Diane_Pepper
Well-Known Member
Set of at a rather sociable 8.45am (not bad for residents of west wales!)
Arrived in plenty of time to walk the course. I was quite shocked at the size of some of the fences - it's certainly one of the bigger intros I've seen.
Asked quite a few questions, jumping in & out of darkness, lots of skinnies, 1 particularly tricky turn before a skinny fence at 14 which just says to horses 'ooooh look, a wonderful opportunity to run out!'
I was particularly miffed to see that one of the jump judges (PN was running at the time I walked it) had parked right slap in the middle of a combination!! How are you supposed to stride it - walk staright over the clean shiny silver car?!!
I appreciate that people are giving up their time for the sport, but I thought that was rather irresponsible.
Anyway, onto the dressage which was in the nice big sand arena
Pepper wasrmed up pretty nicely, quite tight in the warm up sometimes though
Got called into the arena & there was only 1 other horse in there & Pepper not being very happy on his own went ballistic & when he started throwing his head up in the air & jogging, I'm sure you'll know that I had high expectations for his test! NOT!
But he did calm down eventually & stopped whinnying just before going down the c/line!
He surprisingly did a smashing little test, very accurate I thought - just one hiccup where he almost came to a sharp halt in the trot-medium walk trans!
But I was totally unsure what mark we'd get as Pepper's dressage marks have been very up & down this season with tests in the 20s & then a couple in the 40s (harshly marked I feel!)
Ended up with 31.5 which left us joint 3rd!! WOW!
Here's some video stills of his test:
halt:
Had an hour to wait before our SJ time & hadn't walked the course because I thought it was in the same ring as PN, but then realised they'd already layed it out in yet another arena!
Ooooops!
But it was miniscule, the 1st 3 fences can't have been more that 2ft6/9!
only a couple were of decent height I would have said!
He jumped a beautiful clear - I was really pleased with him as anyone who knows Pepper will understand his 4/8faultitis!
Big pats for the clever pony!
So got back & tacked up ready for XC, mum kept saying 'no pressure then!' < yeah, thanks for that!
Warmed up over the practise fence once & that was all he needed - I can never understand why people jump it 6 times as surely it wastes energy?!
He was so funny in the start box- got very excited, now he's actually realised what it means! (taken him 2 BE seasons to work this out!) Cleared 1,2 beautifully - no hesitation at all at no.2 which the 2 before me both stopped at
then no.3, he didn't quite understand why he was going through a small gap in the trees, but then he locked onto the rolltop & gave it some air!
Jumped 4 at an angle to save time going up the hill to 5 & he was really listening to me
popped 6, 7ab which was a step up & the PN house (which we jumped at an angle too!)
Took an absolute flyer over 8 - boy did that make me lose my stomach
here's the fence:
& Pepper flying over it!
Flew 9, 10abc which was the water & he cantered through & took a long one at the C element like a proper pro! (This is the pony who's scared of water!)
a element
b element - water
c element
Put 3 strides in at the combo which I couldn't walk properly, but I'd estimated for 3, so that was okay
He was still really tuned in at this point & we did a good turn to fence 14 - a skinny house which I was windy about, and he jumped it fine!
Flew the rest & when we got to the finish I was a very proud mummy!
I was a bit diasappointed with 6 time faults, but after looking at the scoreboards I felt better - only 3 people were inside the time in my section!
So we ended up 5th! Pepper had a very big pat & I was grinning all the way home, not often we get a double clear..
Now for the IFS!
IF we had finished on our dressage (or even had 3.5 less time faults..) ..We would have WON!!
How gutting is that!
But now looking forward to Aldon PN on friday, if he does a nice SJ round I'll be happy
Arrived in plenty of time to walk the course. I was quite shocked at the size of some of the fences - it's certainly one of the bigger intros I've seen.
Asked quite a few questions, jumping in & out of darkness, lots of skinnies, 1 particularly tricky turn before a skinny fence at 14 which just says to horses 'ooooh look, a wonderful opportunity to run out!'
I was particularly miffed to see that one of the jump judges (PN was running at the time I walked it) had parked right slap in the middle of a combination!! How are you supposed to stride it - walk staright over the clean shiny silver car?!!
I appreciate that people are giving up their time for the sport, but I thought that was rather irresponsible.
Anyway, onto the dressage which was in the nice big sand arena
Pepper wasrmed up pretty nicely, quite tight in the warm up sometimes though
Got called into the arena & there was only 1 other horse in there & Pepper not being very happy on his own went ballistic & when he started throwing his head up in the air & jogging, I'm sure you'll know that I had high expectations for his test! NOT!
But he did calm down eventually & stopped whinnying just before going down the c/line!
He surprisingly did a smashing little test, very accurate I thought - just one hiccup where he almost came to a sharp halt in the trot-medium walk trans!
But I was totally unsure what mark we'd get as Pepper's dressage marks have been very up & down this season with tests in the 20s & then a couple in the 40s (harshly marked I feel!)
Ended up with 31.5 which left us joint 3rd!! WOW!
Here's some video stills of his test:
halt:
Had an hour to wait before our SJ time & hadn't walked the course because I thought it was in the same ring as PN, but then realised they'd already layed it out in yet another arena!
Ooooops!
But it was miniscule, the 1st 3 fences can't have been more that 2ft6/9!
only a couple were of decent height I would have said!
He jumped a beautiful clear - I was really pleased with him as anyone who knows Pepper will understand his 4/8faultitis!
Big pats for the clever pony!
So got back & tacked up ready for XC, mum kept saying 'no pressure then!' < yeah, thanks for that!
Warmed up over the practise fence once & that was all he needed - I can never understand why people jump it 6 times as surely it wastes energy?!
He was so funny in the start box- got very excited, now he's actually realised what it means! (taken him 2 BE seasons to work this out!) Cleared 1,2 beautifully - no hesitation at all at no.2 which the 2 before me both stopped at
then no.3, he didn't quite understand why he was going through a small gap in the trees, but then he locked onto the rolltop & gave it some air!
Jumped 4 at an angle to save time going up the hill to 5 & he was really listening to me
popped 6, 7ab which was a step up & the PN house (which we jumped at an angle too!)
Took an absolute flyer over 8 - boy did that make me lose my stomach
here's the fence:
& Pepper flying over it!
Flew 9, 10abc which was the water & he cantered through & took a long one at the C element like a proper pro! (This is the pony who's scared of water!)
a element
b element - water
c element
Put 3 strides in at the combo which I couldn't walk properly, but I'd estimated for 3, so that was okay
He was still really tuned in at this point & we did a good turn to fence 14 - a skinny house which I was windy about, and he jumped it fine!
Flew the rest & when we got to the finish I was a very proud mummy!
I was a bit diasappointed with 6 time faults, but after looking at the scoreboards I felt better - only 3 people were inside the time in my section!
So we ended up 5th! Pepper had a very big pat & I was grinning all the way home, not often we get a double clear..
Now for the IFS!
IF we had finished on our dressage (or even had 3.5 less time faults..) ..We would have WON!!
How gutting is that!
But now looking forward to Aldon PN on friday, if he does a nice SJ round I'll be happy
