PapaFrita
Well-Known Member
... to school or compete a horse like Antifaz- heck ANY horse! I must give up competitive riding IMMEDIATELY and start collecting stamps... or thimbles... And WHAT was I thinking getting the round (and my humiliation) recorded for posterity...???
... These were some of the things going through my mind after the 90cm round on Antifaz at our show today.
Yesterday he jumped like a dream so I was confident today I wouldn't make a complete T!T of myself! But... horses being horses, Antifaz was determined to prove me wrong and reverted to some of the behaviour he was infamous for before I got him. The course wasn't complicated, but it was twisty. He wanted to go left when I wanted to go right (did some nifty flying changes though) and I fiddled all the way round... or to be more accurate, I manhandled him all the way around because he just wasn't paying attention. Astonishingly we had no jumping faults, but 2 time faults from him turning like Titanic and almost taking me into the carpark on corners...
I was soooo pessimistic and depressed that I thought I'd better not jump the 1m class, for which I'd also entered, lulled into an evidently FALSE sense of security by A's consistently calm and careful jumping at home...
Then something happened (I'm not sure what) and I thought... What the heck. He knows which way we have to go now, and he's a tiny bit more tired, so he might behave... The Former Instructor gave me a few pointers, and off we went again....
I might not be quite as crap as I thought... Antifaz jumped double clear without touching a single pole although our time was a solid 5 seconds behind the winners- We've definitely got to work on our corners. The jumps felt huge but once I stopped squabbling with him I really really enjoyed it and I think he did too! I'm dying to see the vids (well, possibly not the first one!). I'm soooo pleased I've taken him up to 1m, which I haven't jumped competitively since I was 15 (
) it feels like a huge breakthrough.
Sorry, should probably have put a 'self indulgent' warning in the title!!
... These were some of the things going through my mind after the 90cm round on Antifaz at our show today.
Yesterday he jumped like a dream so I was confident today I wouldn't make a complete T!T of myself! But... horses being horses, Antifaz was determined to prove me wrong and reverted to some of the behaviour he was infamous for before I got him. The course wasn't complicated, but it was twisty. He wanted to go left when I wanted to go right (did some nifty flying changes though) and I fiddled all the way round... or to be more accurate, I manhandled him all the way around because he just wasn't paying attention. Astonishingly we had no jumping faults, but 2 time faults from him turning like Titanic and almost taking me into the carpark on corners...
I was soooo pessimistic and depressed that I thought I'd better not jump the 1m class, for which I'd also entered, lulled into an evidently FALSE sense of security by A's consistently calm and careful jumping at home...
Then something happened (I'm not sure what) and I thought... What the heck. He knows which way we have to go now, and he's a tiny bit more tired, so he might behave... The Former Instructor gave me a few pointers, and off we went again....
I might not be quite as crap as I thought... Antifaz jumped double clear without touching a single pole although our time was a solid 5 seconds behind the winners- We've definitely got to work on our corners. The jumps felt huge but once I stopped squabbling with him I really really enjoyed it and I think he did too! I'm dying to see the vids (well, possibly not the first one!). I'm soooo pleased I've taken him up to 1m, which I haven't jumped competitively since I was 15 (
Sorry, should probably have put a 'self indulgent' warning in the title!!
