I never thought I would...

[Casey76]

But I managed to get myself talked into doing my Galop 3 exam on Sunday. While not any great difficulty, and is normally sat by children, it does involve jumping, so I was really nervous (as I jumped 60cm for the very first time on the Saturday!)

Tartine was a star, and had already helped a pony mad girl pass her Galop 1 earlier in the morning. I was so nervous I forgot to check my stirrups, and didn't notice the stirrups had been put on the wrong side (Awantec stirrups have a slope to the foot pad), so ended up riding with stirrups 2 holes too short and the stirrups sloping the wrong way... it wasn't comfortable!

Fortunately I'm fairly comfortable with flat work now, though I fudged taking my feet out of the stirrups in canter. I managed my individual "show" without any issues, and managed to scramble, with no grace what so ever, over the jumps (thank you Tartine!)

I'm on just such a high (confidence) wise at the moment with Tartine - if only I could transfer it to my youngster!

 

[Sprig]

Fabulous, well done you! It sounds like your confidence is coming on leaps and bounds.

 

[Casey76]

Thanks Sprig. It all just seems to be coming together at the moment. when I think about how nervous I was riding her a year ago, we are flying now... if only I could get over my hacking nerves though, I'm dying to go for a canter outside, rather than just in the school!

 

[Sprig]

Shame you don't live near me. I would come cantering with you. I think you should just pick a day and go for it. I am sure once you do it once then you will be wondering what all the fuss was about!

 

[Casey76]

It's not the cantering which is the issue now... it's actually getting off the yard. To go anywhere you have to go along a single track lane which is a rat run between two villages, and you get all sorts flying along at silly speeds, plus all of the farm traffic. While Tartine is usually very good, I'm really nervous as she has a really big spook. It took me a long time to get any confidence on my old horse, and he was an absolute saint hacking; Tartine gets a lot of confidence from her rider, and if I'm nervous she picks up on it and starts to look for things to spook at

Most others on the yard are super confident, so I don't have many people I can hack out with (the less I do it, the more nervous I get etc).

Honestly if I could teleport myself from the yard to the outskirts of the village, so I didn't have to go through it I'd be fine; but all of the small nooks and crannies with barking dogs and people doing gardening etc - i.e. everything which is a spookable issue - it drives me nuts. I used to be fairly confident, now I'm a wreck.

 

[Sprig]

What a shame that people on your yard are not a bit more caring. Even if they are super confident it wouldn't hurt for them to 'baby sit' you a few times. They may end up with a fun new hacking buddy from it. Do you have a friend from somewhere else who could walk with you down the lane?