Olympic Fever Weekend Thread.

[Ample Prosecco]

Well I am loving it all! Following all sorts of weird sports I never normally pay any attention to. Canoe Slalom, BMX, Skateboarding So slightly gutted that I am running a camp so will be unable to watch Fri/Sat/Sun.

But camp should be great and I am taking Lottie as a demo horse which will be interesting. What is everyone up to?

 

[SEL]

I had my saddle fitter out earlier this week. She's also a BHS coach and gave me some tips on my left leg which seems to want to do riverdance while I'm riding. Lesson tomorrow then I'm going to a training clinic mock ODE on Sunday which I'm dreading. Booked it when I was on a high but I've been bucked off twice in the last month due to BabyCob losing the plot warming up with other horses so I'm seriously hoping the environment is calm.

Got a new bit in for the occasion so I'm about to turn into one of those people who has all the metal work - but if it gets his head up so I can push him forward and get his concentration back then I'll live with it.

Enjoy camp!!

 

[Titchy Reindeer]

Heading out for Enormosaurus' second outside competition, attempting to tackle 75cm. The height is not really an issue to her, it's more how she'll react to things. This is the same venue as last time, though more people signed up this time, so hopefully a nice progression. I need to get her out and about in the world a bit.

 

[j1ffy]

I'm going to look at a horse tomorrow (shhh don't jinx it).

Then the usual hacking on Sunday!

 

[maya2008]

We are in the thick of finding new homes for the outgrown small ponies. So having a chilled weekend with one leaving for their new family and one viewing.

Plus loading practice - with the established ponies leaving, the next set need to step up and get ready to go out and about!

 

[teddy_]

I have a lovely lady coming tomorrow to trial ride my young horse. I need help producing her as she's recently backed, but traipsing into the City three days on the trot in the middle of the week is throwing a spanner in the works . The rider is a UKCC L3 coach, so I am sure she will be grand .

 

[SaddlePsych'D]

No horsey plans for me. Booo! I have a lesson or hack booked for next week. Haven't confirmed which. If it's very hot I will hack.

Got my e-riders back. Did okay and comments all made sense, no surprises in there.

 

[Landcruiser]

I have a home visit tomorrow from HorseWorld to check if I'm suitable to foster one of their youngsters for a year or two as a companion, now my own youngster is under saddle. Currently have two at home and need a third so I can get out and about. I shall be dotting into the Olympics all weekend, loving it.

 

[DressageCob]

I blew a tyre on the way to AFs yesterday so spent nigh on 4 hours on the hard shoulder of the M6. That was fun. We had to close the motorway in both directions to move into another lorry. Thankfully my boy is an excellent loader and all round chilled out guy.

No plans for the weekend, other than going with my mother to see Starlight Express on Sunday.

 

[YourValentine]

I blew a tyre on the way to AFs yesterday so spent nigh on 4 hours on the hard shoulder of the M6. That was fun. We had to close the motorway in both directions to move into another lorry. Thankfully my boy is an excellent loader and all round chilled out guy.

No plans for the weekend, other than going with my mother to see Starlight Express on Sunday.

Glad you both made it ok! How stressful

 

[j1ffy]

I blew a tyre on the way to AFs yesterday so spent nigh on 4 hours on the hard shoulder of the M6. That was fun. We had to close the motorway in both directions to move into another lorry. Thankfully my boy is an excellent loader and all round chilled out guy.

No plans for the weekend, other than going with my mother to see Starlight Express on Sunday.

Oh no, that’s everyone’s nightmare! Did you make it to the AFs? I’m hoping you were going early for an arena walk or staying overnight…

 

[DressageCob]

Oh no, that’s everyone’s nightmare! Did you make it to the AFs? I’m hoping you were going early for an arena walk or staying overnight…

No, I didn’t make it but in the end I was just relieved to get home with my horse not overheated and not squashed. Where we’d stopped was a narrow short hard shoulder at the bottom of an entry slip road onto the motorway so it felt a bit vulnerable. I was lucky to roll across to there though because where it first happened was on a bridge with no hard shoulder, so I had to drop my speed and make it to the end of the bridge then cross the slip road to safety.

I’m not sure what happened because the tyres were all good and I didn’t feel us hit anything, but maybe it was some glass or something like that.

Anyway, I will have to see if I can make one of the other AF dates!

 

[Red-1]

I have been away for 3 weeks (Canada and Alaska), and this week BH is still at his holiday home.

This weekend I'm cycling and swimming and running, trying to get some fitness back after all the eating! I have stacked weight on!

Rigs is home and ruling the roost. He may go hacking but he feels the heat.

While I was away BH's holiday rider took him hacking at a couple of country parks and took him to a show. It was last week, but this was him at the show...

https://www.tiktok.com/video/7397764889810439457

 

[Snowfilly]

I’m stewarding all day tomorrow and one of the classes has 30 entries. Pray for my sanity as I check them into the ring.

 

[CanteringCarrot]

I have been away for 3 weeks (Canada and Alaska), and this week BH is still at his holiday home.

This weekend I'm cycling and swimming and running, trying to get some fitness back after all the eating! I have stacked weight on!

Rigs is home and ruling the roost. He may go hacking but he feels the heat.

While I was away BH's holiday rider took him hacking at a couple of country parks and took him to a show. It was last week, but this was him at the show...

https://www.tiktok.com/video/7397764889810439457

He's really looking good! Coming along nicely.

 

[Red-1]

He's really looking good! Coming along nicely.

Thank you. I'm really pleased with him. He was a Covid purchase, bought unseen from Ireland. I was pleased with what appeared on the driveway when he arrived.

BH's superpower is being laid back. He'll never be a super athlete, but is obliging and can move/jump. He can also have weeks off and go out for a hack without bother and has been teaching my boyfriend to ride. It is the first novice ever on him and he really tries to work out what is required, offering to 'come on the bit' while BF is bouncing, trying to find the rising trot.

What with mum and then my husband dying, he has had an interrupted ridden life, but it doesn't seem to have interfered with his super personality.

He went away this summer as I'm having major renovations to my yard (as well as going on holiday a few times). I fetched Rigs back this week but BH's stable still wasn't painted and most of his field has been re-seeded and it still only has wispy bits growing. I trust my friend implicitly. She is riding him 3 X a week, just half an hour, and this is her daughter who has maybe ridden him 8 times at home and at 3 shows, when she takes one of her own youngsters. So, I thought he may as well stay there a bit longer until we are straight here at home.

 

[catembi]

We went & did a walk-trot & came 5th with just over 60%. despite an error of the course! She is much happier in my new, bigger lorry. There was so much to look at today...first time inside, mirrors, flowers etc etc & she did really well to hold it together. And we came 5th.

 

[catembi]

Some stills from a video so not very good!

 

[nagblagger]

I'm going to look at a horse tomorrow (shhh don't jinx it).

Then the usual hacking on Sunday!

And??? How was the viewing.?

 

[j1ffy]

And??? How was the viewing.?

Disastrous - I might have to buy her

 

[nagblagger]

Details, or not tempting fate if being vetted.

 

[j1ffy]

Details, or not tempting fate if being vetted.

Sorry - but I’m not tempting fate! If all goes well I’ll bore the pants off everyone

 

[nagblagger]

Good luck - impatiently w aiting to be bored

 

[AandK]

Epic morning yesterday! Horses first ever go XC and he was bl00dy awesome! The water didn’t have the most inviting entry so at the end I got off and got my feet wet, but he followed me in so proud of my lovely boy!

 

[iknowmyvalue]

No, I didn’t make it but in the end I was just relieved to get home with my horse not overheated and not squashed. Where we’d stopped was a narrow short hard shoulder at the bottom of an entry slip road onto the motorway so it felt a bit vulnerable. I was lucky to roll across to there though because where it first happened was on a bridge with no hard shoulder, so I had to drop my speed and make it to the end of the bridge then cross the slip road to safety.

I’m not sure what happened because the tyres were all good and I didn’t feel us hit anything, but maybe it was some glass or something like that.

Anyway, I will have to see if I can make one of the other AF dates!

Glad you made it home ok! I had a blowout for no reason on the M5 a few weeks ago and the breakdown/tyre guy said that sometimes hot weather causes the rubber on lorry tyres to separate from the inner part and then break apart. And that they’re always busier after/during hot weather. Really wish he hadn’t told me that because I’m now paranoid

 

[Ample Prosecco]

Had a great time at camp. Joe M is just a genius. Huge shifts in all the horses and lovely to see him demo on Lottie.

Well worth missing the Olympics for!

 

[SEL]

We're not quite ready to tell the Eventers to budge over on the sofa and make room for a small cob, but yesterday we had a go at our first One Day Event - and we loved it!!

Admittedly we were at trip hazard height on a Coaching 4 Confidence training day, but BabyCob has bucked me off twice in the past few weeks (& I have a sticky seat) so I was feeling pretty apprehensive. A lesson on Friday afternoon with the wonderful instructor who ran the clinic where he did a proper rodeo which decked me got us both back in the game - he was foot perfect - and I asked permission from the lady running the C4C clinic to ride in a non BD bit just to make sure I could get his head up if he decided to boil over.

Our dressage was a bit bleugh. I don't know the BE tests and after he threw a buck in the first canter I played safe and decided we'd stick to trot rather than give him an opportunity to boil over. He's still sticky off my leg in a competitive environment so that's something to work on. We can nail e-riders at home so I know the moves are there but busy warm ups blow his brain and I just can't get the lovely flowing work I know he's capable of.

Then back to the van for a couple of hours. This was where I was most impressed with how far he's come. Anyone who met me out and about last year knows that tying up and standing quietly was not on his agenda. Yesterday he ate his hay net and had a snooze. The people I was parked next to kept an eye on him while I walked the SJ and XC and said he was no bother at all.

He got a bit silly during the SJ warm up with other people cantering and jumping, so we just stood and watched them for a bit (I don't think 50cm needs much of a warm up!). Trotted round the course in a big arena next to the lorry park without putting a hoof wrong. Knocked a couple but no silly bucking nonsense.

About a 10 minute walk uphill to the xc and he bravely went up there on his own, wandered over to the warm up, ignored the lady having a few issues with her horse, trotted a few laps of the warm up and then went out around the xc course like he'd been doing it all his life. No napping back to the other horses, went through the water fine, did a cat leap over the tyre jump but otherwise was in front of my leg both uphill and downhill and had an absolute blast. I was grinning like a complete idiot at the end!!

I was cautious with what we jumped because he hasn't got quite the stretch to do the width of some fences yet and I don't want him hitting solid fences while he's learning, but after July's antics a lovely steady round with fences that weren't going to over face him was perfect. Plus the old grey brain cells remembered how to see a line

M40 home was interesting. Motorcross had been on at Silverstone and the number of idiot motobikes on the motorway was breathtaking. Stop / start traffic with speedy drivers not reading the road ahead and almost piling into the queues, bikes swerving across 3 lanes and no air con in the van meant I got home hotter and more stressed than at the actual event

If anyone close to Banbury is after a training course with smaller fences then Oak Tree Farm's course is lovely. The hills add extra challenge and they have a great mix of fences.

 

[Titchy Reindeer]

Reporting back (late as usual!).
I had a great weekend. Friday evening I had a jumping lesson in preparation for the competition and Enormosaurus was very good, even managing to come back to trot between two jumps and saving my bacon over a double. For the second hour, I rode Wonky Nose (born with a deformed nose that his breeder unfortunately didn't have operated on when he was young enough). Wonky Nose is one of the strangest looking horses I've ever seen, cobbled together from spare parts but he's such a lovely, kind, enthusiastic and big hearted horse. I haven't ridden him in about a year and I've never jumped with him before but he happily and calmly took me over 85cm jumps with fillers without a second look at them. I might be a little bit in love.
Saturday was a short hack for Enormosaurus and she was really good. She is very herd bound and an issue with my boot zip meant I was still on the yard when her field mate arrived but wasn't coming with us. A little bit of persuasion and we were off. We went passed both side of the green where they were setting up for the next days car boot sale and she didn't bat an eyelid.
Sunday was an early start (leaving yard at 6.00) not helped by the fact that Enormosaurus wasn't in the correct field and I almost twisted my ankle tracking around in the dark looking for her. She loaded fine if a bit ponderously and I don't think she would fit in the lorry if she was any longer! Once unloaded and tied to the lorry, she did start by giving every horse that went past a friendly call, but she did eventually stop doing it after a while and was an angel as long as I was careful when the other horse that was tied next to her left.
Enormosaurus was better in the warm up this time (no rearing) though did have a bit of a spook at the car park as it was on the other side of a hedge and I think she could make out people and horses moving but couldn't quite tell what it was. We had a bit of a squeal and a jog when she decided that we'd been walking plenty long enough, thank you! In other ways, she was a saint. We nearly got ran into by a kid on a pony because said kid was leaning over pony's shoulder to look if they were on the correct leading leg and therefore wasn't looking where they were going. Another idiot squeezed between us and another horse at a canter. We were crossing left shoulder to left shoulder at a walk, roughly a horse's width between us and plenty of space to go around on my right, but no just pass a very large horse at speed with no safety distance and no warning. I didn't see them until too late because they were coming from behind me. They are so so lucky they didn't get kicked. Enormosaurus isn't an aggressive horse but she is BIG, one kick could have done some serious damage to a much smaller pony and it's low down rider. I did shout after the rider to tell her to be careful, not sure she heard or cared...
Enormosaurus was really good on the round. She trusted me enough to guide her past the advertisement banners (scary) and then didn't bat an eyelid once the course was started. She managed to cram the second stride in the double this time. We unfortunately knocked the last pole because I was trying to not let her fly at it and instead got us in too deep, but I was so so pleased with her, coming out and acting all grown up. She then spent the rest of the afternoon dosing at the lorry. My instructor was having a nap in the drivers seat and I think if she'd been tied any longer, she'd have had her head in his lap.

As a bonus, I got to meet the now grown foal of a little mare I had on loan a long long time ago. She's retired and he was doing his first ever competition.

 

[nikkimariet]

I had a lesson on the Sunday, a much needed arse kicking. My friend was up for a few days staying at mine so I have pictures too



He gave me a lovely feeling and I’ve learnt so much. I had a great ride yesterday (he had Monday off) and today he had a nice cool hack very first thing.

I have so so so enjoyed watching all the Olympics too!