iknowmyvalue
Well-Known Member
I think this weekend has to be my busiest yet! I hadn't ridden or seen Henry in 6wks because of uni (and I mean I have not sat on a horse at all in that time), so naturally I just had to pack it in while I could, and decided to go out "doing" things all 3 days I was home 
I already mentioned our friday SJ rally in the weekend plans thread. He was so good, all things considered, and MUCH improved from the last time we went to that venue. I was very pleased with him, and happy that he seems to finally be working out how to jump like a normal horse
Saturday we went out for dressage. Doing P1 and P18. I've not taken him to this venue before, but it's one of my favourites for winter dressage! Again, it's indoor (luckily as it was chucking it down!) but the arena is massive and open on one side, and you warm up in a blocked off area at one end of the area where the tests are happening. I think this helped H, because he could get used to the arena in the warmup, and he could still see the other horses while he was doing his test. We ended up running a little bit late, and they were running early, so didn't get as long as I would have liked to warm up for the first test, but he felt good so off we went. He did an absolutely lovely test, and we ended up on a score of 71.4% and 2nd! Had an hour to wait before 2nd test so gave him a little bit to chill, then got back on and warmed up. By this point, more people had arrived and it was a bit busier around the entrance to the arena, so he was a bit distracted during his test, and the sudden appearance of a man and a dog from behind a stable at just the wrong moment meant our right canter wasn't a very straight line but overall, still a sweet test. That earned us 64.3%, didn't come anywhere but we were only 4% off the leader so not too bad. I'm absolutely over the moon with how he went, especially considering I don't think he's done much flatwork with his sharer and I wasn't riding my best! He's such a trier
Sunday, off out again with some friends, but this time for something a little more exciting, bloodhounding! He's been out with our local foxhound pack with his sharer quite a few times now, but I haven't taken him out with the bloodhounds since last season. Wow, what a day we had! It was just one of those days that just makes you fall in love with riding all over again. The weather was beautiful, as were the views. Henry was absolutely fantastic, we had perfect brakes, he jumped everything so honestly and he got an awful lot of compliments Plus, I felt so much more confident as well! Just a fantastic day, and I'm still buzzing!
Of course, with Henry being the prize winning drama queen he is, we couldn't do a weekend completely free of drama
On the way home on Sunday he managed to not only pull his travel boot off, but managed to stand on it, and he couldn't get his foot off it, meaning he couldn't get any grip and kept slipping. Luckily my friend who was giving me a lift has a camera in her lorry, so we could see that he had got himself in a right state and was kind of wedged sideways between the partition and the wall. Pulled over and I went in the back and managed to sort him out, though took a while to convince him that he wasn't going to fall over if he lifted his foot up so I could pull the boot out from underneath it! Luckily, he seems none the worse for wear, he did keep losing his balance when we turned right for the rest of the journey (I think he was worried if he leaned that way again he'd fall over again) but arrived home perfectly calm and not sweaty at all (he sweats up hugely when he's stressed travelling).
Clever boy!
Views for days
[video=youtube_share;_VsUYcfcWIY]https://youtu.be/_VsUYcfcWIY[/video]
[video=youtube_share;-bW7hNLFvFg]https://youtu.be/-bW7hNLFvFg[/video]
[video=youtube_share;NmuAuHqdGk8]https://youtu.be/NmuAuHqdGk8[/video]
If anyone has any constructive criticism on how we can improve the dressage, feel free to comment. I know we are both far from perfect!
I already mentioned our friday SJ rally in the weekend plans thread. He was so good, all things considered, and MUCH improved from the last time we went to that venue. I was very pleased with him, and happy that he seems to finally be working out how to jump like a normal horse
Saturday we went out for dressage. Doing P1 and P18. I've not taken him to this venue before, but it's one of my favourites for winter dressage! Again, it's indoor (luckily as it was chucking it down!) but the arena is massive and open on one side, and you warm up in a blocked off area at one end of the area where the tests are happening. I think this helped H, because he could get used to the arena in the warmup, and he could still see the other horses while he was doing his test. We ended up running a little bit late, and they were running early, so didn't get as long as I would have liked to warm up for the first test, but he felt good so off we went. He did an absolutely lovely test, and we ended up on a score of 71.4% and 2nd! Had an hour to wait before 2nd test so gave him a little bit to chill, then got back on and warmed up. By this point, more people had arrived and it was a bit busier around the entrance to the arena, so he was a bit distracted during his test, and the sudden appearance of a man and a dog from behind a stable at just the wrong moment meant our right canter wasn't a very straight line
but overall, still a sweet test. That earned us 64.3%, didn't come anywhere but we were only 4% off the leader so not too bad. I'm absolutely over the moon with how he went, especially considering I don't think he's done much flatwork with his sharer and I wasn't riding my best! He's such a trier Sunday, off out again with some friends, but this time for something a little more exciting, bloodhounding! He's been out with our local foxhound pack with his sharer quite a few times now, but I haven't taken him out with the bloodhounds since last season. Wow, what a day we had! It was just one of those days that just makes you fall in love with riding all over again. The weather was beautiful, as were the views. Henry was absolutely fantastic, we had perfect brakes, he jumped everything so honestly and he got an awful lot of compliments
Plus, I felt so much more confident as well! Just a fantastic day, and I'm still buzzing! Of course, with Henry being the prize winning drama queen he is, we couldn't do a weekend completely free of drama
On the way home on Sunday he managed to not only pull his travel boot off, but managed to stand on it, and he couldn't get his foot off it, meaning he couldn't get any grip and kept slipping. Luckily my friend who was giving me a lift has a camera in her lorry, so we could see that he had got himself in a right state and was kind of wedged sideways between the partition and the wall. Pulled over and I went in the back and managed to sort him out, though took a while to convince him that he wasn't going to fall over if he lifted his foot up so I could pull the boot out from underneath it! Luckily, he seems none the worse for wear, he did keep losing his balance when we turned right for the rest of the journey (I think he was worried if he leaned that way again he'd fall over again) but arrived home perfectly calm and not sweaty at all (he sweats up hugely when he's stressed travelling).
Clever boy!
Views for days
[video=youtube_share;_VsUYcfcWIY]https://youtu.be/_VsUYcfcWIY[/video]
[video=youtube_share;-bW7hNLFvFg]https://youtu.be/-bW7hNLFvFg[/video]
[video=youtube_share;NmuAuHqdGk8]https://youtu.be/NmuAuHqdGk8[/video]
If anyone has any constructive criticism on how we can improve the dressage, feel free to comment. I know we are both far from perfect!
