Sarah_Jane
Well-Known Member
A quick turn around after our first Novice at Dauntsey on Wednesday where we managed to clock up 100 penalties. I set a target for Nutwell Court of halving the penalty score. Actually to achieve a sub 50 score on a horse that is unestablished at this level (2nd Novice and 4th BE event) was going to be quite tough. Nutwell Court has a reputation for being quite a soft course in comparison to Dauntsey which was very top end. Walking round the course it was not as substantial and generally smaller but made use of skinnies and accuracy questions which after 20 penalties at an accuracy question at Dauntsey left me feeling a bit apprehensive.
I have put the course pictures on my website http://www.shoestringeventing.co.uk/course-pictures.htm
At the moment I am using lunging to help warm up for the dressage as I can really get her to soften her back on the lunge, hence I lunged for 20 minutes before getting on and riding. Dressage is improving but honestly I suspect it will be next year before I can get a truly good established test as there is a lot of work to do and strength issues that will take time. Luckily it was a much kinder test than at Dauntsey and although it had sideways the counter canter and rein back fortunately were absent! We did mess up the diagonal and change leg over x with a wrong strike off but luckily the test was generally much better and the judge liked her so we gained a 37.5 (10.5 mark improvement - phew).
I know she has herhead up in the air but at least she is still
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRZkEqnjOsc
It was 4 hours until show jumping so I walked the course twice once doing the course pictures and the second time really focusing on my lines. Pip meanwhile snoozed and stuffed her face - I know she is a big horse but boy can she eat!
Show jumping was up to height but straightforward, warm up was tight and I tried to keep this to a minimum as the ground was pretty firm. Probably jumped her best round to date not touching a pole until the final treble where we were just on a half stride and caught the back rail of the oxer going in. Frustrated not to be clear but actually not a bad round.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qH1jVpKSP_8
Cross country I was worried about, I know she is very capable but I really didn't want any more jumping faults on her record and with so many accuracy combinations I was concerned another 20 penalties would be all too easy. The first few were straightforward
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2034vQFtTjU
The first question came at fence 4ab where there was a narrow palisade on a 90 degree turn to another palisade. You could have angled both on 3 strides or made it into a dog leg on 4 which was the option I chose.
I think I was a bit defensive as we squeezed 5 strides in but she understood the question and there was never any danger of running out. The next few were straightforward and jumped out of our stride before we turned in over substantial rails into the woods so light into dark, this was fine and then I brought back to trot for the drop to skinny log.
The log was nicely centered with planted brush which helped keep us straight, we got close but she jumped it cleanly before flowing on over the corner and then another drop to skinny at 11.
Again I just trotted off the drop to give her time to assess the question and there was no question of whether we were jumping it or not. Over a simple log and then the water, although this looked straightforward the rail in was placed 3 strides in front of the pond and with the light into dark effect this couldn't be ridden lightly. I gave her a slap down the shoulder and brought her back to a real show jumping canter and then kept the leg on she looked but never any question of whether to go.
There was a long canter stretch where I allowed her to open out before a gun turret fence which she jumped beautifully (many horses were whacking this), the next question quickly followed with a saw mill bench to a small skinny egg, the bench had to be jumped on an angle to get the right line for the egg, we saw a great stride and she sailed through.
Then onto a substantial brush fence which she sailed over.
The last combination was actually as awkward as any of them with a house that had to be jumped on the angle to a narrow skinny house, the ground was undulating and there was only a stride between the elements.
No problems and we flew up the hill to finish. Despite riding the drops carefully the fact she took the straightforward ones out of her stride and she has a big stride we only had 4.4 time to finish on a score of 45.9.
We finished 13th which was a huge improvement and I was delighted with how easy she made it. She is now having a well deserved few days off before we start focusing our efforts on West Wilts on the 9th August.
Thanks to Nick Perry for the ridden pictures
I have put the course pictures on my website http://www.shoestringeventing.co.uk/course-pictures.htm
At the moment I am using lunging to help warm up for the dressage as I can really get her to soften her back on the lunge, hence I lunged for 20 minutes before getting on and riding. Dressage is improving but honestly I suspect it will be next year before I can get a truly good established test as there is a lot of work to do and strength issues that will take time. Luckily it was a much kinder test than at Dauntsey and although it had sideways the counter canter and rein back fortunately were absent! We did mess up the diagonal and change leg over x with a wrong strike off but luckily the test was generally much better and the judge liked her so we gained a 37.5 (10.5 mark improvement - phew).
I know she has herhead up in the air but at least she is still
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRZkEqnjOsc
It was 4 hours until show jumping so I walked the course twice once doing the course pictures and the second time really focusing on my lines. Pip meanwhile snoozed and stuffed her face - I know she is a big horse but boy can she eat!
Show jumping was up to height but straightforward, warm up was tight and I tried to keep this to a minimum as the ground was pretty firm. Probably jumped her best round to date not touching a pole until the final treble where we were just on a half stride and caught the back rail of the oxer going in. Frustrated not to be clear but actually not a bad round.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qH1jVpKSP_8
Cross country I was worried about, I know she is very capable but I really didn't want any more jumping faults on her record and with so many accuracy combinations I was concerned another 20 penalties would be all too easy. The first few were straightforward
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2034vQFtTjU
The first question came at fence 4ab where there was a narrow palisade on a 90 degree turn to another palisade. You could have angled both on 3 strides or made it into a dog leg on 4 which was the option I chose.
I think I was a bit defensive as we squeezed 5 strides in but she understood the question and there was never any danger of running out. The next few were straightforward and jumped out of our stride before we turned in over substantial rails into the woods so light into dark, this was fine and then I brought back to trot for the drop to skinny log.
The log was nicely centered with planted brush which helped keep us straight, we got close but she jumped it cleanly before flowing on over the corner and then another drop to skinny at 11.
Again I just trotted off the drop to give her time to assess the question and there was no question of whether we were jumping it or not. Over a simple log and then the water, although this looked straightforward the rail in was placed 3 strides in front of the pond and with the light into dark effect this couldn't be ridden lightly. I gave her a slap down the shoulder and brought her back to a real show jumping canter and then kept the leg on she looked but never any question of whether to go.
There was a long canter stretch where I allowed her to open out before a gun turret fence which she jumped beautifully (many horses were whacking this), the next question quickly followed with a saw mill bench to a small skinny egg, the bench had to be jumped on an angle to get the right line for the egg, we saw a great stride and she sailed through.
Then onto a substantial brush fence which she sailed over.
The last combination was actually as awkward as any of them with a house that had to be jumped on the angle to a narrow skinny house, the ground was undulating and there was only a stride between the elements.
No problems and we flew up the hill to finish. Despite riding the drops carefully the fact she took the straightforward ones out of her stride and she has a big stride we only had 4.4 time to finish on a score of 45.9.
We finished 13th which was a huge improvement and I was delighted with how easy she made it. She is now having a well deserved few days off before we start focusing our efforts on West Wilts on the 9th August.
Thanks to Nick Perry for the ridden pictures
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