My pony has a tallent!!!!!!! (self indulgent)

S

SouthWestWhippet

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Not really much of a one for the self indulgent post but I was so pleased with Polly today - I think she has found her niche. It would appear that my 15.2, TBx is absolutely fab at ... wait for it... Handy Hunter
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!

Me and my mate entered the Handy Hunter pairs primarily because there were 53 entries in the SJ class before ours and we were really bored. Considering both our ponies are "a bit lively" (i.e. no brakes and limited steering), I have never seen a hunting horn, let alone tried to blow one, the only time I've ever tried to mount Polly in the road she ran off with me hanging off one side and the one thing we knew for certain was that Polly doesn't load very well we mostly entered to amuse our friends but the two ponies absolutely adored it.

Polly stood like a rock when I dismounted to open the gate, she jumped the little 'walk over the bridge thing', she was only mildly afraid of my horrific horn blowing attempts and she practically RAN up the ramp into the horse box (I think she thought she was going home). And she was so calm that when I dismounted to take her saddle off, she started cropping the grass! This from the pony that comes out of the SJ arena so hyped up I can feel her mouth trembling on the end of the reins.

Unfortunately I let the side down by being so dramatically overwhelmed by Polly's amazing loading skills that I forgot that we had to put the back ramp up and wasted a lot of time
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. Still, we came 5th and we were both really pleased with our horses. Obviously Handy Hunter is going to be Polly's 'special skill'. LOL
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Anyway, sorry, no really point to this post other than that I had lots of fun today and it was a welcome break from stage 2 position training. thanks for reading!
J
 
That sounds an interesting class - 'Handy Hunter', can you tell me what else you had to do please? I am involved with our local show which is run by 2 hunts so could be a good one for us to hold.
Well done to you by the way!
 
It was a really good, fun class. Basically it consited of a series of 'obstacles' or 'tasks' set up around the arena. It was a pairs class and went as follows...

First one of the riders had to ride to the other, leading the second pony. Then the other rider had to mount.

Both riders rode to a couple of guys holding plastic cups of ribena which you had to 'down in one' (like a stirrup cup).

Then both riders rode to the next person who was holding a hunting horn and one rider had to blow it for 5 secs.

Then rider rode onto the next person who was holding a hunting crop and one rider had to crack it.

Then both riders rode over to a gate (post and rail), one rider dismounted, opened the gate, let the other rider through and remounted.

Then both riders rode a small obstacle course consisting of a 'tunnel' of straw and branches, a couple of low jumps (about 2' max) including a narrow jump and a wide straw jump which had to be jumped side by side.

The the riders had to cross a bridge (some planks of wood set between straw bales)

Finally, both riders had to dismount, run up the stirrups, remove the saddles, load both horses into an Ifor Williams (in bridles), put up the back partitions and ramp and run for the finish. There were a couple of people on hand at the trailer to hold the horse whilst you took the saddle off etc.

You could go as fast or slow as you liked, the jumps were small enough to step over for most people. the only potentially 'sticky moment' really was cracking the hunting whip which freaked a few horses out so if you were doing a novice class you might want to leave that bit out
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Oh and they split it into adults and kids section which was good because all the kids were leaping on at gallop (bloody prince phillip cup types LOL)!!!!!!
 
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