Lyle
Well-Known Member
Ahoy! I'm home sick today, so this seems like an entertaining way to keep me occupied 
Well, apart from this coming weekend, my eventing for this season has come to an end. I didn't get to a few EA events this month due to missing out on entries, so I've had to scramble to find an HRCAV (horse riding clubs association of Victoria) event to go to
My grey boy and I moved up to Ev95 this season, and we have had some great results! I'm super pleased with how he has handled all the new questions on XC asked of him, and just how consistent his dressage has been.
I've already done reports from my first two comps, so I'll start from the next one we embarked on.
Wandin HT
Wandin is a major event on the Victorian calendar, and this year EvA95 and EvA80 were given a brand spanking new course to ride over.
Mr Cruze had been a real little sod on the Friday night, so I turned up to the dressage on Saturday with much trepidation! However, there was no need to fear, he pulled out one of 'Cruzy' tests. It was relaxed, accurate but distinctly lacking 'forward' but he achieved a score of 52.5, with the leader on 43.5, and 6th place out of a large field.
My xc and sj were on Sunday, so I walked the course and headed home. Sunday left me feeling a bit green, I was due to XC at 1 so had all morning to faff. The course itself looked challenging, there were a few cleverly placed skinnies, but other than that not too bad!
I won't embed the video, as it's a professional one I bought, but here's the link
http://youtu.be/q5WzOkrrd44
He went around like a bomb, even when his back boot slipped about 3 fences from home (I didn't realize) as he kept on jumping well.
It was an anxious wait until the SJ, but I had nothing to worry about, he popped around nicely to jump clear and finish third!
Yeringberg
I toddled off two weeks later to Yeringberg, a lovely comp run on a very picturesque property. I was on my own this weekend, so didn't get any footage or photos. Typical
Cruze was a little turkey in the warm up. My dressage instructor has said, enough's enough, he must go FORWARD! during out lessons. So we are in one those training bumps, Cruze will be soft, round and slow, or forward and impersonating a llama. I demanded he stayed forward in the stretchy part of the warm up, as he finds this easier, but allowed him to find his own rhythm when I picked him up. He did however, stay a lot more forward than he usually does, and did another lovely test.
I did a quick walk of the XC, which looked nice and jumpable, nothing too tricky. I then scrambled back to saddle up for SJ. The course was big and flowing, with lots of faults to be had. Cruze went in and pinged around, and jumped clear! Woop, I was stoked There were still no scores up, so I packed up and went home, as XC was lunch time on Sunday. When I got home, I jumped online to check the scores, and nearly fell off my chair. We were winning! The boy got 79.55% in the dressage and a score of 30.7!!
Needless to say, it was a slightly anxious wait until Sunday. Mr Cruze dead keen, and stormed around. At one point he was nearly 40 seconds under my minute marker, so I steadied him and we continued rather leisurely home. So we finished clear and under time, to win our section!! Not bad for his seventh ODE ever
TTT Horse Trials
Top Teams Trophy was next on our calendar, this is an annual HRCAV event. I was doing level 2, which is similar in height to Ev95, but more technical XC and harder dressage, as it is towards the top end of HRCAV assessment.
This weekend wasn't our best on paper, but he was so very good the whole weekend. The dumpling did another neat test but got distracted and tense by the horses running XC, and just needed more 'expression' in his medium paces apparently, but was running 8th and still very much in touch.
The XC was quite technical, and full on from fence three. There were a few big boxy skinnies, and then the dreaded bank. This has normally been the level 1 bank, but this year the level 2's got the pleasure of attacking it. It went up onto a bank, 2 strides, over a large angled trakhener, then off and over a skinny.
So XC day dawned and we got ourselves organized and went to the start. Cruze started a bit sticky, and needed quite a bit of encouragement over fence 3, but then settled into a rhythm. He was great through the angled logs at 4, over the ditch and palisade, then onto the bank.
He backed of terrible, I used my stick, he hopped up and veered left, into the ditch and off. 20 penalties, I was very with myself. I should have supported him and used my leg rather than the whip! Came around again and he popped through well. The rest of the course he ate easily!
Video here..
http://youtu.be/0eOK2lrAWUM
He showjumped very nicely, after sitting on the first, he continued to jump clear.
So that's my season wrap-up. The plan is train all winter and come out in EvA105 next season!
Thanks for reading
Well, apart from this coming weekend, my eventing for this season has come to an end. I didn't get to a few EA events this month due to missing out on entries, so I've had to scramble to find an HRCAV (horse riding clubs association of Victoria) event to go to
My grey boy and I moved up to Ev95 this season, and we have had some great results! I'm super pleased with how he has handled all the new questions on XC asked of him, and just how consistent his dressage has been.
I've already done reports from my first two comps, so I'll start from the next one we embarked on.
Wandin HT
Wandin is a major event on the Victorian calendar, and this year EvA95 and EvA80 were given a brand spanking new course to ride over.
Mr Cruze had been a real little sod on the Friday night, so I turned up to the dressage on Saturday with much trepidation! However, there was no need to fear, he pulled out one of 'Cruzy' tests. It was relaxed, accurate but distinctly lacking 'forward' but he achieved a score of 52.5, with the leader on 43.5, and 6th place out of a large field.
My xc and sj were on Sunday, so I walked the course and headed home. Sunday left me feeling a bit green, I was due to XC at 1 so had all morning to faff. The course itself looked challenging, there were a few cleverly placed skinnies, but other than that not too bad!
I won't embed the video, as it's a professional one I bought, but here's the link
http://youtu.be/q5WzOkrrd44
He went around like a bomb, even when his back boot slipped about 3 fences from home (I didn't realize) as he kept on jumping well.
It was an anxious wait until the SJ, but I had nothing to worry about, he popped around nicely to jump clear and finish third!
Yeringberg
I toddled off two weeks later to Yeringberg, a lovely comp run on a very picturesque property. I was on my own this weekend, so didn't get any footage or photos. Typical
Cruze was a little turkey in the warm up. My dressage instructor has said, enough's enough, he must go FORWARD! during out lessons. So we are in one those training bumps, Cruze will be soft, round and slow, or forward and impersonating a llama. I demanded he stayed forward in the stretchy part of the warm up, as he finds this easier, but allowed him to find his own rhythm when I picked him up. He did however, stay a lot more forward than he usually does, and did another lovely test.
I did a quick walk of the XC, which looked nice and jumpable, nothing too tricky. I then scrambled back to saddle up for SJ. The course was big and flowing, with lots of faults to be had. Cruze went in and pinged around, and jumped clear! Woop, I was stoked
There were still no scores up, so I packed up and went home, as XC was lunch time on Sunday. When I got home, I jumped online to check the scores, and nearly fell off my chair. We were winning! The boy got 79.55% in the dressage and a score of 30.7!!Needless to say, it was a slightly anxious wait until Sunday. Mr Cruze dead keen, and stormed around. At one point he was nearly 40 seconds under my minute marker, so I steadied him and we continued rather leisurely home. So we finished clear and under time, to win our section!!
Not bad for his seventh ODE ever TTT Horse Trials
Top Teams Trophy was next on our calendar, this is an annual HRCAV event. I was doing level 2, which is similar in height to Ev95, but more technical XC and harder dressage, as it is towards the top end of HRCAV assessment.
This weekend wasn't our best on paper, but he was so very good the whole weekend. The dumpling did another neat test but got distracted and tense by the horses running XC, and just needed more 'expression' in his medium paces apparently, but was running 8th and still very much in touch.
The XC was quite technical, and full on from fence three. There were a few big boxy skinnies, and then the dreaded bank. This has normally been the level 1 bank, but this year the level 2's got the pleasure of attacking it. It went up onto a bank, 2 strides, over a large angled trakhener, then off and over a skinny.
So XC day dawned and we got ourselves organized and went to the start. Cruze started a bit sticky, and needed quite a bit of encouragement over fence 3, but then settled into a rhythm. He was great through the angled logs at 4, over the ditch and palisade, then onto the bank.
He backed of terrible, I used my stick, he hopped up and veered left, into the ditch and off. 20 penalties, I was very
with myself. I should have supported him and used my leg rather than the whip! Came around again and he popped through well. The rest of the course he ate easily! Video here..
http://youtu.be/0eOK2lrAWUM
He showjumped very nicely, after sitting on the first, he continued to jump clear.
So that's my season wrap-up. The plan is train all winter
and come out in EvA105 next season! Thanks for reading
