Pleasing Pulborough-competition report!

Elvis

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I thought since we seem to be short of competition reports recently I'd do one! But it'd be really nice to see some more from others too!

Today Elvis set out for his first competition since May! He had the summer off competing due to an injury and then we spent a long time building him back up. It's a shame the BE season is coming to an end now as we've just got him ready to go. I was so nervous about today, despite not riding, which is silly really.

Anyway we got to Pulborough and the weather was horrendous, the rain was torrential. Elvis was his usual sedate self and happily munched away at his hay while the rain thundered on the lorry roof. By the time H got on for the dressage the weather hadn't improved, Elvis warmed up well although I did start to wonder if I'd been a little mean insisting he was clipped yesterday, as he probably could have done with a bit of extra warmth today! Anyway considering Elvis hasn't seen dressage boards in 5 months he really tried. The arena was quite churned up and slippy, his trot work got 7's and his free walk got an 8. He was quite tense in the canter which affected his marks, but experience and further strengthening will soon sort this, he's capable of a test in the high 20's but today he got a fair 35 to put him in the middle of his section. Despite the tension I was so proud of his attitude, he just got on with the job and ignored the ground and the rain.

Now onto the Showjumping, we turned up at our time, again in awful weather, to find out they were over an hour behind. Elvis was very well behaved and stood sensibly while a running order was sorted. After lots of waiting and a quick warm up it was time to go in, the course was very up to height, and poles were falling all over the place. Now Showjumping has been Elvis' weakest phase, not through lack of ability but he's just not overly careful, so I was quite nervous. He was brilliant, didn't take a look at anything and maintained a lovely rhythm, he just had one fence down due to being overly polite when H checked him coming round a corner and popped back into trot and then couldn't get the oomph to clear it well. Again he hasn't jumped a full proper course since May, so I was chuffed with his performance. *touch wood* I think we might be making progress with his Showjumping, he's starting to make a better shape over fences and fewer poles are falling. Hopefully a winter spent perfecting his technique will improve this further.

We decided to crack on and after a quick change and plaits undone H and Elvis headed to the cross country. While I know that Elvis' strongest phase is cross country and he is a very good cross country horse, I couldn't help think back to his green stop at a ditch back in May at Portman. I was also aware that he'd only had one quick cross country school earlier in the week at rackham. And the course at Pulborough was a fair test especially considering the weather and ground. I needn't have worried though as he posted a really confident happy clear, he collected 4.4 time penalties, but H was taking it steady as expected for a first run.

Elvis finished 0.4 of a penalty outside of the placing's to finish 11th, just 1 second faster and he would have got his first 2 shiny FP's and finished 10th but I really can't complain, he was a star all day and if he can perform like this at BE100 on no match practice, then I can't wait to see how he does next year.

The plan now is to have one last run this year next weekend at Larkhill in the BE100, then Elvis will spend this winter doing some dressage, Showjumping and hunting before coming out next spring at BE100, and then if he's confident at that level after a few runs he'll step up to novice.

A few pictures from today- I've purchased these so have the right to post them- although I expect they'll still be removed by admin.

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star

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Sounds brilliant. Good boy for getting on with it. I really think I'm going to have to withdraw from tomorrow which is a real ****** as was really looking forwards to it but horse absolutely detests slippery or boggy or holding or anything other than nice ground and it really doesn't sound like it will be "nice" ground!
 

Elvis

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Sounds brilliant. Good boy for getting on with it. I really think I'm going to have to withdraw from tomorrow which is a real ****** as was really looking forwards to it but horse absolutely detests slippery or boggy or holding or anything other than nice ground and it really doesn't sound like it will be "nice" ground!

What class are you entered in? I expect they'll move the dressage arenas- the warm up was fine. And then the showjump warmup was a swamp but again they might move it. And the course is on a surface. The 100 cross country was only bad in places so you might be okay? Are you close enough that you could go an see what it's like before withdrawing?
 

star

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What class are you entered in? I expect they'll move the dressage arenas- the warm up was fine. And then the showjump warmup was a swamp but again they might move it. And the course is on a surface. The 100 cross country was only bad in places so you might be okay? Are you close enough that you could go an see what it's like before withdrawing?

No, an hour's drive away. Horse hates rain, he just swings his bum into it and refuses to go nicely. He won't jump on a slippery surface, just chips in and gets all worried about it so would mean no warm up and we're meant to be doing our first 100 Plus so not really the class to do with no warmup!
 

Elvis

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No, an hour's drive away. Horse hates rain, he just swings his bum into it and refuses to go nicely. He won't jump on a slippery surface, just chips in and gets all worried about it so would mean no warm up and we're meant to be doing our first 100 Plus so not really the class to do with no warmup!

Oh no, I think more rain is forecast for tomorrow, they also seem to be building very up to height, so maybe not the best first 100 plus. :(
Is there any chance they could transfer you to the 90? The ground will be fresh then?
 

longdog

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Lovely report & pics. Was hoping that Pulborough would have been our first, but a couple of setbacks recently has meant that we will wait for 2015 to make our BE debut. Seeing the weather today, I don't think I'm too sorry!
 

Geek

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Horrendous weather for eventing! What a good boy to come out and perform in that weather and not having bene out since May. Sounding very promising for next season. I can't wait for the new season already!
 

Elvis

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Lovely report & pics. Was hoping that Pulborough would have been our first, but a couple of setbacks recently has meant that we will wait for 2015 to make our BE debut. Seeing the weather today, I don't think I'm too sorry!

Thank you. Sorry to hear that, but yes the weather was awful, not ideal for a first run at all! Maybe a blessing in disguise!
 

Elvis

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Horrendous weather for eventing! What a good boy to come out and perform in that weather and not having bene out since May. Sounding very promising for next season. I can't wait for the new season already!

Thank you, it was horrific and unfortunately we didn't dodge it very well! But it proved what a genuine boy Elvis is. He slipped a couple of times in the show jump warm up, even with studs in because it was like soup in places but he still kept jumping completely unfased. I'm very excited about next year now :)
 

star

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Oh no, I think more rain is forecast for tomorrow, they also seem to be building very up to height, so maybe not the best first 100 plus. :(
Is there any chance they could transfer you to the 90? The ground will be fresh then?

No point doing 90 - he could skip round in his sleep. He doesn't need the run. Confident with the SJ height as long as we get to warmup properly as have been training at Novice height for a while now but it's not one to do with a non-existant warmup due to worrying about the ground so just best to give it a miss. We've had 11 runs this year in good weather - going to be thankful for that and end our season though. Disappointing but better than having a disasterous last run.
 

Elvis

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No point doing 90 - he could skip round in his sleep. He doesn't need the run. Confident with the SJ height as long as we get to warmup properly as have been training at Novice height for a while now but it's not one to do with a non-existant warmup due to worrying about the ground so just best to give it a miss. We've had 11 runs this year in good weather - going to be thankful for that and end our season though. Disappointing but better than having a disasterous last run.

Yes, unfortunately the showjump warm up probably had the worst of the ground, it was the only place Elvis really slipped.
11 runs is pretty good, especially when we remember how awful the 2013 season was.
As you say it's not worth the risk of finishing on a bad run.
 

star

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Yes, unfortunately the showjump warm up probably had the worst of the ground, it was the only place Elvis really slipped.
11 runs is pretty good, especially when we remember how awful the 2013 season was.
As you say it's not worth the risk of finishing on a bad run.

11 is more than my grand total of 2012/2013 put together due to injuries so I'm well chuffed. Roll on 2015 and Badminton!
 

Mike007

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Hi star,I,m not quite sure I buy into your thinking here.You have done far more out draghunting. The course is the same for everyone and you have the advantage from your draghunting experience. You , whether you realise it or not ,have a lot more understanding of ground conditions than a lot of riders.You can get round where others might struggle. Thats the way to win.
 

star

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Hi star,I,m not quite sure I buy into your thinking here.You have done far more out draghunting. The course is the same for everyone and you have the advantage from your draghunting experience. You , whether you realise it or not ,have a lot more understanding of ground conditions than a lot of riders.You can get round where others might struggle. Thats the way to win.

yeah I could get round but he wouldn't enjoy it and he's getting older now and I want to look after him and do what's best for him rather than try to win at all costs. We live to fight another day :)
 

Carefreegirl

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Fab report, you're much braver than me with the weather - but I'm to old and creaky to get wet.

Didn't see the pictures though, boo.
 

Elvis

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No, I've been given an infraction for posting them, despite having purchased them. Does anyone know why this is apparently still breaking HHO rules?
 

longdog

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Put them on FB & post a link! That way we can enjoy them. HHO are losing more & more posters due to their button pushing antics. I'm sure there are far fewer reports than there were before. Also lots of lovely experienced posters no longer post (boo hoo)
 

Elvis

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Put them on FB & post a link! That way we can enjoy them. HHO are losing more & more posters due to their button pushing antics. I'm sure there are far fewer reports than there were before. Also lots of lovely experienced posters no longer post (boo hoo)

So is it other HHO members who are button pushing or is it HHO admin who are stalking threads and finding photos to remove?

My Facebook profile is set to private, is there a way I can link one post where I allow public access?
 

Nicnac

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That's crazy - it was obvious that they were purchased as had the cardboard frames around them. Does that mean we can only post the electronic versions for social media use? (CBA to read HHO rules)

I think you can set each photo on FB to a particular setting so you could make the ones of yesterday public which wouldn't affect your overall privacy settings.

We're off to Pulborough tomorrow -not worried about the horse with the ground as he's Irish and not at all poncy, but am terrified of lorry slipping sideways and being towed out as last time was towed it cost me £1000 as exhaust was ripped off due to big bump in middle of tractor towing tracks :-(
 

Elvis

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That's crazy - it was obvious that they were purchased as had the cardboard frames around them. Does that mean we can only post the electronic versions for social media use? (CBA to read HHO rules)

I think you can set each photo on FB to a particular setting so you could make the ones of yesterday public which wouldn't affect your overall privacy settings.

We're off to Pulborough tomorrow -not worried about the horse with the ground as he's Irish and not at all poncy, but am terrified of lorry slipping sideways and being towed out as last time was towed it cost me £1000 as exhaust was ripped off due to big bump in middle of tractor towing tracks :-(

Even the digital versions get removed, it just seems to be that if any photos look like they've been done professionally they are removed. It's very frustrating, I prefer reading reports with the photos embedded instead of clicking on links, and surely if they have clearly been purchased and there is a comment explaining that, why are they being removed. I'm going to try and set my status from yesterday as open to the public and then post the link here.

The lorry park wasn't bad at all, my dad didn't get stuck in his rear wheel drive merc which is usually rubbish in any mud or slippy conditions. Good luck tomorrow :)
 
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