No Weekend Thread Yet!?!

[Reacher]

Good luck, Chippers , hope you enjoy.
Great stuff MP (as usual! 😜)
Yes I know the feeling re stepping up a level Bernster. My position always depresses me AE even when I think it’s improving. Good luck Fiona / son / Daisy - we’ll need pics!
I have “accidentally “ entered an 85 cm Eventers Challenge (runs over the BE course but unaffiliated and no dressage. ) I had intended to enter 75 cm but class was full. 12 months ago we slightly ran amok due to brakes failure.... over the 75 cm course....regular Sj instructor thinks we’ll be fine with new brakes fitted (kineton noseband) hope he’s right!
Lovely sunny here, have super weekend everyone

 

[Fiona]

Good luck Reacher x x

Fiona

 

[Reacher]

Good luck Reacher x x

Fiona

Thank you . XX
( I was going to say “what could possibly go wrong?!” 😂)

 

[Accidental Eventer]

We moved our plans to today because there is a sever weather warning tonight. We went all on our own and had a fantastic time! Henry was so brave, clever and foot perfect the whole time. He is getting to be so cool. Can't wait for our first event in a few weeks.

 

[Bernster]

Great action photo AE!

 

[Northern]

A good friend came over and we went for a nice hack! The sunset was stunning (but freeeeezing)!

Tomorrow I might take L to the local SJ comp to have a poke around and see how she reacts in a competition setting, no stress and I haven't entered. Might spend the day grazing and watching friends

Have a great weekend all!

 

[milliepops]

a Learning Day for us today
Given what the route planner was telling me about the state of the roads on my proposed journey I really should have taken my own advice and given the whole thing a swerve An hour into the journey we had gone not quite 20 miles, out of the 60+ in total... and the next hour was spent crawling over the new severn bridge, a distance of about 5 more miles. Gah. Should we turn round and go home? No... press on...
By the time we arrived at the show we were both hot, bothered and thoroughly fed up from 3 hours of motorway hell. Warmed up nicely but then I just completely hit the wall in the indoor test arena and retired pretty much on the first centre line, feeling like I was about to slide off the side of the horse.
Just not happening.

Kicking myself for not trusting my instincts, I guess I was hoping it would miraculously clear by the time we arrived but with 2 motorway closures on the main routes we were kind of doomed from the start! Kira is a happy girl in the field tonight though, and I have learned a useful lesson Google maps does not lie! Anyway. Tomorrow is a new day. Might see about some late entries in the week to make up for it.

 

[Fiona]

a Learning Day for us today
Given what the route planner was telling me about the state of the roads on my proposed journey I really should have taken my own advice and given the whole thing a swerve An hour into the journey we had gone not quite 20 miles, out of the 60+ in total... and the next hour was spent crawling over the new severn bridge, a distance of about 5 more miles. Gah. Should we turn round and go home? No... press on...
By the time we arrived at the show we were both hot, bothered and thoroughly fed up from 3 hours of motorway hell. Warmed up nicely but then I just completely hit the wall in the indoor test arena and retired pretty much on the first centre line, feeling like I was about to slide off the side of the horse.
Just not happening.

Kicking myself for not trusting my instincts, I guess I was hoping it would miraculously clear by the time we arrived but with 2 motorway closures on the main routes we were kind of doomed from the start! Kira is a happy girl in the field tonight though, and I have learned a useful lesson Google maps does not lie! Anyway. Tomorrow is a new day. Might see about some late entries in the week to make up for it.

Oh no poor you....

Did you arrive too late to warm up properly?

I hate that sort of situation.

How long SHOULD it have taken?

Fiona

 

[milliepops]

Got home in about an hour 20 including a diesel stop!
Just got totally brain fried and cab was facing into the sun in all the stationary traffic so physically fried too 😂 I had allowed extra time but not really enough and then I was useless anyway 😂

Chalk it up to experience 😉

 

[Bernster]

It’s tough to cancel when you’re ready and committed and there’s always that hope that the traffic will clear. Bet you’ll sleep well tonight!

Didn’t ride like a total pillock and enjoyed course hire today with working hunter fences. Lovely venue too. Kept them small so I didn’t freak out and generally did good. F does take some riding into fences and I don’t always reacts as quickly as I’d like to keep him moving forward but overall very pleased with today’s outing.

 

[TheHairyOne]

Boiled doing dressage yesterday! Your journey sounds like an utter horror MP as it was so hot!

Pleasing day though, went with a new plan to try and get him concentrating at a venue he finds very interesting to the point where he previously just hasnt settled and kept bobbing in and out of a contact due to wanting to look at stuff. It wasnt perfect, but infinately better than it has been before for a 66.4% test and 5th in a huge class. And our Quest team won against the biggest class to date (10 teams). Thats now 4 out of 4 with this one being the only one we have had a full team for!



And the not so good bit...what is that over there!!!

 

[Bernster]

You both look great. And very clean. Awesome team outing too. Well done. My quest team has collapsed in a heap sadly, some folks never were free and the one reliable member’s horse is off games 😟

 

[milliepops]

aw that's a shame Bernster. Are you doing some MyQuest instead?

 

[Bernster]

aw that's a shame Bernster. Are you doing some MyQuest instead?

I don’t feel as motivated for that and it’s a big league table so doubtful I’d qualify for the next stage. Will have a few outings but not too fussed. Might try next season with friends from the yard and see if we can get more consistency.

 

[TheHairyOne]

We have 4 horses and 4 riders and not enough transport normally, so we have done 1 with 3 horses and riders, 2 with 3 riders and 2 horses and this one with finally 4 of everything! If you get the right people you should really like it, so I hope you get a more stable team for next year. We are all on the same yard and it makes it so much easier.

 

[Sheep]

I never post in here but my weekend plans were sort of horse related for once - usually my weekend plans involve mucking out, possibly riding or going for a hack, but that's the height of it.
Spent Friday evening & Saturday afternoon working at our local racecourse - manning the road closures (as a country road cuts across the track at 2 points), checking the ground between races to make sure there weren't any major ruts / holes, and most fun of all (or not!) cleaning out all the stables. Quite an interesting couple of days (learned quite a lot!), will probably do it again at some stage 😉

 

[oldie48]

Rose came into season on Friday which explained why she was somewhat behind the leg and crabby when I practised the moves in my tests in the morning! I was doing N24 nd 34, which are very similar. sorry to say that despite having a good caller I went wrong in both tests. A bit like the Morcambe and Wise sketch with Andre Previn (if you're too young to remember ask an older relative!) did all the right moves but not necessarily in the right order which meant with restarts etc we didn't do very well and I felt a bit of a plonker! I got some sound advice from my friend who rightly pointed out that I chose to deal with Rose's nappy behaviour in the warm up, no doubt caused by her season, rather than focus on getting her going nicely. I could have avoided the problem area rather than take her on. Interestingly she doesn't nap once we get into the arena away from the other horses.
Positives were, we got some good scores until I went wrong, although she was a bit crabby at times I kept her going and both judges loved her. I am only going to do one test for a while so I can focus on learning that and not getting myself muddled I am also going to try to avoid competing when she's just come into season as she's just a little more tricky to keep up and on the hind leg then she can get very strong in canter. I am also gong to try to be less nervous as that affects my concentration, possibly easier said than done though!
Great to read that others had better days. MP I saw the signs on the M5 and was very relieved that I was getting off before the big hold up, sorry you got caught up in it.

 

[milliepops]

learning day for us both then o48

although those days are painful at the time, sometimes you really do get some good information for the future and all those things you've mentioned seem very sensible

 

[Snowfilly]

Showjumping wasn't great, got a super huge and super green Irish gelding to ride and instructions just to take him around gently. I'd ridden him on a hack at Christmas, when he didn't even have canter installed so we had a quick spin in the warm up and went in the 70cm.

He was very looky and I get nervous riding looky horses, so we did a mixture of trot and canter, and then ground to a halt at a scary filler. He jumped it the second time, but big and we couldn't sort out the next turn and got too close to an upright that he clipped with his fronts, so 8 faults.

As it was clear round, we went in again and jumped about 80% in canter including the scary filler, but this time we had a back pole in the double.

He was tired so I left it there; sad not to have been able to do a bigger track or get him round in better fashion but he'll go better next time I dare say.

And I got soaked right through.

 

[JFTDWS]

I had a learning day too - I found Skye's line - apparently shooting extreme forward shots across her eye-line is too far, even for her. Probably the most dramatic reaction I've ever had from her, to be fair, and all she really did was scoot forward a bit... She was fine when we went back to sideways shots, so I don't think I've buggered her up, and realistically she couldn't be perfect about everything, but still...!

 

[catembi]

Fab w'end for us. SJ lesson on Sat but didn't overcook it as we were jumping today at a venue where we haven't been before. Did the 50 cm for faults, then entered the 60 cm as it didn't look as if it was going to be much bigger. But then it got hoicked up a lot, out came the fillers & some uprights were turned into spreads. I was thinking about withdrawing but we pressed on & OMG we got round! Not clear but only two poles & he improved all the way round, jumping the last two v nicely.

 

[Chippers1]

Well I made it out, although I struggle to load him on my own (I say struggle, I cant at all!). Had a horsey friend from work very kindly meet me there to help with the jumps. Buzz warmed up ok but then just got worse, stopping all over the place. I dont know what was up with him - although he did do a massive wee once he was back on the box. My heart wasn't really in it so I think he was picking up on that but we did some 80s and 85s so all wasn't lost.

 

[zaminda]

A fairly long day for us today with a trip to Cornwall. It took us about 3 and a half hours to get there so not too horrendous. Tamba was a bit excited in the vetting with a heart rate of 42 and flew in the trot up. He bounced out of the venue and round the course which was beautiful and really well marked. The Cornish rides always are as when the mist comes down they need to be!! We had a great ride with lots of cantering and I don't think his odd behaviour lately is pain related as he carried himself in a lovely shape and is much straighter than he has been historically!! We got rained on quite a bit but was so worth it!!
A returning heart rate of 50 with a speed of 12.4 gave us a grade 3. I was really pleased though as he enjoyed himself which I wasn't sure about as he got bored on his only previous endurance outing and made it clear he missed the jumps!! Onwards for him and decisions as to where to go next.

 

[DressageCob]

I had a nice weekend. I had two dressage lessons with the little cob. He was fabulous, so I'm going to start looking for another competition for him. He's so much better since he had the eye out. I'm really enjoying him at the moment.

I had a dressage lesson on the big cob yesterday, and rode appallingly. I just couldn't get my body coordinated. So I had my stirrups taken away from me 😄

I had a jump lesson today, doing a short course in preparation for our first affiliated event next weekend. He was fabulous. He gives me such confidence, because he just flies over everything. Even if you get it completely wrong he will still have a go. Such a superstar 😍

 

[Elf On A Shelf]

I've had a great weekend at Aintree! Though I have to say it was really, really weird seeing the place deserted ... I have only ever been there on National Day itself before! I stewarded in the Riding Horse and Cob classes on Saturday and had some truly awesome judges! Then did the Grand National tour by the old stable manager that evening. I think he was getting a bit miffed that people were asking me more questions by the end about racing than they were him!

Sunday I had a lovely morning in the TGCA ring - gypsy cobs are something I have never had anything to do with but again a lovely judge who was more than happy to teach me about them. Her love for the breed really shone through! The afternoon was the shetlands and that was what I was down for. The judge and his wife are truly lovely people, sadly amongst a dying generation in Shetlands. They are very passionate about the breed.

Homeward bound now on the train. Aintree - I will be back!

The National Fences really aren't scary when they are stripped down to nothing! It also shows just how much flumf they put on top of them come race day!

 

[Fiona]

Before XC this afternoon..... Very cute.

Four days short of his 8th birthday...

Fiona

 

[Elf On A Shelf]

And now my train home to Scotland has been cancelled 😂😂😂😂😂 so I am going on a magical mystery tour!

 

[JFTDWS]

That's terrific, Fiona!

 

[DabDab]

Well I made it out, although I struggle to load him on my own (I say struggle, I cant at all!). Had a horsey friend from work very kindly meet me there to help with the jumps. Buzz warmed up ok but then just got worse, stopping all over the place. I dont know what was up with him - although he did do a massive wee once he was back on the box. My heart wasn't really in it so I think he was picking up on that but we did some 80s and 85s so all wasn't lost.

That's a shame, still at least you got out there and jumped a few bits

 

[Fiona]

And another one of them both

Fiona