Girlracer
Well-Known Member
So this year I have mostly been very smug.
On mornings of events I have leisurely ventured to the yard, usually plaited in the morning and made it to my venue in time for lunch. Of course at some point, that was going to change, and Sunday 25th at Moreton Morrell we were horse number 2. As I peeled myself out of the comfort of my bed, at 4.30am, and tried to convince my dogs to get out of bed and go outside I momentarily questioned my mental state.
We arrived, and despite my 4.30 start I probably could have done with another half an hour. But no matter, studs were in, horse was tacked up and hair net forgotten we headed to the dressage warm up.
Ten minutes later, we trotted round the arena crossing my fingers they would give us a good three laps, after one lap we entered at A.
Ill be honest, half way through I thought to myself this is going remarkably well, not once have I had to take avoiding action of a plant pot or white board and I was pretty sure we had cantered on the right leg both times. I was very pleased to achieve our best dressage score of 36.3 (those that have followed us will know the struggle dressage has been, we started the season with 47.8).
I had left course walking for the two hour gap I had kindly been given between dressage and show jumping. I think it was probably a good job, as if I had walked it the day before I would have been questioning my mental state twice in two days, thankfully it was just twice in one day. It lived up to Moreton Morrells reputation of big and bold but not particularly technical, this suits King I can say in hindsight but at the time thinking about our stop at fence two at a comparatively straightforward course at our last outing I wasnt so sure.
On to the show jumping! After our super clear round at out last event I was feeling positive, he warmed up really well, although I was a little worried about the surface in the arena as I had found it quite deep going whilst walking it so I expected a couple of poles. We entered the arena cantered to the first and promptly ground to a halt. Well, what can I say, King likes to make sure Im paying attention Clearly I wasnt and this was the kick up the bum I needed, and I quickly realised I needed to ride rather than passenger. We came again and completed the 8 fault round I had expected.
Good I thought, a big bold course and I cant get over the first show jump. I asked a few people if they may like to go XC for me, unfortunately no takers so I headed to the XC start. Somehow I ended up being first to go and circled the start box for 2 minutes practicing some childbirth like breathing exercises.
Having now given myself a kick up the bum, the countdown began 10, 9, 8 a slap on the shoulder and we were off. I have no shame in the XC section of the following video (when watched with sound), I rode like a women possessed, there was no way I was coming home with another stupid stop.
After a discussion at the first two, he absolutely flew round, the ground was incredibly slippy so we took it steady on a few of the tight turns but it was one of our best rounds. We seemed to get to everything in the right place, and he made it feel easy, I crossed the finish line and knew that that was the reason I have spent every spare minute outside of my full time job making sure my horse is fed, watered and exercised and also why I had peeled myself out of bed at 4.30 that morning.
Pro photo here -
https://www.facebook.com/CMWequestr...407513742116/1784866551796212/?type=3&theater
Video can be watched here -
https://www.facebook.com/CMWequestrian/videos/vb.1765407513742116/1784882538461280/?type=2&theater
The XC caused a multitude of issues, eliminations were ripe as well as a fair amount of 20 penalties. The time faults were the biggest contributing factor, I was surprised to see I had 19 too slow time faults, when we usually get faults for being too fast! But that was until I noticed the average amount of time faults seemed to be about 40!
I am incredibly proud to say, that at our last event of our first (very testing) season we finally achieved our first event placing finishing 10th.
On mornings of events I have leisurely ventured to the yard, usually plaited in the morning and made it to my venue in time for lunch. Of course at some point, that was going to change, and Sunday 25th at Moreton Morrell we were horse number 2. As I peeled myself out of the comfort of my bed, at 4.30am, and tried to convince my dogs to get out of bed and go outside I momentarily questioned my mental state.
We arrived, and despite my 4.30 start I probably could have done with another half an hour. But no matter, studs were in, horse was tacked up and hair net forgotten we headed to the dressage warm up.
Ten minutes later, we trotted round the arena crossing my fingers they would give us a good three laps, after one lap we entered at A.
Ill be honest, half way through I thought to myself this is going remarkably well, not once have I had to take avoiding action of a plant pot or white board and I was pretty sure we had cantered on the right leg both times. I was very pleased to achieve our best dressage score of 36.3 (those that have followed us will know the struggle dressage has been, we started the season with 47.8).
I had left course walking for the two hour gap I had kindly been given between dressage and show jumping. I think it was probably a good job, as if I had walked it the day before I would have been questioning my mental state twice in two days, thankfully it was just twice in one day. It lived up to Moreton Morrells reputation of big and bold but not particularly technical, this suits King I can say in hindsight but at the time thinking about our stop at fence two at a comparatively straightforward course at our last outing I wasnt so sure.
On to the show jumping! After our super clear round at out last event I was feeling positive, he warmed up really well, although I was a little worried about the surface in the arena as I had found it quite deep going whilst walking it so I expected a couple of poles. We entered the arena cantered to the first and promptly ground to a halt. Well, what can I say, King likes to make sure Im paying attention Clearly I wasnt and this was the kick up the bum I needed, and I quickly realised I needed to ride rather than passenger. We came again and completed the 8 fault round I had expected.
Good I thought, a big bold course and I cant get over the first show jump. I asked a few people if they may like to go XC for me, unfortunately no takers so I headed to the XC start. Somehow I ended up being first to go and circled the start box for 2 minutes practicing some childbirth like breathing exercises.
Having now given myself a kick up the bum, the countdown began 10, 9, 8 a slap on the shoulder and we were off. I have no shame in the XC section of the following video (when watched with sound), I rode like a women possessed, there was no way I was coming home with another stupid stop.
After a discussion at the first two, he absolutely flew round, the ground was incredibly slippy so we took it steady on a few of the tight turns but it was one of our best rounds. We seemed to get to everything in the right place, and he made it feel easy, I crossed the finish line and knew that that was the reason I have spent every spare minute outside of my full time job making sure my horse is fed, watered and exercised and also why I had peeled myself out of bed at 4.30 that morning.
Pro photo here -
https://www.facebook.com/CMWequestr...407513742116/1784866551796212/?type=3&theater
Video can be watched here -
https://www.facebook.com/CMWequestrian/videos/vb.1765407513742116/1784882538461280/?type=2&theater
The XC caused a multitude of issues, eliminations were ripe as well as a fair amount of 20 penalties. The time faults were the biggest contributing factor, I was surprised to see I had 19 too slow time faults, when we usually get faults for being too fast! But that was until I noticed the average amount of time faults seemed to be about 40!
I am incredibly proud to say, that at our last event of our first (very testing) season we finally achieved our first event placing finishing 10th.
