SpottedCat
Well-Known Member
Well, pony had been vile and I had been ill on the run up to Longleat, so he had been threatened with being fed to the lions and I wasn't much looking forward to it TBH.
Arrived and unloaded then headed off to walk the course whilst friend tacked him up and lunged him for me (yes, I have lovely friends!). At which point the heavens opened and I sheltered in the score tent for a bit where I was found by DieselDog!
Walked course, and headed down to dressage, pony had obviously heeded to lion warnings as he warmed up beautifully despite a small amount of vocal encouragement from the sealions, and did (for him) a great test - very calm, lacked sparkle and got gradually more on the forehand, but still very consistent and pleasing to score 36.5 and his best mark this season.
SJ is best forgotten, 1 pole down, bottomless going, and very honest horse who rather looked after me as I did not ride to my best. Still, he had every excuse to boot out about 4 of them but he really tried and did look after me, bless him - massive improvement as usually have a minimum of 3 down.
XC and he was very excited by this. Followed LEC, and B now knows what '5,4,3,2,1 GO!' means because he stood up as LEC was given the GO!! which did make me chuckle, silly horse.
Now we've been having speed issues this year (as in too much of it!) so I really held him round Gt Tew last week as it was a short course, hot day and far too small towards the end so I knew there was a danger of too fast penalties. I was really looking forwards to this one though as it was long and hilly meaning I could let him go properly, which he loved! Bowled round having got a bit close to fences 1 and 3, rider error meant we nearly missed fence 9 - caught it out of the corner of my eye and as it was a steeplechase fence just swung and kicked to it, fence 10 was a bit green - double of skinnys on a curving line - he got v close to the second element and scrambled his knees over, then was rather odd to the next fence which was a very easy log - not like him so I asked him to open up down the hill to the water and he felt fine, but I decided to pull up at the water if he was odd to the log there too. In fact he jumped in with enthusiasm and belted through the water, straight through the coffin - very pleased as for the first time he did not look at the ditch and no smack was needed. Headed for home then, angled the double of tiger traps in text book fashion, and the only minor blip was the big table 3 from home. Now when I walked the course I saw someone jump this then career over the sheepwire fence behind it, so I knew to get a good line afterwards I needed to swing wide and angle it slightly. Horse wanted to stare at the fence judge so hit it fairly hard, which will teach him to concentrate I hope! On home to finish clear with just 1.2 time.
Back to the sticky incident at 10 and 11...went to take the front off stud out....no shoe! So I think he pulled it between elements 1 and 2, felt a bit odd then decided jumping was much more fun! Totally sound and happy (the joy of ID feet on a 99% TB horse!) dragged me up the stoney path to his field without an uneven stride, and trotted up sound today, so not sure why exactly I spend so much on shoes!
Just need the shoe back on before Salperton now!
Arrived and unloaded then headed off to walk the course whilst friend tacked him up and lunged him for me (yes, I have lovely friends!). At which point the heavens opened and I sheltered in the score tent for a bit where I was found by DieselDog!
Walked course, and headed down to dressage, pony had obviously heeded to lion warnings as he warmed up beautifully despite a small amount of vocal encouragement from the sealions, and did (for him) a great test - very calm, lacked sparkle and got gradually more on the forehand, but still very consistent and pleasing to score 36.5 and his best mark this season.
SJ is best forgotten, 1 pole down, bottomless going, and very honest horse who rather looked after me as I did not ride to my best. Still, he had every excuse to boot out about 4 of them but he really tried and did look after me, bless him - massive improvement as usually have a minimum of 3 down.
XC and he was very excited by this. Followed LEC, and B now knows what '5,4,3,2,1 GO!' means because he stood up as LEC was given the GO!! which did make me chuckle, silly horse.
Now we've been having speed issues this year (as in too much of it!) so I really held him round Gt Tew last week as it was a short course, hot day and far too small towards the end so I knew there was a danger of too fast penalties. I was really looking forwards to this one though as it was long and hilly meaning I could let him go properly, which he loved! Bowled round having got a bit close to fences 1 and 3, rider error meant we nearly missed fence 9 - caught it out of the corner of my eye and as it was a steeplechase fence just swung and kicked to it, fence 10 was a bit green - double of skinnys on a curving line - he got v close to the second element and scrambled his knees over, then was rather odd to the next fence which was a very easy log - not like him so I asked him to open up down the hill to the water and he felt fine, but I decided to pull up at the water if he was odd to the log there too. In fact he jumped in with enthusiasm and belted through the water, straight through the coffin - very pleased as for the first time he did not look at the ditch and no smack was needed. Headed for home then, angled the double of tiger traps in text book fashion, and the only minor blip was the big table 3 from home. Now when I walked the course I saw someone jump this then career over the sheepwire fence behind it, so I knew to get a good line afterwards I needed to swing wide and angle it slightly. Horse wanted to stare at the fence judge so hit it fairly hard, which will teach him to concentrate I hope! On home to finish clear with just 1.2 time.
Back to the sticky incident at 10 and 11...went to take the front off stud out....no shoe! So I think he pulled it between elements 1 and 2, felt a bit odd then decided jumping was much more fun! Totally sound and happy (the joy of ID feet on a 99% TB horse!) dragged me up the stoney path to his field without an uneven stride, and trotted up sound today, so not sure why exactly I spend so much on shoes!
Just need the shoe back on before Salperton now!
