Arniebear
Well-Known Member
My last eventing report saw us with a cricket score on the xc due to some napping demons reappearing, so to say i was apprehensive about heading to Aston le walls would be an understatment! It's a bit of trek for me and i didnt really fancy going all that way if the demons were to reappear! But alas what will be will be, i shall start us off at the beginning of the week when i decided to take an improtu day off work to play at the beach 
This was great fun! Made even better when my friend took a dunking, dont worry i didnt laugh until she did and until after i had caught her horse, with a soggy friend remounted we had a few good gallops where the slow bear left a slightly unfitter irish sports horse for dust.... honestly bear is by no means fast but my friends horse is young and hasnt quite learnt the gallop stride yet so he just canters faster bless him, which meant bear had the upper hand for a change! After some more playing in the north sea i was dared to see how deep i would go, bear stands at 17.2hh but i bottled it when my feet were submerged.... plenty deep enough for me i didnt fancy a dunking as i forgot to pack spare clothes so all in all a very successful day out to the beach, thats the 3rd friend/family memeber who's had a real taste of the north sea via horseback.... apprently its my turn next for a dunking so i best remember my spare clothes next time just in case!!
A few pics!!
Moving onto wed where i headed out for a sj lesson in prep for Aston on sat.... the less said about this the better.... i left feeling very a deflated, useless rider on the verge of withdrawing from sat
I just failed miserably to ride my horse at all, we even had stops this is just not really a thing bear does but honestly i rode that badly im surprised he didnt load himself go home and leave me behind! After a lengthy talking to from my chief groom/friend who took a dunking i manned up and finished off some prep for sat on thurs and fri.
Saturday loomed the lorry was packed, bear was pre studded (travel studs) and plaited and come 8:30 sat morning we were en route, the run up wasnt too bad its about 2.5 hours from me but we managed to avoid any bad traffic, arriving with plenty of time to walk courses and chill before dressage. The xc looked ok, the first 8 fences were the same as the unaff i ran in a few months back, so yes he had jumped these before but he also occurred 4 stops (2 at the water and 2 stuck on top of the bank) so i devised a new plan to attack fence 5a log before the water. It was a fairly straight line from 4-5 but i decided to jump 4 and go right and then curve back over to the log, 2 main reasons for this, if the napping demons were to resurface they would do it at 5a and second of all there is a big white KBIS sponsorship sign stuck on the side of a bank right in the view line if you were to go straight from 4-5 he can get very distracted by things in the distance so i decided to take his eye line away from this. My plan for the bank was to get up it and then kick on to get down not taking my eye off the tree line in the distance! The rest of the course looked ok! Fence 9 was another step down to a skinny again plan was to kick on and keep my eyes up, 10 a corner as long as i had the correct line we should be ok! 12 was a big looking brush fence that apprently was 1m10 with the brush allowance in place - my aim here was to kick on too, theres a bit of a reocurring theme here, the last real question was a double of boaty type fences at 14 and then 15 to finish.
So we got tacked up and headed off to the stressage! Sometimes bear likes to have a melt down about my legs and sadly this occurred in the warm up, any amount of leg results in a fast forward or sideways momentum, sometime i will argue through with him with some persistant leg yields and he gets over it but this time i thought sod it, so i walked for ages and made it all so very boring, with bear back on side we headed in to the arena, the first part was ok then we had the first canter in the m-c corner sadly for bear a rather annoying child decided to jump up and down on the gravel screaming just the other side of the judges box when i asked for canter so bear became rather tense for the canter, he did settle for the remainder of the test so i wasnt too disheartened or disappointed with a 34.8, he did try bless him!
Back to the box and a quick change for sj (i had quite close times which was quite nice!) now after wednesdays melt down the plan was kick on keep the rhythm and leave the jumping to him! I did manage this quite well.... i think, we lost the rhythm on the turn from 2-3 so took 3 down, but i managed to sort it out in time for 4 which was on a related distance, 5,6,7 and 8 we jumped nicely i remembered to check before 9 to prevent him running on his forehand so we finished off with 4 faults! Certainly not complaining about that..... i actually remembered how to jump my horse!!
Onto xc with only positive thoughts in my head bear decided he would drag me round the warmup, i have to say this is a lovely feeling! There used to be a time i would have to push for every fence so for him to tow me in it makes for a nice change! Out the start box and flew 1 and 2, we began to wobble into 3 - with napping in my head i growled a little and he popped it nicely, we wobbled again at 4 so a little more growling to assist and we were over sticking to my plan we hanged right and took a curving line to 5, some growling once more to make sure he popped the log and nicely through the water, spooking at the 100 c element as we exited i did reassure bear that that fence was scary so we wouldnt be jumping it anyway! (it was big!!) saw a nice stride into 6 and then onto the bank, i dont usually hear the commentator as i go round but in the unaff a few months back i did hear him mention we were stuck on the bank for quite a while! but with my eyes up and legs on we flew up and popped down nicely - wooohoooo my 2 demon fences out the way! Flew 8 and nice a steadily through the step down to skinny combo at 9, he took an absolute flyer at the corner at 10 and then i opened him up for a nice gallop to 11 and once again to 12 the brush, i checked him 4 strides out and then left him to it at the brush, flew 13 and nicely through the combination at 14 and the last steeplchase type fence at 15....... we were home..... CLEAR.... with NO napping!!!!! SUCCESS!!!!!!
A few pics of us in action!!
SJ fence 1
[Content removed]
The brush at 12
[Content removed]
The log pile at 13
[Content removed]
I couldnt have been prouder of him, he took my into pretty much every fence, those he wobbled at he listened and poppped through nicely after my reassurance! Ok so we werent troubling the leaders with a final score of 38.8 but who cares!!! It such an amazing feeling to think how far we have come, i brought him as a gangly 4 yr old who had barely done anything, we have overcome a potential carreer ending tendon injury at age 5, surgery, box rest etc etc to my lovely 7yr old who has just flown round our 3rd BE90, a week after placing at novice BD!! He has so much more to come his future is deffinatly an exciting one and im so glad i get to be part of it 
Next up is Keysoe on the 30th then probably burnham market in sept (with a nice holiday in between!) Thanks for reading my ramblings i hope i entertained!!
This was great fun! Made even better when my friend took a dunking, dont worry i didnt laugh until she did and until after i had caught her horse, with a soggy friend remounted we had a few good gallops where the slow bear left a slightly unfitter irish sports horse for dust.... honestly bear is by no means fast but my friends horse is young and hasnt quite learnt the gallop stride yet so he just canters faster bless him, which meant bear had the upper hand for a change! After some more playing in the north sea i was dared to see how deep i would go, bear stands at 17.2hh but i bottled it when my feet were submerged.... plenty deep enough for me i didnt fancy a dunking as i forgot to pack spare clothes
so all in all a very successful day out to the beach, thats the 3rd friend/family memeber who's had a real taste of the north sea via horseback.... apprently its my turn next for a dunking so i best remember my spare clothes next time just in case!!A few pics!!
Moving onto wed where i headed out for a sj lesson in prep for Aston on sat.... the less said about this the better.... i left feeling very a deflated, useless rider on the verge of withdrawing from sat
I just failed miserably to ride my horse at all, we even had stops this is just not really a thing bear does but honestly i rode that badly im surprised he didnt load himself go home and leave me behind! After a lengthy talking to from my chief groom/friend who took a dunking i manned up and finished off some prep for sat on thurs and fri.Saturday loomed the lorry was packed, bear was pre studded (travel studs) and plaited and come 8:30 sat morning we were en route, the run up wasnt too bad its about 2.5 hours from me but we managed to avoid any bad traffic, arriving with plenty of time to walk courses and chill before dressage. The xc looked ok, the first 8 fences were the same as the unaff i ran in a few months back, so yes he had jumped these before but he also occurred 4 stops (2 at the water and 2 stuck on top of the bank) so i devised a new plan to attack fence 5a log before the water. It was a fairly straight line from 4-5 but i decided to jump 4 and go right and then curve back over to the log, 2 main reasons for this, if the napping demons were to resurface they would do it at 5a and second of all there is a big white KBIS sponsorship sign stuck on the side of a bank right in the view line if you were to go straight from 4-5 he can get very distracted by things in the distance so i decided to take his eye line away from this. My plan for the bank was to get up it and then kick on to get down not taking my eye off the tree line in the distance! The rest of the course looked ok! Fence 9 was another step down to a skinny again plan was to kick on and keep my eyes up, 10 a corner as long as i had the correct line we should be ok! 12 was a big looking brush fence that apprently was 1m10 with the brush allowance in place - my aim here was to kick on too, theres a bit of a reocurring theme here, the last real question was a double of boaty type fences at 14 and then 15 to finish.
So we got tacked up and headed off to the stressage! Sometimes bear likes to have a melt down about my legs and sadly this occurred in the warm up, any amount of leg results in a fast forward or sideways momentum, sometime i will argue through with him with some persistant leg yields and he gets over it but this time i thought sod it, so i walked for ages and made it all so very boring, with bear back on side we headed in to the arena, the first part was ok then we had the first canter in the m-c corner sadly for bear a rather annoying child decided to jump up and down on the gravel screaming just the other side of the judges box when i asked for canter so bear became rather tense for the canter, he did settle for the remainder of the test so i wasnt too disheartened or disappointed with a 34.8, he did try bless him!
Back to the box and a quick change for sj (i had quite close times which was quite nice!) now after wednesdays melt down the plan was kick on keep the rhythm and leave the jumping to him! I did manage this quite well.... i think, we lost the rhythm on the turn from 2-3 so took 3 down, but i managed to sort it out in time for 4 which was on a related distance, 5,6,7 and 8 we jumped nicely i remembered to check before 9 to prevent him running on his forehand so we finished off with 4 faults! Certainly not complaining about that..... i actually remembered how to jump my horse!!
Onto xc with only positive thoughts in my head bear decided he would drag me round the warmup, i have to say this is a lovely feeling! There used to be a time i would have to push for every fence so for him to tow me in it makes for a nice change! Out the start box and flew 1 and 2, we began to wobble into 3 - with napping in my head i growled a little and he popped it nicely, we wobbled again at 4 so a little more growling to assist and we were over sticking to my plan we hanged right and took a curving line to 5, some growling once more to make sure he popped the log and nicely through the water, spooking at the 100 c element as we exited i did reassure bear that that fence was scary so we wouldnt be jumping it anyway! (it was big!!) saw a nice stride into 6 and then onto the bank, i dont usually hear the commentator as i go round but in the unaff a few months back i did hear him mention we were stuck on the bank for quite a while! but with my eyes up and legs on we flew up and popped down nicely - wooohoooo my 2 demon fences out the way! Flew 8 and nice a steadily through the step down to skinny combo at 9, he took an absolute flyer at the corner at 10 and then i opened him up for a nice gallop to 11 and once again to 12 the brush, i checked him 4 strides out and then left him to it at the brush, flew 13 and nicely through the combination at 14 and the last steeplchase type fence at 15....... we were home..... CLEAR.... with NO napping!!!!! SUCCESS!!!!!!
A few pics of us in action!!
SJ fence 1
[Content removed]
The brush at 12
[Content removed]
The log pile at 13
[Content removed]
I couldnt have been prouder of him, he took my into pretty much every fence, those he wobbled at he listened and poppped through nicely after my reassurance! Ok so we werent troubling the leaders with a final score of 38.8 but who cares!!!
It such an amazing feeling to think how far we have come, i brought him as a gangly 4 yr old who had barely done anything, we have overcome a potential carreer ending tendon injury at age 5, surgery, box rest etc etc to my lovely 7yr old who has just flown round our 3rd BE90, a week after placing at novice BD!! He has so much more to come his future is deffinatly an exciting one and im so glad i get to be part of it Next up is Keysoe on the 30th then probably burnham market in sept (with a nice holiday in between!) Thanks for reading my ramblings i hope i entertained!!
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