ONLY 1 DOWN!!!! ONLY 1 DOWN!!! ONLY 1 DOWN!!!! *VIDEO* :) :) :) :)

Chloe_GHE

Chloe_GHE

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ONLY 1 DOWN IN THE PN COMBINED TRAINING WE DID TODAY!!!
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Took Soap to WWEC for PN combined training, and he was a star! Did PN test 101 but only had 12mins to warm up coz of traffic!!!
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Soap was too fresh and decided to liven things up by adding his own personal touches to the test and despite his best efforts all 4 of his interjections received a 5
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the rest of his marks were mainly 7's
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with colllectives 7767
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which gave us 63.5%/36.5 not too shabby for our first PN test and considering his 'colourful moments'

Then off to the sjing. It was all v low key and the girl on the jump ring said we could do a clear round at intro height before our PN round....hhhmmmm I thought is that cheating???... probubly but we need all the SJ practise we can get so off I went for a CR at intro height, and thank god I did! 2 stops at No1!!!!! Soap has decided that now he has learnt to jump properly he can't go from the wrong spot and I brought him round to the first fence twice with too much contact and looking at the fence, on the 3rd atttempt I got it together and stopped being a muppet and let him go forwards and jump and he did VERY FAST!!!!! so much so that I had to pop in a circle to slow him up and he just had the skinny down so I was
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if a little
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about the control situation.

Before our legitament round at PN height I took him back out to the warm up and worked him more in canter till he was blowing and listening on small circles and balanced, then back in for our official round at PN height!!! and guess what JUST THE ONE FENCE DOWN!!! The same skinny as I fiddled *slaps wrist* but I really forced myself to let him go on and to resist taking up much contact. (video is an invaluable training aid as it felt much quicker than it looked) I walked the course and unlike many we watched he got both the 4 striding distances perfect and the 5 stride dog leg at the start was the only hairy moment as I should have ridden a wider curve and he got in too close.

I am so pleased with him this is his best SJing result in a year. I just need to warm him up lots to get him listening and less sparky as I'm not sure at BE they let you do the course as a practise first!!!!

The dressage was v stiff so we didn't get placed but did end up 13th/20
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video of his round here, what a clever boy!

p.s. if we had got placed I would have given my placing up as I don't think going round the same course even if smaller is very fair, but it was a great schooling opportunity
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Brilliant well done. Loads better than the last video I saw of you indoors. You've worked very hard on the technique & it seems to be paying off - yeah
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Well done!

Have recently been working on issues with SJing myself recently and I know exactly what you mean by saying it felt too fast but then looking at the video it actually looked okay!
 
yeah I make my poor mother video everything but it is so helpful to have it to look back at for that very reason what Soap feels like and what he looks like are 2 very different things!
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My Mum is my "official cameraman" too, lol

It's wonderful to get the feedback, often feel I'm all over the place but then watch it back and am pleasantly surprised... although can work both ways
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Well done you. Sj is the really tricky bit. Dressage you rely on someone who sometimes struggles to see the end of the arena the xc don't fall down so it's the middle bit I dread!!!
 
much much better, v well done! the one you had down he just got too close to, i think you needed to do a proper check before that one, or just have let him take it on from the stride before as that would have been an okay distance as long as you sat him back on his hocks straight after the fence!
if you can just get him to wait when you sit up (i think if it as 'holding them with my shoulders' although i'm crap at it!) it'll help at moments when you're not spot on.
lucky at fence 2, he was a bit surprised by it but a v good boy to jump it clear!
9/10 i reckon, v v v big improvement!
 
Thank you
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I was so pleased with him yesterday as in my eyes (despite the 2 stops at the 1st fence in the first practise round) he did two rounds with just one down and it being the same fence meant it was 100% rider error not him. I rode a much better line to 2 in the first round and he popped it well but in the 2nd not quite sure why I messed it up. I walked all my distances and that was supposed to be straight over 1 for 2 strides in a straight line then turn him right and 3 strides to fence 2,, he was very good to heave himself over it.
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Just one thing I am a bit concerned about he seems to have learnt how to stop! not dirty stops but he never used to stop before. I think it is a good thing (would like to know your opinion) though because now if he comes in not paying attention or if I'm holding so he runs on and the stride is badly wrong he will stop, whereas before he would anihilate the fence and smack poles everywhere. Do you think that is a better way to be?... Have you experienced this change in attitude from jumpers as they get better?... Robert Stevens said he didn't mind if they stopped (as opposed to running out) because it was evidence that they were looking at the jump and working out that they can't make it from that spot. I think Soap isn't the brightest spark and so sometimes fences take him by surprise as he is gawping at other things but this focus will come in time I think as he learns his sj job better, thoughts?...

I tried to check him but it seems to instigate this reaction...

check
lean into check
release half halt
runs on as was leaning
check again
tug o war!

Will spend some time working on movement within the canter so he learns to go and wait when told by the body and hand not just the hand. Getting his teeth checked next week to as he is due so that might help with the tug o war situations
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sorry bit of an essay!
 
well, i'm a bit contradictory about stopping... i don't like them to do it at all in sj, i like them to make a effort (huge if necessary!) to clear the fence from wherever i have stuck them (!) but i don't mind a stop xc IF i have got them to a horrible place - a 'safety stop'. overall, i'd say the odd stop, IF the take-off spot or approach was rotten, is okay, but i wouldn't be happy with a stop at a very small sj fence that they could really jump from anywhere.
i know, very contradictory, sorry! overall i guess with your lad a stop shows that at least he's paying proper attention and actually guaging the fence properly now, as opposed to just going no matter what, chucking himself in the air and hoping for the best sometimes!
anyway, they do go through phases, so i wouldn't worry about it!
 
Eventers are funny things aren't they! I would be devastated with a stop xc
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I think he (and me!) is a bit slow with the old grey matter and gets distracted sometimes and isn't really even paying attention to the fence when he comes to it but all this indoors and tighter stuff is sharpening his reactions. I think xc he is so good because you can set him up from strides away he locks on and is away but all the coloured poles come much quicker and confuse him more sjing.

He will launch sjing from a long one and heave himself over from a short one but he stopped a couple of times a the upright in the warm up I think because the take off was a horrid hole and he was saying look mum I can't jump from out of a hole! He flew the big warm up spread so height is not the issue.

I think it's attentiveness and I might pick up a whip next time because he hates to get a smack and is guaranteed to go over 2nd time from whatever spot after a tap with the whip.

Let's hope it's just a phase and a with a whip and a bit more direction and attention we will be going clear. I much prefer it to the days of old when he literally used to throw his body through the jump sending poles everywhere and me just hanging on thnking oh god we are in a massive horse and human version of jenga!!!!
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old and jaded!!!! what rot!!! no such thing as an old and jaded eventer we can keep going well into our twilight years just look at toddy!!!
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but I will bottle you some enthusiasm just incase
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how DARE you say Toddy is in his 'twilight years'... i might have to fall out with you totally if you don't instantly retract that statement!
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the man is a God amongst horsemen and his come-back is one of the best things ever!
 
ahhahahahah! 53 is pretty old for a sportsman, he's over twice my age! so to me anyone over 35 is past it!
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hahahahha I'm only joking!! I mean that's what's so great about eventing I can't name another sport where you are still top of your game at 53.....*scratches head*......maybe snooker I guess but that's not really a sport....
 
Great improvement!! Loved the way he jumped the yellow parallel in the corner coming towards camera, you had the engine and the canter off the corner, and he listened to you half halting him but didn't lose the energy, and pinged it!
 
"I walked all my distances and that was supposed to be straight over 1 for 2 strides in a straight line then turn him right and 3 strides to fence 2,, he was very good to heave himself over it. "

Hope you don't mind but I just wanted to pick up on the above as might help you out in future. May also be talking rubbish but I'm sure I heard it on a Tim Stockdale video!! When you are walking a distance where the fences aren't on a straight line then you should walk it on a curve, rather than straight, and then turn, and then straight as obviously horses can't just turn on one point. You can then decided to ride on the outside line of the curve if it is short (which I think you needed to do) or inside if it is long. Hope this helps!
 
Yeah those 2 parallels at the top end the yellow and the opp side the blue were nice jumps as I got him right into the corner and sort of used the walls to steady him up and bounce off of, if that makes sense, not literraly bounce off! but he still gets a bit gung ho when he actually uses himself and that great jump over the yellow resulted in him merrily running on to the next
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So pleased with him though he is getting there
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Yes I do try to ride it like that on a curve and he did it fab 1st time, but I need to walk it in 2 straight parts for me to work out the strides and the shape does that make sense?... I sort of need to pace it as if it is on railway lines so 2 straight then a right angle of this much then 3 straight so I can see the shape on the floor, and work out the curve...am I making sense?...so when I know where the point is where it chages direction I can ride a curve encorperating that point.... much like when you are doing dressage and people say to ride a perfect circle you need to think of 4 points of a square....maybe that's just my blonde logic!
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I think I know what you mean but I guess what I am saying is that if your straight, turn, straight walks as say 20 of your strides (i.e. 4 horse strides) then the curve may well walk 22 of your strides which means that it is actually either a long 4 or short 5. So you might walk a distance and think its a nice 4 when actually it is a short 5 - does that makes sense? Sorry I am complicating issues!!
 
Yeah I see what you mean tbh I get baffled by dog legs and thought it was a pretty tricky way to start the course especially because I think they had room to put it on a straight line, but maybe it was done to catch people out.....the bogey fence of the day was the one we had down!
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