Pachesham ODE

[MontyandZoom]

Tedster and I have decided to enter the pachesham ODE at the end of September.

It is prelim 1 and jumps are 70cm (which is 2ft4 by my calculations

). Now, i have done lots of sponsored rides, hunted a couple of times and have now done two dressage tests on Zoom.

We always come last in the dressage

since she won't really accept a contact after years of polo but she has a great rhythm and tries very hard so we usually get around 50%. She has only show-jumped once and she jumped an easy clear and them had two down in the next class. Jumps were around 2ft3. We have never done an official xc but jumps beautifully at sponsored rides and has jumped up to 3foot xc (including plane at RAF Halton

).

She NEVER stops and is very honest. Now I am only going for the craic and don't expect to win, or even come anywhere other than last but a mate at the field was making out that it is way too much for me and Zoom. I am now wondering if I should go or not. She has pretty rubbish scores in dressage but she will try hard (albeit giraffe-stylie

), most prob have 1 down in the sj and will almost definately jump clear xc.........what do I do

For those who have been before, is the standard ridiculously out of our reach? I don't want to make a fool out of myself

 

[DollyDolls]

Sounds like you'll make it round.
Try getting a dressage intructor to give you a hand with the test well in advance.

Never been there so not sure what it's like, but enjoy yourself.

 

[Paint it Lucky]

I've been round the cross country there at that height. It is a really nice course. I took my young horse as his first proper xc a few years ago and he flew round it, loving every minute! It is a nice flowing course, not trappy like some can be, so I'm sure Zoom will love it! I wouldn't worry too much about her being a giraffe in dressage, just go and have fun, as long as she's obediant that's more important. I think you will have a great day out so go for it!

 

[Bug]

I will see you there!
I had entered the 70cms but went schooling there yesterday to see how my new ones goes and I have bottled it

, so am trying to change my entry to the little class

If Zoom jumps XC then you will have a whale of a time as the jumps did look good and stupidly I did jump most of the 2ft 3ish ones that I could see and of course he went over them

, but I just can't kick going into them

So figured, I should go low and really enjoy our first go and then build up for the hunter trials there.

You will be absolutley fine and I am planning on just enjoying it as Flynn can clearly do the jumps but I have lost all my confidence when I had a fall 2 months ago so just need to build back up....

 

[MontyandZoom]

Make sure you come and say hello! I'll be on the one-eyed giraffe!! Tedster tried to get me in the smaller class but Zoomy doesn't tend to bother with small jumps so think we would have a crazy amount of fences down.

Thanks for the advice, we're gonna go for it!

 

[maxapple]

I did the last one there. Its really friendly and not at all 'too competitive' there were lots of people, like me, just having a go! It all ran really smoothly and on time too.

The dressage arena is lovely - but it did feel smaller than normal? Not sure it can have been though. There are three arena's marked out next to each other - so no fences, just those white divider things on the floor (that my pony thought were going to eat him!!) There's a lovely big warm up school with mirrors too.

There's a nice big jumping area to warm up in. The jumping course was straightforward, but they did have all of the jumps for the three classes in the same arena last time (you just jump your colour) - which made the SJ area quite 'busy' and thats where we got eliminated!!

The XC course was really nice - lots up to height but smaller ones too. Nothing too scarey at all. There's lots of space too and you always get a nice run up to the jump so you can decide how to approach it. Only think to look out for is again all the jumps are set up - so you have to look carefully for your coloured flags. I managed to miss one of my jumps as I got confused and panicked lol. (Didn't matter as I was already eliminated!!)

Have fun - I'm sure you'll have a great day.