fence maybe!) Sizes varied from then on, which I don’t mind, but I do think that when you have greenie riders and some greenie horses is it far kinder, if you want people to get round, to give them 1 or 2 easy fences away from their new herd of bestest friends in the warm-up! The rest of the course was lovely and educational - pallisade with decent drop into the woods, step, 2 waters, all sorts. I noticed that 2 of the portables weren’t fixed down and I went and mentioned it, and all possible credit to the Organiser, he fixed them immediately (I checked before running, I would not have run if they had not been.) So, it really is worth speaking up, for the sake of everyone’s safety.
The Sj was nice, and so I was pretty happy to let her canter around and meet them on whatever she was on. She needs bigger fences now that she’s brave about new fillers... she’s a bit sprawly and needs to start jumping off her hocks, but this is the first time she’s cantered to new fillers and not batted an eyelid at them. Vid here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mz3dVcTypw
So, bigger fences from a more together canter next, I know, I know...
XC Time, yay! Realised I'd forgotten my whip, oh well, didn't need it, that's what legs are for. She’s still a real greenie and has her opinionated/suspicious moments, but she now believes me when I say ‘go on, it’s fine’ so we had a really fun time. Vid here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1QL9N5WqWQ
I think it would be a very harsh fence judge who gave pens for those prop-then-go moments, but we didn’t hang around for results so I have no idea how we did. Should be a clear anyway, no run outs or stops.
(btw, I know my stirrups are far too long but when she does the left-right game she’s very fast at it, so I wanted some leg round just in case! Stirrups up over bigger fences next.)
So happy to have gotten out eventing again and had such a fun first run. Let’s hope this is the first step on a good career for her. Thanks for reading, really good coffee and pain au chocolat, my dream breakfast, if you got this far.
Dressage - warmed up very nicely, ignoring being on grass (sometimes intoxicating) and warming up with other horses. After our last (indoor) tests where she got behind the leg and a bit doggy and silly, today’s mantra was purely FORWARD and I knew I was totally chucking the test... we did BE95 in about 3 mins so that tells you how forward it was! But she did everything in the right place, sweetly and energetically, boggled at then ignored the boards, boggled at the molehills in canter but kept cantering through them, and didn’t duck behind the vertical at all, so I was very very happy with it. I won’t post the vid of it as it is not exactly our finest most polished effort - it was a schooling exercise with a specific aim, and I don’t want to give more ammunition to the charming person who a friend has told me is sending people links to my youtube vids as proof that I can’t ride!
The judge was not a fan, got some 6s, a couple of 4s for rather disorganised transitions when my half-halts were ignored, and mostly 5s, but that’s okay. Now the mare knows that she needs to stay forward in a test situation we can work on the rest more effectively.
Walked the XC course, a little surprising. Fence 1 was BIG, an almost-parallel of rails with potted trees lined up between the rails and poking over the top by 4”-6”. Fence 2 slightly smaller, then fence 3 was a tiny inviting log, perfect (as a first fence maybe!) Sizes varied from then on, which I don’t mind, but I do think that when you have greenie riders and some greenie horses is it far kinder, if you want people to get round, to give them 1 or 2 easy fences away from their new herd of bestest friends in the warm-up! The rest of the course was lovely and educational - pallisade with decent drop into the woods, step, 2 waters, all sorts. I noticed that 2 of the portables weren’t fixed down and I went and mentioned it, and all possible credit to the Organiser, he fixed them immediately (I checked before running, I would not have run if they had not been.) So, it really is worth speaking up, for the sake of everyone’s safety.
The Sj was nice, and so I was pretty happy to let her canter around and meet them on whatever she was on. She needs bigger fences now that she’s brave about new fillers... she’s a bit sprawly and needs to start jumping off her hocks, but this is the first time she’s cantered to new fillers and not batted an eyelid at them. Vid here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mz3dVcTypw
So, bigger fences from a more together canter next, I know, I know...
XC Time, yay! Realised I'd forgotten my whip, oh well, didn't need it, that's what legs are for. She’s still a real greenie and has her opinionated/suspicious moments, but she now believes me when I say ‘go on, it’s fine’ so we had a really fun time. Vid here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1QL9N5WqWQ
I think it would be a very harsh fence judge who gave pens for those prop-then-go moments, but we didn’t hang around for results so I have no idea how we did. Should be a clear anyway, no run outs or stops.
(btw, I know my stirrups are far too long but when she does the left-right game she’s very fast at it, so I wanted some leg round just in case! Stirrups up over bigger fences next.)
So happy to have gotten out eventing again and had such a fun first run. Let’s hope this is the first step on a good career for her. Thanks for reading, really good coffee and pain au chocolat, my dream breakfast, if you got this far.
