Nickymac
Well-Known Member
Why oh why I asked myself, was I on the A1 at 4.30am heading for Tweseldown with Humungahorse and his ickle half-brother, Jupiter, on board?! And that was before it started raining! I had the journey from hell, it took four and a half hours to get there, so I dragged Ross out of the lorry with 20 mins to warm up, no studs in, him looking distinctly unimpressed with having to get out of bed so early, and his little bruvver trying to strangle himself as I left. Thankfully Calming Influence II (k9h being Calming Influence I), Alan, appointed 2yo handler (picked from a cast of thousands, or so I told him
) said all the right things as I warmed up (ie. humoured me), told me to stop looking at WFP and concentrate on my own horse. In we went, pootled round, freestyled a bit in the "lengthened strides in canter" (go on mum, let me buck....), did it all, halted (judge at A looked sour, judge at B smiled, so it could have gone either way) and came out. How surprised was I then to get 27.4 and be 0.3 behind WFP and PF (on last year's 4yo winner) and be about 4th or 5th out of 84 starters?
I went to walk the showjumping (and the rain had started) but missed the chance, so looked at it from a distance, asked a mate the distances and generally admired the brightness and decoration of the whole course, not being sure if that would help or hinder Ross. I went to warm up and Alan was off with Jupiter to the in-hand ring, so had to jump whatever was up, in the pouring rain, on a horse that felt less than careful. Oh well, resigned myself to the fact that he's huge, messages take ages to get from the brain to his feet and I should use this round as a reminder that I'd promised myself I was going to BSJA him all winter. Bless him, he loped round in such a lovely way I didn't even think he'd noticed the fences, and just had one down (Alan said he barely breathed on it, but maybe that was him humouring me again). I was so pleased with how he went, and here he is:
I looked for his photo in the proofs for ages as he looked so grown-up and nothing like how I picture him in my mind's eye.
Off to walk the course and meet Alan with Jupiter (who has stopped waving at people and squealing with joy by now), on his way back to the lorry with a by now very soggy 4th rosette. Clever pony, knows what it takes to take himself off the "for sale" list.....
I thought the course looked little, but then I was fresh back from Weston and had done Oasby novice the week before, but with the rain and twists and turns I knew not to take it for granted. By the time I went the rain was just awful, and I was soaked through and could feel it running down the inside of my boots. He was very good though, albeit with a disdainful ever-so-slight lifting of the legs over each fence, and a couple of motorbike corners (he is huge after all, and was massively distracted by all the other fences that we weren't jumping), and I only wasted 1 second to get 0.4 of a time fault. So I ended up 18th, all in all a good effort.
I'm sure that WFP was miffed to have a fence down on his SF stallion, as without it he would have been 3rd (or equal 3rd with Pippa) and I would have been 4th or 5th. However Humungahorse exceeded my expectations and I'm very proud of him.
Didn't hear a peep out of either of them on the way home, and it only took 4 hours to get back.....
I went to walk the showjumping (and the rain had started) but missed the chance, so looked at it from a distance, asked a mate the distances and generally admired the brightness and decoration of the whole course, not being sure if that would help or hinder Ross. I went to warm up and Alan was off with Jupiter to the in-hand ring, so had to jump whatever was up, in the pouring rain, on a horse that felt less than careful. Oh well, resigned myself to the fact that he's huge, messages take ages to get from the brain to his feet and I should use this round as a reminder that I'd promised myself I was going to BSJA him all winter. Bless him, he loped round in such a lovely way I didn't even think he'd noticed the fences, and just had one down (Alan said he barely breathed on it, but maybe that was him humouring me again). I was so pleased with how he went, and here he is:
I looked for his photo in the proofs for ages as he looked so grown-up and nothing like how I picture him in my mind's eye.
Off to walk the course and meet Alan with Jupiter (who has stopped waving at people and squealing with joy by now), on his way back to the lorry with a by now very soggy 4th rosette. Clever pony, knows what it takes to take himself off the "for sale" list.....
I thought the course looked little, but then I was fresh back from Weston and had done Oasby novice the week before, but with the rain and twists and turns I knew not to take it for granted. By the time I went the rain was just awful, and I was soaked through and could feel it running down the inside of my boots. He was very good though, albeit with a disdainful ever-so-slight lifting of the legs over each fence, and a couple of motorbike corners (he is huge after all, and was massively distracted by all the other fences that we weren't jumping), and I only wasted 1 second to get 0.4 of a time fault. So I ended up 18th, all in all a good effort.
I'm sure that WFP was miffed to have a fence down on his SF stallion, as without it he would have been 3rd (or equal 3rd with Pippa) and I would have been 4th or 5th. However Humungahorse exceeded my expectations and I'm very proud of him.
Didn't hear a peep out of either of them on the way home, and it only took 4 hours to get back.....
