kirstyhen
Well-Known Member
Apologies in advance for the HUGE photos, look away now if they offend you 
Given that I've had a fairly exhausting week, spent the last two days on the verge of throwing up moving any quicker than a snails pace and had mentally prepared for Oasby to cancel, I was not at all in the mood to go eventing when my alarm went off at 5am!
The mood didn't lift any when I failed miserably at plaiting up, or when my transport turned up at the exact time I had planned to leave. Nor did the good covering of snow all the way through Grantham help cheer me up!
As we arrived at Oasby people were already leaving and I have to say I did question why the hell I was bothering!
Awesome Action Mum is a seasoned pro at off roading through bogs, so she drove through the lorry park like a boss and parked up next to everyone else needing a tow
that was her Mother's Day made, and she spent the rest of the day feeling rather smug!
My little plaiting helper (the 'feral' cat, who has discovered having her ears scratched!)
The lorry park...
Despite my grumpiness at being late, we actually arrived with loads of time, so I plodded through the mud, got my hats tagged, waded back and got the beast ready for action. My Dressage saddle has gone off to Barnsby to be reflocked, so I had to cope with just my Jump saddle, which on reflection meant a lot less tack to clean later on - major bonus! All I could think of was the quote from International Velvet - "Doing Dressage in the Mud is like trying to dance Swan Lake in Clogs"
Oasby has had a bit of a switcheroo since last year, so the Dressage was now being held in what was the first/last field of the XC course and still had the end of the course running through the top of the warm up. I fully expected this to mean I was sat on a lunatic, but I trundled through my warm up routine and was totally amazed to find I had 'home' Mally with me, despite the howling wind and bog!
Still didn't expect an awful lot from the actual test itself, especially as the horizontal hail started as I trotted up the centre line all I could do was laugh, what bloody luck I must have, so completed my test grinning like a loony! Felt fairly pleased with it, she stayed rideable and didn't do her usual 'curl up and get tense' as soon as she saw the white boards! Dad said the Judge got out after my test and commented about how I had got the worst of the weather!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrZnYNwzw-M
At this point I started to feel in the mood for eventing, Dad trotted off to see if they would be happy for me to go before my time and they said there was so many WD that they hadn't really got any system in place so just to go for it. Trotted over, jumped each fence once and went straight in. Felt really pleased with my round, plenty to work on still, a few times I held on, few times I fired her, but thought I rode positively. Especially since we've competed once since our last event! She just tapped the one down, I saw a stride and rode too strongly onto it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sv6Hz3f9Gk
Still grinning by this point, but I was a little nervous of the XC, mainly as someone I know had retired at fence 2 after 2 stops. I had faith in the fact the Mally is a bit of a bog pony, has done enough hunting to cope with mud and is just relatively awesome!
She knew exactly what was coming as soon as we got into the XC warm up, she really does love it! Jeanette and I have spoken about Moot's tendency to get strong and she said I need to keep my hand lower and reins a touch longer, which has really helped, but I do tend to fall back into old habits when I stop thinking about it.
She shot out the start box with her ears pricked and ready for action, but I was far too busy trying to avoid the boggy bits to concentrate and we got a bit deep to the first. Lolloped along fairly steadily for the first 5 fences, leapt off the drop at 5b (knew I had nothing to worry about after our clinic!) and I near enough halted her to turn and go down the hill to get to 6! She romped back up the hill to 7, flew the hedge, and down the step at 8b. I hear the commentator say my name at this point then talk about a dressage score or 32, however I knew this wouldn't be mine, so forgot it and carried on. Moot being moot didn't even pause through the water, never saw the ditch at the trakehner, boinged up the step, majorly helped me out when I angled the hedge and got rather deep to it and finished without even so much as a puff! Obviously I was hugely grinny by this point
Look at that for a happy face! (And how much does she look like a 14.2!)
This was a very tight angle!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3EAQyq4S4g
Imagine how grinny I was to find out that we had got a Dressage of 32!!! Her best last year was 35, on good ground on a nice day, far far away from the XC!! So hugely proud at this point, even more so when I saw we were 5th after Dressage and had definitely moved up the placing after our show jumping.
Moot managed to wangle a 3rd place, so a shiny yellow ribbon and a lovely rug! She got 3.6tp which I think given the conditions and being pretty steady for the first half of the course! Action Mum had to give in at this point and we were towed off by one of the three lovely tractor drivers. As well as the brilliant helpers and organisers and other cheery competitors, a massive thank you needs to go to my Mummy and Daddy, who are super dooper lovely parents!
Anyone fancy cleaning my boots???
Luckily, I've been a busy bee and all my tack and boots are already washed and ready for next time, I just have my halo left to polish
Off to Stafford in two weeks to do the BE100+ so we shall see how much of a fluke the Dressage was! Sooooo happy with my little donkey, and feeling that all our lessons over the winter have really been worthwhile!
Can't offer you much for trawling through that, all my wine seems to have evaporated!
Given that I've had a fairly exhausting week, spent the last two days on the verge of throwing up moving any quicker than a snails pace and had mentally prepared for Oasby to cancel, I was not at all in the mood to go eventing when my alarm went off at 5am!
The mood didn't lift any when I failed miserably at plaiting up, or when my transport turned up at the exact time I had planned to leave. Nor did the good covering of snow all the way through Grantham help cheer me up!
As we arrived at Oasby people were already leaving and I have to say I did question why the hell I was bothering!
Awesome Action Mum is a seasoned pro at off roading through bogs, so she drove through the lorry park like a boss and parked up next to everyone else needing a tow
that was her Mother's Day made, and she spent the rest of the day feeling rather smug! My little plaiting helper (the 'feral' cat, who has discovered having her ears scratched!)
The lorry park...
Despite my grumpiness at being late, we actually arrived with loads of time, so I plodded through the mud, got my hats tagged, waded back and got the beast ready for action. My Dressage saddle has gone off to Barnsby to be reflocked, so I had to cope with just my Jump saddle, which on reflection meant a lot less tack to clean later on - major bonus! All I could think of was the quote from International Velvet - "Doing Dressage in the Mud is like trying to dance Swan Lake in Clogs"
Oasby has had a bit of a switcheroo since last year, so the Dressage was now being held in what was the first/last field of the XC course and still had the end of the course running through the top of the warm up. I fully expected this to mean I was sat on a lunatic, but I trundled through my warm up routine and was totally amazed to find I had 'home' Mally with me, despite the howling wind and bog!
Still didn't expect an awful lot from the actual test itself, especially as the horizontal hail started as I trotted up the centre line
all I could do was laugh, what bloody luck I must have, so completed my test grinning like a loony! Felt fairly pleased with it, she stayed rideable and didn't do her usual 'curl up and get tense' as soon as she saw the white boards! Dad said the Judge got out after my test and commented about how I had got the worst of the weather!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrZnYNwzw-M
At this point I started to feel in the mood for eventing, Dad trotted off to see if they would be happy for me to go before my time and they said there was so many WD that they hadn't really got any system in place so just to go for it. Trotted over, jumped each fence once and went straight in. Felt really pleased with my round, plenty to work on still, a few times I held on, few times I fired her, but thought I rode positively. Especially since we've competed once since our last event! She just tapped the one down, I saw a stride and rode too strongly onto it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sv6Hz3f9Gk
Still grinning by this point, but I was a little nervous of the XC, mainly as someone I know had retired at fence 2 after 2 stops. I had faith in the fact the Mally is a bit of a bog pony, has done enough hunting to cope with mud and is just relatively awesome!
She knew exactly what was coming as soon as we got into the XC warm up, she really does love it! Jeanette and I have spoken about Moot's tendency to get strong and she said I need to keep my hand lower and reins a touch longer, which has really helped, but I do tend to fall back into old habits when I stop thinking about it.
She shot out the start box with her ears pricked and ready for action, but I was far too busy trying to avoid the boggy bits to concentrate and we got a bit deep to the first. Lolloped along fairly steadily for the first 5 fences, leapt off the drop at 5b (knew I had nothing to worry about after our clinic!) and I near enough halted her to turn and go down the hill to get to 6! She romped back up the hill to 7, flew the hedge, and down the step at 8b. I hear the commentator say my name at this point then talk about a dressage score or 32, however I knew this wouldn't be mine, so forgot it and carried on. Moot being moot didn't even pause through the water, never saw the ditch at the trakehner, boinged up the step, majorly helped me out when I angled the hedge and got rather deep to it and finished without even so much as a puff! Obviously I was hugely grinny by this point
Look at that for a happy face! (And how much does she look like a 14.2!)
This was a very tight angle!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3EAQyq4S4g
Imagine how grinny I was to find out that we had got a Dressage of 32!!! Her best last year was 35, on good ground on a nice day, far far away from the XC!! So hugely proud at this point, even more so when I saw we were 5th after Dressage and had definitely moved up the placing after our show jumping.
Moot managed to wangle a 3rd place, so a shiny yellow ribbon and a lovely rug! She got 3.6tp which I think given the conditions and being pretty steady for the first half of the course!
Action Mum had to give in at this point and we were towed off by one of the three lovely tractor drivers. As well as the brilliant helpers and organisers and other cheery competitors, a massive thank you needs to go to my Mummy and Daddy, who are super dooper lovely parents!
Anyone fancy cleaning my boots???
Luckily, I've been a busy bee and all my tack and boots are already washed and ready for next time, I just have my halo left to polish
Off to Stafford in two weeks to do the BE100+ so we shall see how much of a fluke the Dressage was! Sooooo happy with my little donkey, and feeling that all our lessons over the winter have really been worthwhile!
Can't offer you much for trawling through that, all my wine seems to have evaporated!
