Mattingley unaffill 90cm, is it a nice course? (Plus disastrous comp report!)

[Paint it Lucky]

I entered this recently as my horse had been going really well in his schooling , he jumped clear in a 2'9'' hunter trial at Tweseldown then xc schooled there beautifully the week after including going over some of the bigger fences. Then last weekend we had a disater, I took him to Munstead to do a 3ft hunter trials and though he was very keen in the warm up, flying over the two practise xc fences, once we got on course it all fell apart! The fences were very up to height (I thought), many of them wide spreads and several with brush on top to make them even bigger. He jumped the first which was a rolltop with a brush on top, then I stupidly let him gallop on towards the second so he didn't lock on and just galloped past it! (Cheeky bugger, he does this sometimes and I should have known better!) Anyway brought him back round and he jumped it fine. The next jump was a big wide palisade with a different coloured bit in the middle to make it look bigger that you had to jump off a turn. Horse came into it ok but then didn't seem to see take off point or maybe thought it was too big so just kind of crashed into it. I didn't like the look of this jump anyway and had worried about it when walking as it was one of the biggest on the course. I asked the fence judge if I could just miss this jump and carry on HC as didn't want horse to get hurt. She suggested I give it one more go so I did, this time horse got very close before taking off, then did a huge leap over it, unseating me a bit so I landed partly on his neck, he then cantered off sideways while I got back into the saddle, I was quite proud of myself for not falling off, this would not last long! Had a do a sharp turn to direct him to the next jump which was a hay feeder type one with a gap underneath, he promptly stopped at it and I came off over his head! Can't blame him really as I'm sure I put him off with the previous jump.

So not a good run! Only good thing was the fact that he didn't run away after I fell off as I had seen a few horses do already! He just stood there and let me catch him, I got back on and decided to retire. I was quite disapointed as he had been going so well up to that day and so I'd had high hopes for that competition.

So now I'm not sure what to do, I have already entered the unnaffiliated 90cm at Mattingley at the end of this month. I know he can do the height normally but if all the fences are very wide and unforgiving then I am worried he may feel over-faced? I don't know if this is why he was so bad the other day, or it could be because the ground was very hard, the sun was reflecting off some of the fences, he wasn't focused, could be all sorts of things. I am going xc schooling again this weekend with a friend so I am hoping I can get his confidence back but I am not sure if I should ask to change to the 80cm class at Mattingley? To me this will feel like a backwards step. We did a ODE at Rogate last yar at 90cm and he flew round it, though admittedly most of the fences weren't as imposing as those at Munstead. Are the Munstead fences particularly big or is this what I should expect for courses of this level? (I was round the BE90 course). I was half thinking of affiliating him but obv don't want to if he won't be capable of it. (It is a lot of money for me too!) So has anyone jumped the Mattingley 90cm course and is it a nice inviting one? I have seen course photos from there but it is hard for photos to give a real idea of scale or width of jumps. Sorry this post is going on! If anyone has any ideas/advice please let me know.

 

[Clarew22]

Sorry to hear things didn't go to plan at Munstead, onwards and updwards from now

In general Mattingley is a lovely event, can't really comment on the 90 course, we did the 80 last year and it was lovely and inviting, perhaps you could ask to move to that class for a confidence boosting run?

Just read your post properly now I don't think moving back to 80 is necessarily a backwards step. I did the Munstead BE90 a few weeks ago and was suprised at the difference between unaffliliated and BE as the fences were well dressed and as you said lots of hedges and different types of fences. Even though Mattingley is unaff its still run like a BE event so perhaps the 80 would give your boy a chance to get used to things like that at a smaller height then you can get back to 90 with more confidence

 

[duckling]

I've got course photos of both 80cm and 90cm Mattingley courses from the unaffiliated horse trials qualifiers last year :

www.facebook.com/unaffiliatedxccoursephotos

Go to Photos, then HAMPSHIRE - Mattingley

 

[Paint it Lucky]

Thanks guys. Duckling I ahve had a look at your photos before (great site by the way thanks), and thought it looked very doable though after last weekend I can see that if my horse wasn't in the right frame of mind we might struggle with the 90cm whereas at least the 80cm looks much more inviting. Clare I think I porbably may go back to 80cm, will see how he goes this weekend schooling and unless he is amazingly confident then I will ask to change class just to get his confidence back and then maybe aim for a different 3ft class later in the year.

 

[Solo1]

I absolutely don't believe it's a step back.

Having been in the same situation, I stepped back down a level, did 2 runs at 80 and then stepped back up. Although I felt perhaps my horse thought it was a bit insulting to do an 80 it did wonders for his and my confidence, and then next 90 we did we flew round. So confidently that I then stepped straight up to 100!

IMO I'd much rather skip round something smaller confidently than walk round a course going eeeek.

Well done pony for jumping the scary jump second time round though, mine just used to stop and refuse to go near the fence afterwards

Good luck with whatever you decide! Look up and kick on

 

[duckling]

I think I porbably may go back to 80cm, will see how he goes this weekend schooling and unless he is amazingly confident then I will ask to change class just to get his confidence back and then maybe aim for a different 3ft class later in the year.

Thank you

I think that sounds like a good plan - definitely not a step back, better to have a nice confident run.

 

[star]

Munstead is one of the smaller, nicer courses at BE90. THere's a huge difference between a 3ft class at Rogate and affiliated BE90 - not in height, but definitely in width and technicality. It's no shame to go back to 80 and rebuild your confidence. Mattingley is up to height and width and you'll find the 80 course plenty challenging enough. I did it as my first 90 last yr and found it quite a challenge.