JAS- Demolition, lessons learnt and Surprises – A long one be warned!!

[langside]

Not the best start to 2010 but at the same time it didn’t seemed to end as bad as it should have

Opted to go to Osbalderston for JAS – thanks to everyone who helped with my weekend planning earlier this week

Managed to get lost once again

– we really do need a tomtom or something but luckily a lady stopped us before we headed to a dead end

So we were late and had to rush in the warm up……… something I now know I shouldn’t do

- lesson learnt the hard way as you will hear next

Went in showed fences and got the normal “mum why are you showing me these there just fences duhhh!?!?” started in a lovely rhythm got a great stride to fence one but she just didn’t jump high enough and rubbed the front pole
Think my head was still at fence 1 and rode a stupid line to fence 2

que pone going “ohhh mum was I meant to jump that?” so that was my fault represented got good stride but repeat of fence 1 where she just wasn’t clearing the fence and rubbing the pole off
This was then repeated over the next 3 fences!!!

Now I love my horse but I could have killed her – really just wanted to throw the towel and retire – after all if this was a proper BE event we wouldn’t have got to go XC

It just felt that she wasn’t there at all until we got to the bounce of planks really didn’t think we would have any hope but what happens she clears them!!!!

Jumped better from then just tipped the corner fence

Style was not good as I was just so flustered I even ended up standing in the arena trying to work out where my next fence was and just felt that she had gone back to her previous self – THE I’M AN EVENTER WE DON’T NEED TO BE CAREFUL

So yeah I was a bit deflated to say the least

On to the Open and again low expectations especially as it was bigger than I thought (I was expecting 2/3 fences at max 1.15m height not the whole course

)

Had a joke with the arena man trying to get good odds on how many more I could knock down

Surprisingly though she decided that it wasn’t that bad to clear the show jumps only blip was at fence 5 a style where she just went through the top pole

Again she jumped the bounce clear

– but here again I let her down as I was too busy thinking “how in the world have we managed to get over that again?”

and took a stupid line to the arrowhead where again she truly didn’t realise she was supposed to jump the fence
Represented and she jumped the next two lovely but next was the triple and annoyingly she jumped too big into it and got too close to the next so had them down – she then panicked a bit and ran on to the corner again and tipped the pole

So decided to do a circle RE-GROUP and finish on a good note which we did.

So as you can gather far too many poles went today

However, I’ve come out of it with a number of lessons:

For me: Don’t let people rush you – just ask politely to have a few more minutes,
I need to get my head sorted – thinking of seeing a sports psychologist as im too concerned over the mistakes and it affects me
And I need to make sure I don’t get too quick with my upper body (something Kenneth spotted in both rounds)– I expect her to jump and normally she does although one day she won’t and I might not be so lucky and hopefully it will help the pone too

For the Beast: Although Osbalderston was fine it just doesn’t suit her – small and surface was a little deep, Ensure she gets a good warm up, and really keep her collected especially at the bigger heights – at 1m we can get away with fast but cracks show as we progress

And as A partnership – We need to have some more lessons – something even my tight Yorkshire father admitted

, and that my horse is not a machine so I need to give us chance and understand that improvements won’t be instant

The amazing thing though was finding out we had got 7th

and 9th

got two lovely rossies and have qualified for the finals for both classes – Jammy comes to mind

Whether we go to the finals depends on us learning and improving from this experience

Got some lovely comments off people saying how well I rode/ how well I kept calm including Kenneth after them comp which really meant alot

And the final good news was that the family had a winner at Haydock today

Afraid no pics – not sure I’d want to show you them even if I had though

Sorry I didn’t get to see you Charlotte hope you had a better day

- will pm you soon

Will offer some honey coated gammon with layered salad if you have managed to get through my essay of analysis

And a glass of rose wine (not that im suggesting that HHOers are alcoholics

) to anyone who can suggest some exercises to help improve cleanness……

 

[Gamebird]

Oh bless! Sounds like a nightmare day. You are very jammy though, I would never qualify like that - my luck just doesn't do it!

OK I'm going to be very boring and NOT suggest V-poles, high X-poles or grids (though they may all help!). It's all about the canter! Improve the quality and engagement of the canter and the poles will stay up. Easier said than done and also very dull but true. Now can I have the wine please???????

 

[Navalgem]

Congratulations!!

Osbaldeston is ok, it is small esp the short sides and they always build to height!!!! I've been for BSJA and they look huge compared to other places that dont have most of the course at height! I don't like the surface and I find it quite slippy too.

 

[langside]

Thanks GB and Navalgem

Navalgem - do you know what the surface is meant to be? We thought it looked a bit like Alfa A

GB - To be honnest i think your bang on there - like i said in the open we were going really well until my stupid steering and then i think i became too flustered and forgot about keeping it all together and engaged
Shes a very 'shouldery' horse and when we 1st got her we thought there was something wrong with her as she seemed to drag her back end in flat work - turns out shes just lazy so a recap is probably what is needed
Im thinking more lateral work??? good job our season won't start until april now

For that sound advice a glass of wine (that is more oakish than i expected

) is heading over as we speak

 

[Navalgem]

[ QUOTE ]

Navalgem - do you know what the surface is meant to be? We thought it looked a bit like Alfa A

[/ QUOTE ]

No idea what it's meant to be

, I thought it was maybe peat and chopped straw! Alfa A is as good a description as any!

It's awful and it's been there for 14 years that I can remember!

 

[jumptoit]

Congrats on qualifying

! Sounds like you got some lovely comments so I'm sure you'll be polished and perfect by April!

Lateral work sounds a good plan and an exercise I did the other night was on a 20m circle 8 strides trot and 8 strides canter, it really got them engaged, off the leg and listening.

And a huge congrats for the family for Haydock too

!

 

[Charlotte125]

Well done!! shame i didnt see you, probably will another time! my day wasnt alot better, horse jumped well, just rider got lost and stood around for a few minutes thinking where to go! i must remeber to leave more time and walk the course and not be rushed as well!! hopefully there will be some nice pictures!
The course wasnt the most inviting, i think they crammed as many in as possible, and the bounce was a bit harsh!!
well done anyways.

 

[VRIN]

The surface is the original surface which has been topped up along the way.

 

[TableDancer]

Well done, sounds like loads of positives and congrats on qualifying

I'm with GB on the canter - and I'm sure the shoulders will help tremendously too. If thinking about your shoulders doesn't help, try thinking about your abdomen - those jolly "core" muscles - and not collapsing them but pulling your ribcage up.

 

[langside]

thanks TD lots of homework to be done....