little_pink_piggies
Well-Known Member
... all to get it around a Novice BE?!
So, as the queen of raising hopes and then destroying them has a reputation to live up to... I'm sure there are no surprises that Goring is an experience I want to permanently erase from living memory!
She had gone really really well at two unaffs (about 3'0) on good ground and was working/jumping like such a machine at home on our deep rubber surface...
The dressage at Groing just wasn't right, tense... she broke in medium trot which is unheard of, changed in counter canter and just generally had a marey attitude throughout... ended up with 37 I think? Collectives were 8,5,5,8 "Talented combination but horse not happy today" says it all? The ground was hard but it was an Inter-Nov, not an advanced... SJ was worse, jumped the first nicely after going in on a mission, I missed her to the second so took that with us, flew the third on a really forward shot... and then she ground to a halt for no reason... after a few moments of the usual she carried on, jumped clear to the first double then actively stopped
turned a circle and then came home clear. I have to be honest she had been a bit "dodgy" through combinations at home, but I thought that was down to my bad riding more than anything else. I was in two minds whether to run XC or not but then, hey bugger it, what have I got to lose?! She had a massive nap before the start box but came through it and set off on a mission, FLEW the first three giving me such an awesome feel... and then something happened that has never happened before... she started her usual perfomance when a fence came into sight if I came with any sort of speed, but if I came in a really slow half baked nearly trotting canter she would pop quietly without giving me grief... I managed to get her as far as fence 12, a rolltop at the top of a hill where I came at a reasonably forward canter and she just said "F OFF"... I called it a day, it was no fun, it wasn't a nappy behavioural problem as she wasn't getting away with it and if I came with less momentum and didn't ride forward she would go, if I came with any sort of positive/attacking attitude I had a job to cling on when she put the handbrake on! Fence judges said they had no idea how we managed to get that far as it's canter halt transitions had been fairly impressive...
So demoralised I hacked back to the lorry where when I walked around a corner she actively went lame
When Dave was doing her studs for me he pressed her frog and she went nuts and pulled back, missing my feet by cms! I trotted her up and she wasn't right... pottery and uncomfortable looking
The mother was off on one about not being able to keep it sound, and the kindest thing would be to PTS
I have to admit I could almost sse eye-to-eye with her... How is it ever going to get around an Int if I can't get it around Nov when something small is wrong?
So she had an easy week (not a bad thing when I just wanted to put her in a field and forget her existance!) while A went and conquered Osberton... She pulled a shoe which she hasn't done since before coffin joint treatment in the field, so she coped until we came back when they were due to go to farriers...
Farrier was very helpful... took her other shoe off and immediately saw bruising in her toe where she had been landing/moving strangely probably due to concussion/pain
and about half way through shoeing went to trim back the frog when he noticed that the knifey thing wasn't moving as it should through the frog... about 5 minutes of digging later out pops a fairly large piece of flint... what ground is Goring? Flint! (We know because we sat and watched XC and my cousins found some pieces of it). Poor mare, why does everything always go wrong? Or is it just that things like this go wrong to Arth but he just grows a pair and keeps going? Whereas she is very sensitive? The decision from the farrier was just pads (mum is now supplying him with dental impression material from them as it is cheaper than getting it through farrier connections
), as she is so flat footed that heartbars and pads would give nowhere for force to travel through so you might aswell have nothing... So even more £ on Nora's feet...
Another random fact that I wonder about with her, is every Puissance horse I have seen has been a good 16.2hh+, whereas she is barely 16hh... so I wonder if her small crap feet come from the fact her dam was little more than a pony?
She had Gatcombe weekend off (not a bad thing considering we had just pulled something sharp out of her feet!), then back into work... I took her to Leyland Court on Weds to school her, she felt really unbalanced on take off
and was launching off steps (out rather than with speed?)... and then she had a real fit and just wanted to tank off in any direction? I have absolutely no idea what that was about?
Anyway I had entered her into Moreton Morrell before Goring disaster, so took her anyway as would not get a refund... The ground was cracked in the lorry park so decided to not do much flatwork and jar her up (even with her new pads!)... she did a nice enough test, 36 which put us about 6th after dress but she was much sweeter considering she didn't work in at all
SJ was on a surface Thank God! She worked in well and I went in probably a bit too agressively
She flew though
No thought at all of playing up... two poles fell, the last part of the treble becasue I got infront of her and a parallel towards the end where we took a flyer, but that doesn't bother me... I know how careful she is it's just I rode a bit like a loon... but she came out smiling (as did I!) and thought forward all the way around!
I withdrew before XC, the ground was hard and horrible, and we had such a good experience SJ what is the point in ruining it for the sake of reinforcing that hard ground is concussive at the moment when neither of us are particularly confident XC following Goring?! She's going to do WW hunter trial this weekend if there is rain (doesn't look likely
) and then onto a winter of team chasing and huntertrialling
I just worry that she's a mare who needs everything right to go well? And a good horse costs as much to keep on the road as Nora, who will only go when the day has a Y in it... Or maybe given time she will get more confident in the pads? I don't know... I think Nora is sent to confuse the hell out of me, and that I will probably never get a tune out of her... but she's taught me alot (granted not what I want to be taught!)... Anywho Nick Turner lesson with her in an hour which will cheer me up no end
Arth is fine
Have been banned from jumping him by the mother- grrr
Apart from the KC clinic and Mount Ballan ON... its dressage, dressage, dressage, and hacking whilst combining the "go into a contact" message to keep him fit for Mount Ballan.... We WILL get him doing Moorlands Totilas style trotwork I am sure
He's had a few days out in a big field with the old event horse and the four year old... He's been very good... I did have my suspicions yesterday when he saw us and galloped up from the far side of the field and was eyeing up the 5 bar gate to jump until we waved him off it
- little darling..! I was even more thrilled at 8am when my phone went to tell me he was in the corner of the neighbouring field (in a strange way I am impressed he tackled that hedge without hurting himself- hunt horse anyone?! Although he would bite any horses who dared to come close to him...) snorting at the collection of section A ponies who are appareantly aliens... He was trembling when I got to him and nearly squished me when I led him from field to field... Roll on Weds evening when he comes home
So, as the queen of raising hopes and then destroying them has a reputation to live up to... I'm sure there are no surprises that Goring is an experience I want to permanently erase from living memory!
She had gone really really well at two unaffs (about 3'0) on good ground and was working/jumping like such a machine at home on our deep rubber surface...
The dressage at Groing just wasn't right, tense... she broke in medium trot which is unheard of, changed in counter canter and just generally had a marey attitude throughout... ended up with 37 I think? Collectives were 8,5,5,8 "Talented combination but horse not happy today" says it all? The ground was hard but it was an Inter-Nov, not an advanced... SJ was worse, jumped the first nicely after going in on a mission, I missed her to the second so took that with us, flew the third on a really forward shot... and then she ground to a halt for no reason... after a few moments of the usual she carried on, jumped clear to the first double then actively stopped
So demoralised I hacked back to the lorry where when I walked around a corner she actively went lame
So she had an easy week (not a bad thing when I just wanted to put her in a field and forget her existance!) while A went and conquered Osberton... She pulled a shoe which she hasn't done since before coffin joint treatment in the field, so she coped until we came back when they were due to go to farriers...
Farrier was very helpful... took her other shoe off and immediately saw bruising in her toe where she had been landing/moving strangely probably due to concussion/pain
Another random fact that I wonder about with her, is every Puissance horse I have seen has been a good 16.2hh+, whereas she is barely 16hh... so I wonder if her small crap feet come from the fact her dam was little more than a pony?
She had Gatcombe weekend off (not a bad thing considering we had just pulled something sharp out of her feet!), then back into work... I took her to Leyland Court on Weds to school her, she felt really unbalanced on take off
Anyway I had entered her into Moreton Morrell before Goring disaster, so took her anyway as would not get a refund... The ground was cracked in the lorry park so decided to not do much flatwork and jar her up (even with her new pads!)... she did a nice enough test, 36 which put us about 6th after dress but she was much sweeter considering she didn't work in at all
I withdrew before XC, the ground was hard and horrible, and we had such a good experience SJ what is the point in ruining it for the sake of reinforcing that hard ground is concussive at the moment when neither of us are particularly confident XC following Goring?! She's going to do WW hunter trial this weekend if there is rain (doesn't look likely
I just worry that she's a mare who needs everything right to go well? And a good horse costs as much to keep on the road as Nora, who will only go when the day has a Y in it... Or maybe given time she will get more confident in the pads? I don't know... I think Nora is sent to confuse the hell out of me, and that I will probably never get a tune out of her... but she's taught me alot (granted not what I want to be taught!)... Anywho Nick Turner lesson with her in an hour which will cheer me up no end
Arth is fine
