ann-jen
Well-Known Member
Jenny and I ventured down to Richmond today for only our 2nd British Novice of the year. I wasn't sure what to expect - I was partly expecting the place to be either full of pros on a weekday or noone to turn up at all! There were 2 BNs scheduled for the day so I decided to go for the early one as I expected it to be quieter than the one in the evening. It was quite civilised starting at 11.30 so I didn't even have to get out of bed at an obscene time to get there in time.
I was really nervous - partly because I haven't done a BN for a while due to Jenny having some time off through lameness and then some family problems of my own - and also partly because I'd been told to expect the course to be up to height and technical.
I walked the course which I thought was big but fair. The first double at 3 looked quite imposing as the oxer going in was quite wide. I decided so long as I got over that the rest of the course should be ok. It was quite technical though with 3 doglegs and the last 2 fences quite big wide oxers with funny little fillers underneath.
Jenny started off quite lazy in the warm up - until we began jumping that is! I popped over a x pole a few times and she soon livened up. A nice girl put the jumps up and down for me (thanks whoever you were) so we popped an upright a few times - by which point Jenny was getting quite sharp, leaning on my hands and throwing a few bucks in on landing for good measure!
so we popped over the oxer and then went straight into the ring.
My main problem I'd been having the last few shows was not riding Jenny forward enough into the first fence (mainly in anticipation of her tittling off with me halfway round the course!) which has meant we have sometimes had it down or lurched over it. I have been working really hard to get a decent quality canter established before starting the course and it must be paying off as she cantered in beautifully and hit a lovely stride which set us off round the course on a good note. She seemed to hit everything on a good spot today (I think I'm getting a bit better at seeing a stride and she is getting easier to adjust her stride finally). She was still quite strong though and we had the first part of the second double down - a pair of uprights on a 1 stride distance. I think we were a bit unlucky there - as she seemed in a good spot to jump it. She certainly had no problems with the big oxer into the double at the start of the course and pinged over the 2 big oxers at the end of the course too. I was very pleased with her as I think it is possibly the best round we've done stylistically - even though we've done some rounds that look better on paper in that we've gone clear, they have been a bit more haphazard riding wise. Its done my confidance the world of good and I even briefly considered doing the discovery as well! In the end I decided to head home on a good note and will try to continue with some more good rounds in the BN before venturing into discovery. I'm quite looking forward to the next trip out which will probably be Stainsby Grange in 2 weeks time.
I was really nervous - partly because I haven't done a BN for a while due to Jenny having some time off through lameness and then some family problems of my own - and also partly because I'd been told to expect the course to be up to height and technical.
I walked the course which I thought was big but fair. The first double at 3 looked quite imposing as the oxer going in was quite wide. I decided so long as I got over that the rest of the course should be ok. It was quite technical though with 3 doglegs and the last 2 fences quite big wide oxers with funny little fillers underneath.
Jenny started off quite lazy in the warm up - until we began jumping that is! I popped over a x pole a few times and she soon livened up. A nice girl put the jumps up and down for me (thanks whoever you were) so we popped an upright a few times - by which point Jenny was getting quite sharp, leaning on my hands and throwing a few bucks in on landing for good measure!
My main problem I'd been having the last few shows was not riding Jenny forward enough into the first fence (mainly in anticipation of her tittling off with me halfway round the course!) which has meant we have sometimes had it down or lurched over it. I have been working really hard to get a decent quality canter established before starting the course and it must be paying off as she cantered in beautifully and hit a lovely stride which set us off round the course on a good note. She seemed to hit everything on a good spot today (I think I'm getting a bit better at seeing a stride and she is getting easier to adjust her stride finally). She was still quite strong though and we had the first part of the second double down - a pair of uprights on a 1 stride distance. I think we were a bit unlucky there - as she seemed in a good spot to jump it. She certainly had no problems with the big oxer into the double at the start of the course and pinged over the 2 big oxers at the end of the course too. I was very pleased with her as I think it is possibly the best round we've done stylistically - even though we've done some rounds that look better on paper in that we've gone clear, they have been a bit more haphazard riding wise. Its done my confidance the world of good and I even briefly considered doing the discovery as well! In the end I decided to head home on a good note and will try to continue with some more good rounds in the BN before venturing into discovery. I'm quite looking forward to the next trip out which will probably be Stainsby Grange in 2 weeks time.
