BunnyDog
Well-Known Member
Wow, I am telling you guys, I feel like I am mid season with these results and not just starting off!
Chad went to his second event ever yesterday at the same venue as his first event at the end of October. He was a bit more mature but by no means are we getting close to the term "made" just yet. We had overcast weather and some lite drizzle with temps in the range around 10C. It was ideal eventing weather and the rain through the weekend had given the ground a tiny bit more cushion that the rock hard status that it had recently. The courses were very fair and we had moved up a level to be doing the "Beginner Novice" which is largely 0.70m.
Since we're in different countries I thought it might be fun to see the differences in our courses and dressage tests.
Here's the dressage test we rode and the Xc course. Sadly none of my fence pics show the terrain. It's all on a large hill. And you start about midway down, go down until fence 7B and then uphill slowly 8-14. I didn't get a pic of the stadium course, but I do have video of us riding it.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/VBBFNyARCYZJQnAF8
Chad did what he did last time and just LOVED the wide open warm up for the dressage and tried to "Win Badminton" in the warm up by practicing his huge extended trot as we worked to get ready for our test. Eventually he came back to Earth and got ready for the actual level we were doing.
The judge scored us very fairly and pointed out what we knew in her comments to me after the test. "Man.....once he can carry himself....AMAZING Superstar. No limits. But until then work to find a way to improve the work so it's more consistent."
Dressage video is here:
We had Stadium at 12:32 and Xc at 12:48 so I went over to the warm up at 12:15 as he really didn't need to do a ton. I had not watched my level doing stadium but I did watch a few rides two levels up. I thought given the rolling terrain of the stadium area that the course designer did a solid job asking riders to be adjustable and cognizant of where there horse is over the ground and how to ask for a steady course in the process. Chad has struggled a bit with consistency over jumps in a ring, but I had started tweaking how we ride him now and thought that if I could keep him forward and not behind my leg we might have a hope. And he did just that. You'll see in the video he's still prone to moments where he doesn't accept the contact so much as fight it, but he is progressing and for sure it's better than the last stadium round in October. Stay tuned for his "loft" jump at the in of the in and out at 6. LOL.
Stadium video is here:
After that we headed to XC (at the top of the hill, stadium was at the bottom.) We jumped 3 warm up xc fences and then went down to the start.
All the way around he was grand. Very much in tune with the task at hand and never really looked at a thing. AND he went into the water on the first try!!! BLESS HIM!! (He was worried a bit about water last fall but we have schooled more places and he was seeming to get it, but you never know!!) My dad came and videoed my xc, but his phone might have corrupted the file. So sadly no video from XC.
Pics of the day from my darling husband are here:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set?vanity=Xctrygirl&set=a.10158258107317759
We were told we finished 4th out of 15 starters and I was thrilled, but it turns out that a friend of mine who had initially be listed as "technical elimination" for missing a fence in stadium actually had not missed the fence! So last night I saw I was now 5th. Very excited for my friend and hey...I do love pink. So we'll swap out our white ribbon for a pink one next time we're over there. Which might be next month for the next starter horse trials there.
Thanks for reading!!!
Em
Chad went to his second event ever yesterday at the same venue as his first event at the end of October. He was a bit more mature but by no means are we getting close to the term "made" just yet. We had overcast weather and some lite drizzle with temps in the range around 10C. It was ideal eventing weather and the rain through the weekend had given the ground a tiny bit more cushion that the rock hard status that it had recently. The courses were very fair and we had moved up a level to be doing the "Beginner Novice" which is largely 0.70m.
Since we're in different countries I thought it might be fun to see the differences in our courses and dressage tests.
Here's the dressage test we rode and the Xc course. Sadly none of my fence pics show the terrain. It's all on a large hill. And you start about midway down, go down until fence 7B and then uphill slowly 8-14. I didn't get a pic of the stadium course, but I do have video of us riding it.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/VBBFNyARCYZJQnAF8
Chad did what he did last time and just LOVED the wide open warm up for the dressage and tried to "Win Badminton" in the warm up by practicing his huge extended trot as we worked to get ready for our test. Eventually he came back to Earth and got ready for the actual level we were doing.
The judge scored us very fairly and pointed out what we knew in her comments to me after the test. "Man.....once he can carry himself....AMAZING Superstar. No limits. But until then work to find a way to improve the work so it's more consistent."
Dressage video is here:
We had Stadium at 12:32 and Xc at 12:48 so I went over to the warm up at 12:15 as he really didn't need to do a ton. I had not watched my level doing stadium but I did watch a few rides two levels up. I thought given the rolling terrain of the stadium area that the course designer did a solid job asking riders to be adjustable and cognizant of where there horse is over the ground and how to ask for a steady course in the process. Chad has struggled a bit with consistency over jumps in a ring, but I had started tweaking how we ride him now and thought that if I could keep him forward and not behind my leg we might have a hope. And he did just that. You'll see in the video he's still prone to moments where he doesn't accept the contact so much as fight it, but he is progressing and for sure it's better than the last stadium round in October. Stay tuned for his "loft" jump at the in of the in and out at 6. LOL.
Stadium video is here:
After that we headed to XC (at the top of the hill, stadium was at the bottom.) We jumped 3 warm up xc fences and then went down to the start.
All the way around he was grand. Very much in tune with the task at hand and never really looked at a thing. AND he went into the water on the first try!!! BLESS HIM!! (He was worried a bit about water last fall but we have schooled more places and he was seeming to get it, but you never know!!) My dad came and videoed my xc, but his phone might have corrupted the file. So sadly no video from XC.
Pics of the day from my darling husband are here:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set?vanity=Xctrygirl&set=a.10158258107317759
We were told we finished 4th out of 15 starters and I was thrilled, but it turns out that a friend of mine who had initially be listed as "technical elimination" for missing a fence in stadium actually had not missed the fence! So last night I saw I was now 5th. Very excited for my friend and hey...I do love pink. So we'll swap out our white ribbon for a pink one next time we're over there. Which might be next month for the next starter horse trials there.
Thanks for reading!!!
Em
