Arniebear
Well-Known Member
Couldn't resist sharing this with you guys! This weekend saw us head out for our first BE, this has been a dream of mine since i was a teenager so no pressure or anything! 
The run up was good and not so good. First up we headed off to a BE clinic run by Tine Ure at Ely Eventing Centre, this is a local venue to me and Tina has taught me since i was 15 on a few different horses. Only once or twice on my current boy before he went out of action with his injury, i had been meaning to restart lessons with her this season but too many things got in the way and Ive ended up having SJ lessons with another local eventer who is fantastic at sorting me out! Anywho back to the clinic sadly for Tina (not me!) no one else signed up so i had a private session with her - lucky me!!! We sj on grass first over a course with Tina explaining how to ride the course properly - this was awesome as i have a few hang ups sj round a course and by the end of the session Bear was flying and i was riding properly!! Moved onto xc where as it was just me we worked on fences before water and drops as these seem to be causing issues for us on course..... He flew everything and was generally a flipping dude!! So overall a FANTASTIC day out in prep for Great Witchingham!
I trundled off up to Houghton hall to put all that i had learned in the clinic into practise round their clear round on thursday night, sadly this did not go to plan but heyho thats life i rode like a pleb and got rather fustrated with myself.... not my best move 2 days before our first BE! Bear was as usual awesome and saved my bacon... bless him.... Must remember to ride properly and look over the damn fences!
Saturday loomed closer, Friday night was a brush up dressage lesson with my awesome trainer where we nailed a few things and then i began the mammoth task of tack cleaning and lorry loading We had late times for sat; 14:48 dressage, 17:27 sj and 18:07 xc..... I have decided i dislike these late times i woke up at 7am and had nothing to do to entertain myself until we left at 11:30, it was the slowest morning evvvvvver!
Finally we were enroute and arrived with ample time, i magically managed to park one lorry over from my SJ instructor who had 3 rides that day! So it was lovely to have him close by when i had a few stupid qus! Off to sign in and hat tag myself, watched a few SJ rounds and learnt the wrong course.... think it was the novice running so they had a longer course than the 90 oooops! Bear had his massage rug on whilst i studded and prepped myself then it was time for stressage, not my most favorite of phases but we muddle through ok, he warmed up lovely really off the leg and responsive. The test had the same feel a few trip ups the first downward canter transition was rushed which meant his next upwards canter transition wasnt great (it came up fast!) he jogged ever so slightly in the final walk too but overall i was very pleased with him Turns out we scored 33! Over the moon with that score at our first affiliated
Next up sj! I had learnt the correct course this time but sadly didnt get to walk it so my plan was to look up and ride... it worked he breathed on fence 4 to have it down - so unlucky he then saved my bacon big stylie at 8 when i fluffed the line up but heyho it was done! Only 4 faults mega proud with that as it felt a nice flowing round Headed back to the box to change for XC. I was worried mainly about 1 fence on course a drop into some woods at 3 other than that i thought we would be ok :/ Thankfully my friend was on hand to chill me out and off out the start box we went, over 1 and 2 and we headed towards 3, i kept repeating nice big bouncy canter and we will be fine! Well we were he didnt even bat an eyelid at it..... DUDE! Over 4 and onto 5 the coffin we havent ever jumped a proper coffin before but i thought if i get a nice bouncy canter in he will have time to see the ditch and all will be fine..... he didnt even register the ditch just flew through it all! Honestly dont know why i bother worrying sometimes 
6 was a skinny he popped into trot for this so to save hassling him we popped it nicely from a trot and onto the trakenher.... i hate trakenhers, thankfully he doesnt care flew over that and onto a skinny box at 8 where i fluffed up my line a little and we took the flag out, i checked we had negeotiated it correctly and off we paddled through the first water crossing, 9 and 10 were fine popped them nicely out of his stride and again at 11 and the table at 12. Next up was a corner, in perfect timing as i turned the corner to get straight for the fence and find my line a fly flew in my eye (why do they insist in flying to your eye?!!!) so i ended up jumping the corner with 1 eye closed, not that Bear seemed to mind in the slightest! 14 was another water crossing with a steep slope in Bear was a little cautious in but flew the roll top on the way out, 15 and 16 he jumped nicely out of his stride and onto the penultimate fence the final water crossing with a house on exit, by now Bear was showing just how unpahsed by life itself he is and flew home, popping the last a ditch to a roll top in style NEVER BEEN SO PROUD OF HIM!! CLEAR XC on our first BE90!! (also our first clear at 90 level xc!)
I havent been able to stop smiling, i am in total awe of my awesome horse and i can not wait to see what the future holds for us!! Turns out we ended up on a final score of 60.2 and 23rd in a 90open section out of 35 starters we picked up quite a few time faults (as did everyone) but as this was only our 3rd run at 90 xc bear is still a little unsure so our pace is a little off, im pretty sure with a few more runs under his belt we will be flying home inside the time!
Next up Little downham 2 and then onto aston maybe finishing August off with Keysoe's BE too! We shall see how the next 2 go!
Thanks for reading my ramblings sadly no pictures as i cant decide which ones to buy yet!
The run up was good and not so good. First up we headed off to a BE clinic run by Tine Ure at Ely Eventing Centre, this is a local venue to me and Tina has taught me since i was 15 on a few different horses. Only once or twice on my current boy before he went out of action with his injury, i had been meaning to restart lessons with her this season but too many things got in the way and Ive ended up having SJ lessons with another local eventer who is fantastic at sorting me out! Anywho back to the clinic sadly for Tina (not me!) no one else signed up so i had a private session with her - lucky me!!! We sj on grass first over a course with Tina explaining how to ride the course properly - this was awesome as i have a few hang ups sj round a course and by the end of the session Bear was flying and i was riding properly!! Moved onto xc where as it was just me we worked on fences before water and drops as these seem to be causing issues for us on course..... He flew everything and was generally a flipping dude!! So overall a FANTASTIC day out in prep for Great Witchingham!
I trundled off up to Houghton hall to put all that i had learned in the clinic into practise round their clear round on thursday night, sadly this did not go to plan but heyho thats life i rode like a pleb and got rather fustrated with myself.... not my best move 2 days before our first BE! Bear was as usual awesome and saved my bacon... bless him.... Must remember to ride properly and look over the damn fences!
Saturday loomed closer, Friday night was a brush up dressage lesson with my awesome trainer where we nailed a few things and then i began the mammoth task of tack cleaning and lorry loading
We had late times for sat; 14:48 dressage, 17:27 sj and 18:07 xc..... I have decided i dislike these late times i woke up at 7am and had nothing to do to entertain myself until we left at 11:30, it was the slowest morning evvvvvver!Finally we were enroute and arrived with ample time, i magically managed to park one lorry over from my SJ instructor who had 3 rides that day! So it was lovely to have him close by when i had a few stupid qus! Off to sign in and hat tag myself, watched a few SJ rounds and learnt the wrong course.... think it was the novice running so they had a longer course than the 90 oooops! Bear had his massage rug on whilst i studded and prepped myself then it was time for stressage, not my most favorite of phases but we muddle through ok, he warmed up lovely really off the leg and responsive. The test had the same feel a few trip ups the first downward canter transition was rushed which meant his next upwards canter transition wasnt great (it came up fast!) he jogged ever so slightly in the final walk too but overall i was very pleased with him
Turns out we scored 33! Over the moon with that score at our first affiliated Next up sj! I had learnt the correct course this time but sadly didnt get to walk it so my plan was to look up and ride... it worked he breathed on fence 4 to have it down - so unlucky he then saved my bacon big stylie at 8 when i fluffed the line up but heyho it was done! Only 4 faults mega proud with that as it felt a nice flowing round
Headed back to the box to change for XC. I was worried mainly about 1 fence on course a drop into some woods at 3 other than that i thought we would be ok :/ Thankfully my friend was on hand to chill me out and off out the start box we went, over 1 and 2 and we headed towards 3, i kept repeating nice big bouncy canter and we will be fine! Well we were he didnt even bat an eyelid at it..... DUDE! Over 4 and onto 5 the coffin we havent ever jumped a proper coffin before but i thought if i get a nice bouncy canter in he will have time to see the ditch and all will be fine..... he didnt even register the ditch just flew through it all! Honestly dont know why i bother worrying sometimes 6 was a skinny he popped into trot for this so to save hassling him we popped it nicely from a trot and onto the trakenher.... i hate trakenhers, thankfully he doesnt care flew over that and onto a skinny box at 8 where i fluffed up my line a little and we took the flag out, i checked we had negeotiated it correctly and off we paddled through the first water crossing, 9 and 10 were fine popped them nicely out of his stride and again at 11 and the table at 12. Next up was a corner, in perfect timing as i turned the corner to get straight for the fence and find my line a fly flew in my eye (why do they insist in flying to your eye?!!!) so i ended up jumping the corner with 1 eye closed, not that Bear seemed to mind in the slightest! 14 was another water crossing with a steep slope in Bear was a little cautious in but flew the roll top on the way out, 15 and 16 he jumped nicely out of his stride and onto the penultimate fence the final water crossing with a house on exit, by now Bear was showing just how unpahsed by life itself he is and flew home, popping the last a ditch to a roll top in style
NEVER BEEN SO PROUD OF HIM!! CLEAR XC on our first BE90!! (also our first clear at 90 level xc!)I havent been able to stop smiling, i am in total awe of my awesome horse and i can not wait to see what the future holds for us!!
Turns out we ended up on a final score of 60.2 and 23rd in a 90open section out of 35 starters we picked up quite a few time faults (as did everyone) but as this was only our 3rd run at 90 xc bear is still a little unsure so our pace is a little off, im pretty sure with a few more runs under his belt we will be flying home inside the time! Next up Little downham 2 and then onto aston maybe finishing August off with Keysoe's BE too! We shall see how the next 2 go!
Thanks for reading my ramblings sadly no pictures as i cant decide which ones to buy yet!
