Never dull with Bog pony

[Michen]

Can I ask, did you ever have issues with control and focus xc? Sounds like Bog has always been good solo xc so maybe not, but would welcome tips on riding a live wire xc! I don’t feel like I can just let Bertie run on if he’s not listening to me but I wonder if a braver rider might just let him bowl on and whether he’d prefer that.

No, Bog has a sense of humour in between fences sometimes (so at Aston when you have to go through little gaps etc he will be looking at a funny coloured leaf and wondering whether it's worth pointing it out) but when given fences he is 100% focused on looking for the fence most of the time. He's been like that since the his first ever event with a semi pro who finished the XC, handed the reins over and said " you have no idea how much fun you are going to have with this horse". Although he's fast I never feel out of control, though it may be that if we were doing a BE100 I'd have to work a bit harder to bring him back enough for anything too technical but tbf to him he does seem to know when he needs to come back XC.

He's never really been green, never did that baby thing of needing encouraging around little SJ courses or XC or making green stops etc he has just always been so bold and up for it.

It's a weird feeling with Bog as he sort of makes you think he's spooking/looking at a fence because the head comes up and the ears prick and you almost think he's looking at it like that to stop but in fact he's just focusing on it and letting you know he's seen it, sometimes even now I think is he spooking? He's not he's just looking for the flags and for what fence you are asking him to jump.

 

[Michen]

I think Bernster what I’m trying to say but not very well is I can see why it would be unnerving on something similar to Bog to just let them go because you have to trust they are going to jump. If he had a stop on him I certainly wouldn’t feel like that. But I trust him 100% to get me to the other side. Maybe Bertie deserves that same trust, I don’t know

I think if I’d tried to micro manage Bog XC (not saying that’s what your doing btw) I’d have really broken his ever so keen spirit and big heart!

 

[Bernster]

Thx M. Before last weekend I wouldn’t have had any doubts but the fence 2 last minute stop has unsettled me! Not easy to work it out from the video but ins feels like he just didn’t ‘see’ the fence until too late and did an emergency stop. Before then I’d say he was bold as brass and prefers me to leave him alone when jumping. I’m not sure what to do for the best but seeing Bog flying over his fences looks very much like how Bertie would like his life to be … I think.