It's all Goring wrong.....

TarrSteps said:
Just a note to the tarp suggestion, it's a good idea to make the fence spookier but, if you do it, please put the tarp over the front rail (or use one on each rail) not over the whole thing, especially if you're jumping Nov+ height. Event horses think that solid looking fences are, indeed, solid and if he does get in trouble and try to bank it you could have a real wreck. Obviously people have done it and survived but it's not a fair question.
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That's interesting - thanks. I hadn't thought about him trying to bank it. Hum... I sort of do need to make it look "solid" because arena corners made of poles aren't really the same as solid corners! Would the same issue not apply with those jump for joy jumps that have the arrowhead part on top, like this: http://www.showjumps.com/15-Cross_Country/119-Full_Corner_Arrowhead_Jump.html A horse could make the same mistake of trying to bank that?
 
Rosiefan said:
Of course you'll fix it, you're not a quitter, and I don't agree about the monkey I'm afraid.
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Thank you for your faith!

Twiglet said:
Another corner hater here, so no advice to offer but plenty of sympathy. They're just foul looking things which may as well have a big arrow with RUN OUT HERE => printed on them in my eyes.

Clear SJ with a loose horse next door is not to be sniffed at on a SJer or not Maybe it helped?! Can you employ one for the next event?
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It was IN the arena with me! Running about! Husband was quite surprised that the judges didn't ring the bell to stop me.
 
HotToTrot said:
I felt a bit sheepish about Goring Heath. Initially, I'd entered the Novice. The idea was to have a nice easy run there after the Intermediate at Gatcombe. Then, buoyed by my (relative) success at Oasby Novice, I'd concluded that no, nothing could possibly go wrong at Gatcombe, of course I wouldn't need a Nov run afterwards, and the only remotely sensible course of action would be to w/d from Goring and head to Belton Intermediate. Then Gatcombe-gate occurred. Cap in hand, I w/d from Belton and went pleading to the entries secretary at Goring. Entires had closed, but could she possibly fit me in...?

Ever supportive, my husband offered to lunge Vito before my dressage. "Do you know how to do this?" I asked, doubtfully. "Not hard, is it?", he snorted, "I just pull him around a bit on the end of a rope." So, with the baby strapped onto his chest in the baby carrier, and Vito plodding along on the end of the lunge line, he went off to lunge whilst I got changed in the trailer. Anxiously, I tried to be far enough out of the trailer so I could keep an eye on the husband/horse/baby chaos that was unfolding, whilst being far enough in the trailer that my unsuspecting lorry park neighbours would not be subjected to the sight of my bare bottom as I hastily stipped off into my cream jods. It's less than straightforward to shout lunging instructions at a baby-wearing husband when one is semi naked in the back of a horse box. I think this lasted for abut two mins, then we went over to the DR.

"So", said my husband, after consulting with the steward. "We may have got your time wrong. You're in now." I said nothing. What could I say? Even if I'd had the faintest chance to warm up, I doubt it would have made any difference. Our DR tests this season have consisted of Vito resisting, tensing and wiggling, and our marks being atrociously low. In some circumstances, this may have been a cause for frustration, but the undoubted of advantage of being really quite rubbish in all three phases is that the dressage very quickly becomes an irrelevance. The question is not "A cricket score or not?" but rather "how bad a cricket score?" The judge beeped immediately for me to start. Vito was spooking at everything. I weighed it up: One more lap of the arena in an effort to settle him, but risk annoying the already upset judge by being even later, or not? I went round on a second lap. The judge beeped again. Oh. Wrong call.

Next up, show jumping. as I came to the first, I discovered a disadvantage of not having been able to walk the course. I mean, sure, I knew where the first was, it was that brown oxen (Photo-Jo, picture?) in the middle of the ring. It always is. What I was less clear on, though, was how to get to it. I found myself on the wrong side of the fence in front of it. I wiggled, kicked, turned a bit, and then started jumping. He felt a bit excitable, and as I came to the exit to be let out, I noted with interest that a loose horse, partially entangled in what appeared to be most of the arena rope and a bit of lunge line, had jumped into the arena whilst we were mid-way through our round, and was in the process of careering about. Well, this achieved clarity on one level. I may have many strengths (though at the time of writing, nobody questioned was entirely sure what any of them were) but the power of observation is certainly not one of them.

Before we move on to the debacle that was the XC - some background for anyone fortunate enough to have missed out on the moderately narcissistic ramble of gloom that was my last report. At Gatcombe, I'd managed to scare myself at a double of corners. Corners for me seem to be an Achilles Heel (in fact, most of my riding is my Achilles Heel, but corners are currently Achilles Heel Plus.). I'd had a lesson on corners, I'd mocked up arena corners, but as I started the remedial corner-jumping, it became apparent that I'd really done some damage to my confidence at Gatcombe. I fell off, pulled him out, chased him, held him, and gently evaporated into near-total meltdown about the whole concept.

Mindful of the blow that my confidence had taken, I opted for a steady round. I anchored him too much perhaps to start with and he fought me over the first two. We got far too close to the second, but then things improved. It all looked fairly technical, but none of it looked big. He was a bit more cautious than normal - perhaps a reaction to me holding him, or perhaps his nerves were suffering too. Anyway, I kept my leg very firmly on, and we mootled about a bit and jumped over some things. Then we came to the penultimate combination; two hice on a turn. Somehow, we missed our stride. He helped me out. I sat very still and tried to keep balance and leg on for the second part, but we were wrong again. He helped me again. Drat. Drat. I didn't want this. Next up was....... A double of corners. I got my line for the first, looked up...... And he ran out. I smacked him, came again. As I landed I realised we had a problem. We were going far too fast. I didn't think I'd come in too fast, so I don't know whether my smack made him accelerate on landing, but there we were. If I checked now, I had to get it very right. If I got it wrong and didn't check enough, we'd come to the second corner on a half stride. I kicked. We put four strides in the five stride distance and shot out over the second corner. So we were home, but we'd picked up 20 penalties (and, given that we've done about ten Novices together, that's pretty underwhelming) and we'd fluked the corners when we did get through them.

A pic from Gatcombe (as none purchased from Goring!).

http://s1362.photobucket.com/user/VivianePendleton/media/_0002832copy_zpse28d7944.jpg.html
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This to me says that you recognised that you were going to have a problem, thought about the options and made a conscious decision to kick rather than hold. As a consequence you jumped through the combination......

Now don't get me wrong I am no where near at the level that you are at but you really are being too hard on yourself.

" I'd had a lesson on corners, I'd mocked up arena corners, but as I started the remedial corner-jumping, it became apparent that I'd really done some damage to my confidence at Gatcombe. I fell off, pulled him out, chased him, held him, and gently evaporated into near-total meltdown about the whole concept."

If this ^^^^ is a reflection of your run up then is a run-out really the worst that could have happened??? Ok, the first approach didn't work....but do you know why he ran out? Was it you? Him? Dodgy stride?
 
Nothing helpful, but wanted to say how much I enjoyed reading this (not at your pain but your writing!!!). Do you have a blog or anything I can follow?

Snorting coffee all over a laptop whilst pretending to work definitely merits the hilarity.
 
HotToTrot said:
That's interesting - thanks. I hadn't thought about him trying to bank it. Hum... I sort of do need to make it look "solid" because arena corners made of poles aren't really the same as solid corners! Would the same issue not apply with those jump for joy jumps that have the arrowhead part on top, like this: http://www.showjumps.com/15-Cross_Country/119-Full_Corner_Arrowhead_Jump.html A horse could make the same mistake of trying to bank that?
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True, but they are actually quite sturdy and I've seen horses 'scrape over' them without even moving them, let alone cracking them. Even the lightest touch on a tarp is going to move it and produce a very scary feel for the horse. It's unlikely that a horsey would actually put a foot down, the risk is more a touch or a scrape over.

I see your problem and only you can gauge the risk, it's just a note for anyone doing it to consider.
 
Sounds like a very good educational outing after Gatcombe!

The positives....

...Your focus in the SJ was on the job in hand....well done that you didn't see the other horse

....the mantra of XC riding is " if in doubt...kick ", which is exactly what you did in the double of corners.....proves your instincts are in place & working.

The negative (singular) , is that you had a run out, only a week after having a problem at Gatcombe....what a surprise....that is not a long time to ingrain new habits & build confidence, & by your own admission, the practice sessions were a bit dodgy!
....so....keep practicing!!

The joy of this torture sport of eventing is not only trying to get all 3 phases right on the same day, but also harnessing a bit of luck to help....that's why it is so damn addictive!
 
suzi said:
This to me says that you recognised that you were going to have a problem, thought about the options and made a conscious decision to kick rather than hold. As a consequence you jumped through the combination......

Now don't get me wrong I am no where near at the level that you are at but you really are being too hard on yourself.

" I'd had a lesson on corners, I'd mocked up arena corners, but as I started the remedial corner-jumping, it became apparent that I'd really done some damage to my confidence at Gatcombe. I fell off, pulled him out, chased him, held him, and gently evaporated into near-total meltdown about the whole concept."

If this ^^^^ is a reflection of your run up then is a run-out really the worst that could have happened??? Ok, the first approach didn't work....but do you know why he ran out? Was it you? Him? Dodgy stride?
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I actually think it was him this time..... But given how rubbish I'd been on previous attempts, it's not surprising that he's taken a dislike to corners too.

chesnutty said:
Nothing helpful, but wanted to say how much I enjoyed reading this (not at your pain but your writing!!!). Do you have a blog or anything I can follow?

Snorting coffee all over a laptop whilst pretending to work definitely merits the hilarity.
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Ha, glad to be of amusement value!

TarrSteps said:
True, but they are actually quite sturdy and I've seen horses 'scrape over' them without even moving them, let alone cracking them. Even the lightest touch on a tarp is going to move it and produce a very scary feel for the horse. It's unlikely that a horsey would actually put a foot down, the risk is more a touch or a scrape over.

I see your problem and only you can gauge the risk, it's just a note for anyone doing it to consider.
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I see - I hadn't thought of that, thanks!

quizzie said:
Sounds like a very good educational outing after Gatcombe!

The positives....

...Your focus in the SJ was on the job in hand....well done that you didn't see the other horse

....the mantra of XC riding is " if in doubt...kick ", which is exactly what you did in the double of corners.....proves your instincts are in place & working.

The negative (singular) , is that you had a run out, only a week after having a problem at Gatcombe....what a surprise....that is not a long time to ingrain new habits & build confidence, & by your own admission, the practice sessions were a bit dodgy!
....so....keep practicing!!

The joy of this torture sport of eventing is not only trying to get all 3 phases right on the same day, but also harnessing a bit of luck to help....that's why it is so damn addictive!
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Yes, not entirely surprising, but nevertheless very galling!
 
HotToTrot said:
I actually think it was him this time..... But given how rubbish I'd been on previous attempts, it's not surprising that he's taken a dislike to corners too.
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He is picking up on your nervous vibes. As hard as it sounds you need to try to be confident at corners :-).

Have you tried riding more at the front of it than perpendicular to the midline? I always do this when training the youngsters to do corners, and even as I move up the levels it helps. The only time it can sometimes be an issue is where you have to make a sharp turn after the corner to another one!

But if you are lacking confidence it can help to do a wee loop between them to line up properly to both, just whilst you are getting your confidence back.
 
Darremi said:
He is picking up on your nervous vibes. As hard as it sounds you need to try to be confident at corners :-).

Have you tried riding more at the front of it than perpendicular to the midline? I always do this when training the youngsters to do corners, and even as I move up the levels it helps. The only time it can sometimes be an issue is where you have to make a sharp turn after the corner to another one!

But if you are lacking confidence it can help to do a wee loop between them to line up properly to both, just whilst you are getting your confidence back.
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Yes, he is. I need to practice them and regain confidence. I generally try to dissect the angle - pony club textbook style! But, as I found out at Gatcombe, at Int, it seems you need to jump them on the other angle - the "run-out angle", if you like. At Goring & Gatcombe, they were numbered a&b, so a loop would have meant 20 pens (20 MORE pens, should I say).

photo_jo said:
That's quite a challenge-I may be sometime! :D
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You're a photo_genius!
 
tbh i think you need to stick to smaller ones for now until they feel easy peasy again, and just get into your head that a corner really is JUST a skinny parallel/spread. That's what I had to do (after fluffing a corner at a couple three days when the pressure was on, the horses saved my bacon but it wasn't exactly great!) and that's how I look at them now. Just a skinny spread with a slightly angled front rail. Works for me anyway.
I'd also be jumping skinnies with flags on at home so he is actively LOOKING for the flags and wanting to get between them, that'll make your job easier too!
 
kerilli said:
tbh i think you need to stick to smaller ones for now until they feel easy peasy again, and just get into your head that a corner really is JUST a skinny parallel/spread. That's what I had to do (after fluffing a corner at a couple three days when the pressure was on, the horses saved my bacon but it wasn't exactly great!) and that's how I look at them now. Just a skinny spread with a slightly angled front rail. Works for me anyway.
I'd also be jumping skinnies with flags on at home so he is actively LOOKING for the flags and wanting to get between them, that'll make your job easier too!
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Yes, definitely need to keep it small until it's easy again. There was actually a really good fence at Goring (skinny-ish table, with a wide-ish spread, on top of a hill) and I'm going to imagine I'm jumping that when I do corners. Using flags is a good plan.
 
I've heard more than one top trainer (one was David O'Connor) say that we should all ALWAYS use flags on skinnies at home, that the horses learn to look for them.
Personally I'm not 100% sure but I will happily yield to DOC and others' vast experience!
This article contains the link to where I got mine, cheap as chips. :) http://e-venting.co.uk/2013/06/training-your-horse-to-look-for-the-flags/
 
Sorry, haven't had time to read the replies but just wanted to say quite brilliant report as usual, loved it all but particularly the dressage judge bit and the SJ observation bit :D

Think you should abandon lawyering and become a Jilly Cooper-stylee author we would all rush to buy your stories, which would 1) Make you very rich and 2) Give you more time to practise corners ;) Bummer about result but - as you know, really - you will come through this and put it all together on the same day soon :)
 
I'm not going to say "its just one run out it doesn't matter", it does bloody matter that's why we enter these stupid events!

However, I do love your reports, and you really should get a book together of them cos we all love to read them and im sure "Excerpts of an Eventer" (working title) would be a hit!

Anyway you know what to do, banish that corner demon (or troll under bridge), I'm not so sure what all the monkey's are doing? Maybe they could video it for us so we could have a movie???!!

And some shiny points next time out if you please :D
 
kerilli said:
I've heard more than one top trainer (one was David O'Connor) say that we should all ALWAYS use flags on skinnies at home, that the horses learn to look for them.
Personally I'm not 100% sure but I will happily yield to DOC and others' vast experience!
This article contains the link to where I got mine, cheap as chips. :) http://e-venting.co.uk/2013/06/training-your-horse-to-look-for-the-flags/
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Thanks for the link!

TableDancer said:
Sorry, haven't had time to read the replies but just wanted to say quite brilliant report as usual, loved it all but particularly the dressage judge bit and the SJ observation bit :D

Think you should abandon lawyering and become a Jilly Cooper-stylee author we would all rush to buy your stories, which would 1) Make you very rich and 2) Give you more time to practise corners ;) Bummer about result but - as you know, really - you will come through this and put it all together on the same day soon :)
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After a couple of 2 am finishes in my first week back, I was also starting to think I should abandon lawyering...! Thanks - I will have to come through it, really!

dianchi said:
I'm not going to say "its just one run out it doesn't matter", it does bloody matter that's why we enter these stupid events!

However, I do love your reports, and you really should get a book together of them cos we all love to read them and im sure "Excerpts of an Eventer" (working title) would be a hit!

Anyway you know what to do, banish that corner demon (or troll under bridge), I'm not so sure what all the monkey's are doing? Maybe they could video it for us so we could have a movie???!!

And some shiny points next time out if you please :D
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Thanks - it does matter, doesn't it! Shall I get the baby to take a vid...?!
 
I would definitely pay to read your accounts. You write beautifully. Sorry it's so funny, but " got 23dressage and jumped a double clear" is a bit dull. I managed to inflate my air jacket in mid air yesterday, then fall off( as more Michelin woman than normal) so am in the same " why am I so crap" boat. Onwards and upwards.
 
dianchi said:
Or strap camera to baby harness??!
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Husband doesn't like videoing much, prefers to watch! So cld be a gd idea!

oap said:
I would definitely pay to read your accounts. You write beautifully. Sorry it's so funny, but " got 23dressage and jumped a double clear" is a bit dull. I managed to inflate my air jacket in mid air yesterday, then fall off( as more Michelin woman than normal) so am in the same " why am I so crap" boat. Onwards and upwards.
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Hhmm, yes, I fear they're largely funny because Things tend to Happen to me...! Oh dear re air jacket inflation, what happened?!
 
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