BeckyD
Well-Known Member
I just typed a great report (!) and lost it, GRRR. So this is the 2nd version! 
Nice times meant a leisurely 9am arrival at yard to plait and tidy. On the road at 10am and arrived at Oasby at noon. Bill hadn't eaten any hay on the journey (not like him) so I was a bit anxious. Gave him time to stuff his face whilst I faffed about getting number etc. Was secretly hoping for a sub-30s dressage score as he's been going like a dream at home lately, so responsive and so much expression, I've been wobbling about on top like a giant blancmange!
Sadly today he chose to hide his light under a bushel, and keeping him in trot or canter was as much as I could manage
Gutted! Still, not one to dress mutton up as lamb, I refused to give in to the temptation to tuck the front end in despite the fact the back end wasn't engaged, so a lot of my test was done above the bit and was blooming awful. After the test he did a giant wee, so I suspect that didn't help matters. Don't think I feel particularly expressive when I've got my legs crossed either 
36.5 was far more generous than we deserved.
[youtube]pIubvRfpzTM[/youtube]
SJ seemed to causing a myriad of problems ("carnage" would even be fair), and I only had a few mins to warm up as they wanted to have a 10-minute break after me, so I popped a couple then cantered into ring and immediately started my round! I did forget to kick and caused Bill to knock 2 fences down, both entirely my mistake, and I also wrestled him to trot before the last
(no, I don't know why either, although I think he was disunited and just sort of fell into trot). I have noticed on video that he keeps changing to right canter lead, not sure if that's a sign of a problem or just the fact I've been working on his changes at home...! Will keep an eye on it, nevertheless.
[youtube]fVRm62hyyGA[/youtube]
Quick change and off to XC warm-up, where I worked on Baydale's instructions and got him jumping up in to my hand. I had to do a bit of work to get him up in front of me, but we got there and he set off boldly. I took 1-3 steadily as they were twisty, but then set off strongly towards fence 4, yellow pipes, as I wanted to get his adrenalin up before them, and he flew them beautifully, then through the sunken road as bold as ever. Then jumped the pheasant feeder and flower box out of his stride superbly (I'm not always brave enough to let him do that), trotted into the water but happy through it, and galloped on to the chase fence which he did nicely, then the logs a and b, which he trotted in-between a bit boggle-eyed! (not a fan of logs, is Bill).
Then galloped on towards the skinny hedge which we jumped on an angle (oo, get us!) and then I was conscious that I was back in the field where people could see us and I suddenly forgot how to ride!!! Cue a scary jump over the chair thing, caught on video for me to squirm over for all eternity (Baydale please don't look at it!!), then a bit of a wrestle towards the corner, even dropping into trot but never thought about ducking out at it (hurrah!), then the palisade.
[youtube]TP0Zt0DmHsQ[/youtube]
We even managed to gallop through the woods (brave stuff for a horse that's scared of trees) and popped down the steps sweetly after a split second hesitation, trotted round the corner then up to canter for the short steep hill which he enjoyed galloping up so much there was even a tiny squeal, over the white chair
and then the last (spot the big grins)!
We'd done it! I made Bill a bit soggy as I couldn't stop hugging him and it may have been a good day to have put on some waterproof mascara
. We finished 13 seconds over the time but we did trot a few bits, so I really couldn't care less. Also suddenly didn't care about the cr*p dressage or the 8f SJ 
Ended up 12th out of about 24 in my section, so a massive improvement upon our usual last (or the big fat "technical" E). Lots of polos and carrots may have snuck out of my pocket and into Bill's new slimline tummy.
So that's it for us next year, and you wouldn't believe how much I hope this is a genuine change in our fortunes, and not just a couple of randomly good results.
There's some mustard mash left over if you want it (I certainly don't...who would ruin good mash by putting mustard in it???) 
Nice times meant a leisurely 9am arrival at yard to plait and tidy. On the road at 10am and arrived at Oasby at noon. Bill hadn't eaten any hay on the journey (not like him) so I was a bit anxious. Gave him time to stuff his face whilst I faffed about getting number etc. Was secretly hoping for a sub-30s dressage score as he's been going like a dream at home lately, so responsive and so much expression, I've been wobbling about on top like a giant blancmange!
Sadly today he chose to hide his light under a bushel, and keeping him in trot or canter was as much as I could manage
Gutted! Still, not one to dress mutton up as lamb, I refused to give in to the temptation to tuck the front end in despite the fact the back end wasn't engaged, so a lot of my test was done above the bit and was blooming awful. After the test he did a giant wee, so I suspect that didn't help matters. Don't think I feel particularly expressive when I've got my legs crossed either 36.5 was far more generous than we deserved.[youtube]pIubvRfpzTM[/youtube]
SJ seemed to causing a myriad of problems ("carnage" would even be fair), and I only had a few mins to warm up as they wanted to have a 10-minute break after me, so I popped a couple then cantered into ring and immediately started my round! I did forget to kick and caused Bill to knock 2 fences down, both entirely my mistake, and I also wrestled him to trot before the last
(no, I don't know why either, although I think he was disunited and just sort of fell into trot). I have noticed on video that he keeps changing to right canter lead, not sure if that's a sign of a problem or just the fact I've been working on his changes at home...! Will keep an eye on it, nevertheless.[youtube]fVRm62hyyGA[/youtube]
Quick change and off to XC warm-up, where I worked on Baydale's instructions and got him jumping up in to my hand. I had to do a bit of work to get him up in front of me, but we got there and he set off boldly. I took 1-3 steadily as they were twisty, but then set off strongly towards fence 4, yellow pipes, as I wanted to get his adrenalin up before them, and he flew them beautifully, then through the sunken road as bold as ever. Then jumped the pheasant feeder and flower box out of his stride superbly (I'm not always brave enough to let him do that), trotted into the water but happy through it, and galloped on to the chase fence which he did nicely, then the logs a and b, which he trotted in-between a bit boggle-eyed! (not a fan of logs, is Bill).
Then galloped on towards the skinny hedge which we jumped on an angle (oo, get us!) and then I was conscious that I was back in the field where people could see us and I suddenly forgot how to ride!!! Cue a scary jump over the chair thing, caught on video for me to squirm over for all eternity (Baydale please don't look at it!!), then a bit of a wrestle towards the corner, even dropping into trot but never thought about ducking out at it (hurrah!), then the palisade.
[youtube]TP0Zt0DmHsQ[/youtube]
We even managed to gallop through the woods (brave stuff for a horse that's scared of trees) and popped down the steps sweetly after a split second hesitation, trotted round the corner then up to canter for the short steep hill which he enjoyed galloping up so much there was even a tiny squeal, over the white chair
and then the last (spot the big grins)!
We'd done it! I made Bill a bit soggy as I couldn't stop hugging him and it may have been a good day to have put on some waterproof mascara
. We finished 13 seconds over the time but we did trot a few bits, so I really couldn't care less. Also suddenly didn't care about the cr*p dressage or the 8f SJ Ended up 12th out of about 24 in my section, so a massive improvement upon our usual last (or the big fat "technical" E). Lots of polos and carrots may have snuck out of my pocket and into Bill's new slimline tummy.
So that's it for us next year, and you wouldn't believe how much I hope this is a genuine change in our fortunes, and not just a couple of randomly good results.
There's some mustard mash left over if you want it (I certainly don't...who would ruin good mash by putting mustard in it???)
