Baileyhoss
Well-Known Member
After weeks of excitment, shopping and panicking, the day finally came. Walked the course on Friday. Ended up on my own as friends were all working or what not (how inconsiderate). First numpty error of the day was to lose the intro course at jump number 3 and start following the PN course!. Thought they were getting a bit big!
Realised I had gone wrong when the courses came back together and back tracked. Felt like a total
Anyhoo, for future ref' intro is ALWAYS orange discs. I know that now.
Walked the course twice to be sure.
The day arrives - Dressage. Not our strongest phase, i describe B's flatwork as 'intermittent' aka 'can be crap'. But despite him being totally gobsmacked by his surroundings and the number of horses, he did ok, he was reluctant to go forward, and kept backing off at other horses, but in the test was ok with the odd bit of tension and resistance at times, but often I have seen this completely ruin the test, so I was quite pleased to get 35.8 Not our worst score ever.
SJ. Course rode ok, nothing to phase b really. quite a few fillers, we had 2 down, which is very unlike b as usually he gives everything plenty height. He didn't feel as forward as usual, don't know if he was a bit distracted still, and the ground was a little holding, so he was coming in deep to a few fences. i need some training here as I tend to rely so much on b and his pony brain to sort striding out and I wasn't a huge amount of help to him.
XC.
the fun part. My friend comes running down to the start to tell me I was lying 5th after the dressage and might get placed if we can get round clear. Thanks for the pressure there - my objective for the day was just staying on and now people are thinking about ribbons
of we sets, canny to the first. popped the bales. flew on to the 2nd little pheasant feeder, just needed a wee bit of encouragement. down a dip and up over the log pile, that rode well, popped up the bank and over the wee wall and onward bound. little swine tried to skip past the edge of the skinnyish log. No need for that! naughty, smacked his arse and popped it fine. dam that was my fault for taking it for granted that this was just a log. splash through the little puddle thing with a growl. up over the log pile brush thing, then round to the helsinki. the ground was poor on the approach, I would really have liked to go to the left, be he wasn't locking on completely honestly today, had a wiggle, growled at him, went disunited then jumped like a flippin stag, landed with no reins or stirrups and smacked my face of his neck, but fortunatly he waited for me, recomposed, just in time for the biscuits, took the drop very canny, still a bit shaken, but he did it lovely, popped the log and down to the water.
decided to take the alternate at this wasn't going as smoothly as I would have liked. over the wee log, splash in. and again, just didn't ride strongly enough to the second element and had a stop at the log, which turned out to be a bit of a bogey for a lot of people. smack on the arse then popped it fine, second water, rode much stronger and popped the upright out the other side. flew the tyres. popped the ski jump and another stop at the whisky barrels. did it second time and rode lovely through the banks and the last water and so so pleased to see the last, flew it.
Got back and washed the muddy water off. he didn't even have the decency to sweat up, i was dripping. all in all I was delighted to have completed, but wish I had been braver and more determined to make him do those fences first time, there was no need for those stops. Obviously with 3 stops + time, we finished on a cricket score, but weren't last
so went home happy and already determined to do better here next year.
Wee burgie is in 3 weeks and we'll not get off with anything there. that's our home turf and there are no excuses!.
F xx
Realised I had gone wrong when the courses came back together and back tracked. Felt like a total
Anyhoo, for future ref' intro is ALWAYS orange discs. I know that now.
Walked the course twice to be sure.
The day arrives - Dressage. Not our strongest phase, i describe B's flatwork as 'intermittent' aka 'can be crap'. But despite him being totally gobsmacked by his surroundings and the number of horses, he did ok, he was reluctant to go forward, and kept backing off at other horses, but in the test was ok with the odd bit of tension and resistance at times, but often I have seen this completely ruin the test, so I was quite pleased to get 35.8 Not our worst score ever.
SJ. Course rode ok, nothing to phase b really. quite a few fillers, we had 2 down, which is very unlike b as usually he gives everything plenty height. He didn't feel as forward as usual, don't know if he was a bit distracted still, and the ground was a little holding, so he was coming in deep to a few fences. i need some training here as I tend to rely so much on b and his pony brain to sort striding out and I wasn't a huge amount of help to him.
XC.
of we sets, canny to the first. popped the bales. flew on to the 2nd little pheasant feeder, just needed a wee bit of encouragement. down a dip and up over the log pile, that rode well, popped up the bank and over the wee wall and onward bound. little swine tried to skip past the edge of the skinnyish log. No need for that! naughty, smacked his arse and popped it fine. dam that was my fault for taking it for granted that this was just a log. splash through the little puddle thing with a growl. up over the log pile brush thing, then round to the helsinki. the ground was poor on the approach, I would really have liked to go to the left, be he wasn't locking on completely honestly today, had a wiggle, growled at him, went disunited then jumped like a flippin stag, landed with no reins or stirrups and smacked my face of his neck, but fortunatly he waited for me, recomposed, just in time for the biscuits, took the drop very canny, still a bit shaken, but he did it lovely, popped the log and down to the water.
decided to take the alternate at this wasn't going as smoothly as I would have liked. over the wee log, splash in. and again, just didn't ride strongly enough to the second element and had a stop at the log, which turned out to be a bit of a bogey for a lot of people. smack on the arse then popped it fine, second water, rode much stronger and popped the upright out the other side. flew the tyres. popped the ski jump and another stop at the whisky barrels. did it second time and rode lovely through the banks and the last water and so so pleased to see the last, flew it.
Got back and washed the muddy water off. he didn't even have the decency to sweat up, i was dripping. all in all I was delighted to have completed, but wish I had been braver and more determined to make him do those fences first time, there was no need for those stops. Obviously with 3 stops + time, we finished on a cricket score, but weren't last
Wee burgie is in 3 weeks and we'll not get off with anything there. that's our home turf and there are no excuses!.
F xx
