kirstyhen
Well-Known Member
Despite being desperate to get out eventing and having gone to a lot of effort to enter ALW, I decided on Saturday Morning that although they were going ahead, I wasn't sure how good the ground would be given I wasn't going XC until 4pm and a lot of horses would have been over the BE100 track as that was the only class that day. So I withdrew on the basis that I didn't fancy risking her legs given she had a fat leg after her last run. Luckily I had a back up plan as I had entered Dressage just in case ALW cancelled, so Moot was very displeased to find herself dragged off to do Dressage without the promise of XC after 
We were attempting our first Novice test, but I can't say I had high expectations, given she has no Medium Paces to speak of! For some reason I decided to put her drop on (she has been wearing a very loose cavasson) which was a major error! She was having atantrum about it whenever she wasn't required to concentrate on where to put her feet - so her normally good walk was ruined by her chomping and curling back at me.
However, she managed at 65% for 9th in the Prelim (she was mightly tense in it!) and even more shockingly a 65.5% for 6th in the Novice! To say I was shocked was an understatement, there were some rather lovely horses in the warm up looking far more established than her and she was only (!) 5% off 1st place!
She was allowed a little pop around the TB SJ as a reward, but they were only on the 85cms and I quickly discovered we both now need much bigger fences!
Then on Monday we had our Jeanette Brakewell Lesson. Normally we spend a long time working on the flat and finish with a quick jump around. But either Mally and I got where we needed to be quicker or JB was bored, as we moved quickly onto jumping! We did however established that Mally needs to be warmed up deep and round (probably not to everyone's liking) as she finds coming up very easy, and it's her go-to when she gets tense. So if I warm her up in the correct position, she comes up even higher and hollows when she's tense, rather than warmed up deep and come into the correct position in the arena. We also worked on our changes, something Moot finds very easy, but again comes up, tense and changes late behind.
We moved onto jumping - 3 fences on a serpentine in trot, JB stuck the middle fence up rather large but we managed not to disgrace ourselves to badly! We then did the same exercise in canter, where it began to fall apart slightly! Apparently I plan my turn and see my stride well, but then Mally dives in through her shoulders and we get a horrid half stride, so I had to really get her wrapping around my inside leg on the turn and staying straight over the fence. We eventually managed to sort ourselves out!
http://youtu.be/Ya10RMJOAHs
Then today Donkey features and I went for a play at Field Farm XC Schooling. And there's not a lot else to say other than my pony is freaking awesome!I wanted to specifically work on Skinnies, as she used to duck out at them when she was a baby, and if we are going to move up we need to be solid in our skinnies. However it would appear the Baby Pony has gone, and I have a Flag Spotting Expert She is so bold without being stupid, she just assesses the question, makes a split second decision and gets on with it.
http://youtu.be/QIUaueP1ycU
So we did all three phases eventually! Just rather spaced out!
Thanks for trawling through all that, and not throwing up at my unadulterated gushing about my super pony
We were attempting our first Novice test, but I can't say I had high expectations, given she has no Medium Paces to speak of! For some reason I decided to put her drop on (she has been wearing a very loose cavasson) which was a major error! She was having atantrum about it whenever she wasn't required to concentrate on where to put her feet - so her normally good walk was ruined by her chomping and curling back at me.
However, she managed at 65% for 9th in the Prelim (she was mightly tense in it!) and even more shockingly a 65.5% for 6th in the Novice!
To say I was shocked was an understatement, there were some rather lovely horses in the warm up looking far more established than her and she was only (!) 5% off 1st place!She was allowed a little pop around the TB SJ as a reward, but they were only on the 85cms and I quickly discovered we both now need much bigger fences!
Then on Monday we had our Jeanette Brakewell Lesson. Normally we spend a long time working on the flat and finish with a quick jump around. But either Mally and I got where we needed to be quicker or JB was bored, as we moved quickly onto jumping! We did however established that Mally needs to be warmed up deep and round (probably not to everyone's liking) as she finds coming up very easy, and it's her go-to when she gets tense. So if I warm her up in the correct position, she comes up even higher and hollows when she's tense, rather than warmed up deep and come into the correct position in the arena. We also worked on our changes, something Moot finds very easy, but again comes up, tense and changes late behind.
We moved onto jumping - 3 fences on a serpentine in trot, JB stuck the middle fence up rather large
but we managed not to disgrace ourselves to badly! We then did the same exercise in canter, where it began to fall apart slightly! Apparently I plan my turn and see my stride well, but then Mally dives in through her shoulders and we get a horrid half stride, so I had to really get her wrapping around my inside leg on the turn and staying straight over the fence. We eventually managed to sort ourselves out!http://youtu.be/Ya10RMJOAHs
Then today Donkey features and I went for a play at Field Farm XC Schooling. And there's not a lot else to say other than my pony is freaking awesome!I wanted to specifically work on Skinnies, as she used to duck out at them when she was a baby, and if we are going to move up we need to be solid in our skinnies. However it would appear the Baby Pony has gone, and I have a Flag Spotting Expert
She is so bold without being stupid, she just assesses the question, makes a split second decision and gets on with it. http://youtu.be/QIUaueP1ycU
So we did all three phases eventually! Just rather spaced out!
Thanks for trawling through all that, and not throwing up at my unadulterated gushing about my super pony
