Pidge's Eland Lodge ODE report - one very happy mummy

[Pidgeon]

Ok so after a disastrous HT 3 weeks ago where we got eliminated before fence 2 as Pidge was napping towards the warm up and Sunny

off we went to Eland again but for their unaff ODE. 2 weeks ago we had a good lesson with Linda Brookes and introduced Pidge to the delights of Mr Whippy

to try to cure his nappiness so I was a bit more optimistic for yesterday

Had lovely times of 12.40 for dressage and sis was on at 13.10 dressage so had a leisurely start even having time to plait Pidge so he looked rather sexy

hopefully this would give the judge something to drool over rather than actually looking at our movements

So warmed up for 40 minutes in walk and trot and Pidge was getting rather keen by the hedge as he could see the XC warm up so moved away from there pretty sharpish! Then it was time for us to go in

as some of you may know our walk and trot is coming on great guns and is pretty established now but our canter well it's still very much work in progress

so I wasn't looking forward to the test - BE91.
Entered relatively sanely and managed to maintain control and OMG our first canter left was pretty reasonable for Pidge we even got a 7 for our canter transition

then we got a bit quick as we'd had a canter and our second canter wasn't as good as we skimmied round one of the boards after E and came back in before H

So not too bad by our standards of dressage so I was pretty damn pleased by this point

Took Pidge back to the lorry, stripped him and went back to watch sis do her dressage on a very keen Sunny.
Had a mini cornish pasty for lunch as I can't eat before competing but my stomach was by this time eating itself from inside

and then tacked up for the SJ. Course was 9 fences in total with one double and in the warm I was like eep! and then mentally slapped myself as it was only 2'-2'4" and we've been jumping 2'6" and 2'9" clear over the winter. Fence 8 had the nasty pig fillers and fence 9 had nasty sheep fillers

Went in determined not to stop at the nasty fillers, romped round clear in not very pretty style motorbiking round the corners, slowed down after fence 7 as we were going towards the exit and he thought he'd finished so I slapped him on the bum and he was like "Ok Ok I get the hint" and locked on to fence 9 the wrong way and was off.......... cue me hauling him round to fence 8, sorry Pidge

, and popped them in the correct order, phew. So a clear but not exactly pretty, good job it wasn't marked on style!
Watched sis on Sunny go round then back off to the lorry to change for the XC, how come 40 mintues between SJ and XC seems like ages but in reality isn't?
Ambled down to the XC thinking fence 2 fence 2 fence 2 must get over fence 2, sure people thought I was mad.
Warmed up fine with Pidge extremely keen and then we were off. Couple of smacks leaving the warm up to go to the start box and then 3,2,1 romped it over the brush fence and cruised round the corner over the bridge to fence 2, smack 4 strides out and we were over

"Right let's go" I said to Pidge and gave him a smack before the crocodile as he hadn't quite got into XC mode, we then flew the trakhener, double of logs and had to yell "coming through" before the log pile as was rapidly catching the one in front. splashed through the water and out over the log, up the mini steps and over the brick wall, down the sunken road and over the wibbly log, flew over the pheasant feeder really motoring and took the hanging log on a rather acute angle as just couldn''t make the turn noticing a shoe on the other side as we landed (told lady at the end), galloped up to the sheep corrall and instead of one stride between the two elements naughty Pidge decided to bounce it

queue mum shrieking

but what a buzz when we landed

romped through the water splash, over the house, up the hill and over the steeplechase fence and log to finish. Phew I love this horse XC he is awesome

Walked him round to cool off as by this time it was quite warm and then back to the lorry.
Finally managed to eat something and went for the results, 11th after dressage out of 25

I was like

and then I was 7th overall so just missed out on a rosette

We got 40.5 in our dressage is that quite good for BE? Got some 5's mainly 6's and 4 7's

However am over the moon to get a double clear on our second ever ODE and the pro photographer got our massive leap over the second part of the sheep corral which is a cracking photot

So got back to the yard late on, boys had a very well deserved tea and out in the field. We all went for a balti and then bed.
Cookies for anyone who gets this far, sorry for the long report but I am chuffed to bits with Pidge, roll on the next HT or ODE

Pictures to follow from mum and Mooch, will post the pro ones when they come (yes I will get permission for them to go on here)

 

[glitterfuzz]

I saw you go round, we were sitting on the hill watching and I remember saying "did you just see that horse bounce the sheep corall"!!

I had a funny photo from that fence too a I did the Novice one in one stride rather than two. The photographer caught us in take off pose but theres no jump under the horse as its about 6 feet away from his front legs!

Well done!

 

[Pidgeon]

Yep that would have been me

17hh ISH with a long stride who loves his XC

OMG would love to see that photo? Do you think it's just the ginger ones that like taking strides out then?
How did you get on yesterday?

 

[glitterfuzz]

I asked for the one stride as last time we struggled to get 2 in so I kicked on and got what I asked for! I was in the air for ages! Im going to ask Bill to send me the photo when he sends some over for the website report (seeing as I bought the others they took!)

I had a great day - my horses first ODE (and first dressage test!!) so had no idea what to expect. Had a little spook at a car moving half way through the dressage test which resulted in a nice flying change and a 3 for canter! But we managed to get 6's all the way through. Had 1 show jump down which on watchig the video was my fault. XC was fab - came in bang on optimum time, we were the only ones with no time penalties in the entire Novice (125 competitiors!)

Finished in 4th place, was very close, if I had gone clear in show jumping we would have won so very happy

 

[jumptoit]

Well Done!

 

[Pidgeon]

Lovely horse, I'm in no way biased towards ginger beasties

You must be very pleased with 4th place then?

 

[Pidgeon]

thank you

 

[glitterfuzz]

Ginger Ninjas are the best! im on my 3rd ginger pony!

 

[Pidgeon]

definately