almostthere
Well-Known Member
I haven't posted a comp report for a very, very long time but as I am still buzzing from the weekend, I hope you will indulge me a little if I share 
I bought L about 16months ago now. She was absolutely not what I was looking for - she was a she for a start and her flatwork was truly awful (my weakest phase) BUT when I jumped her she made me smile... a lot. So I bought her and then reality set in. Turns out that one of the reasons her flatwork was awful was that she had been showjumped and only jumped for most of her adult life and her muscles were all short and tight where they shouldn't be. She had no idea about working properly over her back and contact was an alien concept. So back to square one, 5 stage vetting x rays and scans re-checked to eliminate underlying physical issues, then loads and loads and loads (do you get the idea?) of physio and loads and loads of straight line hacking, trying to get her to stretch out those muscles. She was also rather stressy and when asked to do something she didn't understand she would go up...quite high 
. Cue lots of blood, sweat and tears from me and doubts as to whether we could make it at all - was I trying to change her into something that she didn't want to do, was I capable enough to do so etc etc? BUT I have an amazing support network of special friends and surrounded myself with some pretty damn fantastic trainers and we ploughed on. She was also absolutely fantastically gentle with my kids which earned her some huge brownie points.
Fast forward to this event season and we have had a blast. She still is (and possibly always will be a little) incredibly tense in the dressage (first test she reared 3 times and we scored 42, second test no rearing but very tense and behind the leg to score 45 but hopefully that will improve as she understands more.
On to Sunday...I know, I know I took far too long on the intro but when you understand where we were I think you will understand more the buzz. We arrived in the dark to be guided in to lorry park by torchlight..bless them...love the volunteers at events. I then walked the showjumping course by torch light which I have never done before but may try again as everything looks smaller in the dark 
. I had walked the xc the day before and frankly it had some pretty terrifying jumps in it as far as I was concerned...a drop on a BE90????? Yes, it was actually a sloping landing rather than sheer drop but in my mind that slope had become a 10ft sheer drop overnight . Especially as my ex-showjumper had probably only been around 6 or 7 xc courses in her life!!! Rescue Remedy overdose looked imminent.
Dressage...she warmed up quite sweetly for her but I have learned that working in amongst others is the easy part..taking her away from the "warming up herd" is a very big ask and sure enough my reasonably soft and accepting pony became a plank of wood as we approached the very scary flower pots around our arena. She nearly exploded as the judge beeped her horn but rather than tensing myself, this time I took a deep breath and actually used the explosion to push her forward down the centre line. I can't say the test was ideal but we kept all four feet near the ground and only one v bad transition where she hollowed. I was so so pleased when we came out that I am surprised she didn't collapse from the huge pats. Turns out mostly 6s with a few 7s to earn a 35, I know it's not world beating but considering where we were you'd have thought I had beaten Valegro .
On to showjumping, this is her "thing" so we should posting clear rounds all over the place but even after this long we are still learning about each other and having been ridden previously by a male pro we have both had some adjusting to do. This time she listened (mostly) and jumped beautifully until we came to a jump alongside the collecting ring and she spotted a rather dashing grey to admire, took her eye off the fence and we had it down. Still he was rather handsome so I couldn't really blame her.
Then on to xc.....I was pathfinder...so no chance to hear how everyone else was doing which was probably a good thing. The optimum time was 6mins which is quite long for a BE90 and there were questions in there that she has never seen before. But I needn't have worried, my brave little mare absolutely flew around..never once questioning anything...Drop fence? "yep I just need to pop over this, so I don't land at the bottom don't I?", Step down? "what step down..it's just a stride Mum," Step up? "yep got it from 50 yards away"...Corner? "yes I know you hate them Mum but it's really just a spread" And water? "Yes, I now know I am not supposed to try and jump over the water and I just splash through...wheeee". Awesome pony, clear and 8 seconds within the time. Not only that but we both finished with such massive smiles and both took less than a minute to get our breath back. I am so, so proud of her..it has been a difficult journey and I am not sure we will ever be competitive in the first stage but I really do it for fun and we had such a blast on Sunday that it just made everything worthwhile Thank you for indulging me...will go back to serious work mode now
I bought L about 16months ago now. She was absolutely not what I was looking for - she was a she for a start and her flatwork was truly awful (my weakest phase) BUT when I jumped her she made me smile... a lot
. So I bought her and then reality set in. Turns out that one of the reasons her flatwork was awful was that she had been showjumped and only jumped for most of her adult life and her muscles were all short and tight where they shouldn't be. She had no idea about working properly over her back and contact was an alien concept. So back to square one, 5 stage vetting x rays and scans re-checked to eliminate underlying physical issues, then loads and loads and loads (do you get the idea?) of physio and loads and loads of straight line hacking, trying to get her to stretch out those muscles. She was also rather stressy and when asked to do something she didn't understand she would go up...quite high . Cue lots of blood, sweat and tears from me and doubts as to whether we could make it at all - was I trying to change her into something that she didn't want to do, was I capable enough to do so etc etc? BUT I have an amazing support network of special friends and surrounded myself with some pretty damn fantastic trainers and we ploughed on. She was also absolutely fantastically gentle with my kids which earned her some huge brownie points.Fast forward to this event season and we have had a blast. She still is (and possibly always will be a little) incredibly tense in the dressage (first test she reared 3 times
and we scored 42, second test no rearing but very tense and behind the leg to score 45 but hopefully that will improve as she understands more. On to Sunday...I know, I know I took far too long on the intro but when you understand where we were I think you will understand more the buzz
. We arrived in the dark to be guided in to lorry park by torchlight..bless them...love the volunteers at events. I then walked the showjumping course by torch light which I have never done before but may try again as everything looks smaller in the dark . I had walked the xc the day before and frankly it had some pretty terrifying jumps in it as far as I was concerned...a drop on a BE90????? Yes, it was actually a sloping landing rather than sheer drop but in my mind that slope had become a 10ft sheer drop overnight . Especially as my ex-showjumper had probably only been around 6 or 7 xc courses in her life!!! Rescue Remedy overdose looked imminent.Dressage...she warmed up quite sweetly for her but I have learned that working in amongst others is the easy part..taking her away from the "warming up herd" is a very big ask and sure enough my reasonably soft and accepting pony became a plank of wood as we approached the very scary flower pots around our arena. She nearly exploded as the judge beeped her horn but rather than tensing myself, this time I took a deep breath and actually used the explosion to push her forward down the centre line. I can't say the test was ideal but we kept all four feet near the ground
and only one v bad transition where she hollowed. I was so so pleased when we came out that I am surprised she didn't collapse from the huge pats. Turns out mostly 6s with a few 7s to earn a 35, I know it's not world beating but considering where we were you'd have thought I had beaten Valegro .On to showjumping, this is her "thing" so we should posting clear rounds all over the place but even after this long we are still learning about each other and having been ridden previously by a male pro we have both had some adjusting to do. This time she listened (mostly) and jumped beautifully until we came to a jump alongside the collecting ring and she spotted a rather dashing grey to admire, took her eye off the fence and we had it down. Still he was rather handsome so I couldn't really blame her
. Then on to xc.....I was pathfinder...so no chance to hear how everyone else was doing which was probably a good thing. The optimum time was 6mins which is quite long for a BE90 and there were questions in there that she has never seen before. But I needn't have worried, my brave little mare absolutely flew around..never once questioning anything...Drop fence? "yep I just need to pop over this, so I don't land at the bottom don't I?", Step down? "what step down..it's just a stride Mum," Step up? "yep got it from 50 yards away"...Corner? "yes I know you hate them Mum but it's really just a spread" And water? "Yes, I now know I am not supposed to try and jump over the water and I just splash through...wheeee". Awesome pony, clear and 8 seconds within the time. Not only that but we both finished with such massive smiles and both took less than a minute to get our breath back. I am so, so proud of her..it has been a difficult journey and I am not sure we will ever be competitive in the first stage but I really do it for fun and we had such a blast on Sunday that it just made everything worthwhile
Thank you for indulging me...will go back to serious work mode now
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