Ambers Echo
Still wittering on
Sorry - proud mum gushy post alert - but I am SO thrilled with Dolly & Katie. Neither of them have done a BE before. They did the Eland Unaff ODE with a practice session over the course first but this was a step into the unknown for them. So we went for along with no real expectations just hoping for a good, confidence giving and educational experience for them both.
But Dolly continues to just exceed all expectations. Her ODE dressage at Eland was 45 including an unplanned exit.... but this time she was a lot calmer and scored 38.5 with lovely comments. She learns fast! Then another double clear. SJ was straightforward but XC had things she will not have seen such as 2 trakehners as a combination and a step down to an arrowhead. She gave a couple of the unfamiliar fences a good look as she approached but jumped confidently out of a lovely forward rhythm to just have 1.6 time penalties. So I think her natural canter will have her bang on the optimum time. Katie was not bothering with a watch as we were just going for experience. In the end she was 11th though - just 0.3 points off a rosette! So perhaps the watch would have been handy after all.
I've done about a dozen BE ODEs now and Katie has beaten my best score on her first attempt. Well I always knew the kids would overtake me soon enough.
As she crossed the finish line the commentator said: 'What a sweet pony. Katie you better be careful as there are a lot of people here who will want to take your pony home with them.'
So next up NSEA JWS and then Stafford BE80T about a month after that. She has had a few weeks off competing as we don't want to do too much but she shows no signs of being over faced or stressed at all.
Video edit for anyone interested.
But Dolly continues to just exceed all expectations. Her ODE dressage at Eland was 45 including an unplanned exit.... but this time she was a lot calmer and scored 38.5 with lovely comments. She learns fast! Then another double clear. SJ was straightforward but XC had things she will not have seen such as 2 trakehners as a combination and a step down to an arrowhead. She gave a couple of the unfamiliar fences a good look as she approached but jumped confidently out of a lovely forward rhythm to just have 1.6 time penalties. So I think her natural canter will have her bang on the optimum time. Katie was not bothering with a watch as we were just going for experience. In the end she was 11th though - just 0.3 points off a rosette! So perhaps the watch would have been handy after all.
I've done about a dozen BE ODEs now and Katie has beaten my best score on her first attempt. Well I always knew the kids would overtake me soon enough.
As she crossed the finish line the commentator said: 'What a sweet pony. Katie you better be careful as there are a lot of people here who will want to take your pony home with them.'
So next up NSEA JWS and then Stafford BE80T about a month after that. She has had a few weeks off competing as we don't want to do too much but she shows no signs of being over faced or stressed at all.
Video edit for anyone interested.