Elvis
Well-Known Member
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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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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