Charmin
Well-Known Member
I arrived back from university after my exams to find they'd all been put in the summer fields, which meant I was greeted by a rather rotund little mare who was very pleased with her regime of scoffing her face. So fittening work began immediately, lots of hacking and canter work to try and get the weight off her. Now she's just a bit podgy compared to embarassingly fat so it's going in the right direction! Her field has now been grazed down so hopefully the worst is over and it's just a case of keeping up the work. I swear she glances at grass and absorbs its calories, it's a serious skill.
First party was an unaffiliated dressage. Now I don't really do poncing on a great scale, I'm more about the speed and jumping. But as she's a homebred and I wanted to do things right I've forced the poncing side a bit. We had a bit of a breakthrough lesson with a new trainer who told me to man up and stop treating her like a baby as she's now 6 and is capable of coming more uphill and concentrating for a whole session. So off we toddled to a little unaffiliated, the first time I've ever done two tests.
She likes minimal warm up, so 7 minute warm up with one canter and in we went for the first test, P13. She had a spook at one corner of the arena but settled down and did a nice test, absolutely powered down the first center line, I think the judge was glad of the fence separating us or we might have ended up on her bonnet! She hollowed through the canter transitions upwards, something we're working on. Came out thinking it was a half decent test.
Had a 40 minute wait until next test so untacked her and attempted to put studs in as next test was on grass. Had a nightmare and couldn't do them as we'd forgotten the spanner and no one else had one, so had to go without. Meanwhile the score for my first went up - 72% and currently lying first.
The next warm up was mount up then wander over to the test, and trot around the outside of the ring twice before judge tooted her horn. Ruby was eyeing up the white boards and wondering where the jumps were, her dissatisfaction clear as she powered down the center line, I had to hoik her around the corner, then she settled and did another very sweet test. She just slipped into the second canter transition and lost a little confidence, so ran through the bridle and missed the marker. However she then listened and finished sweetly - though her halt was pretty horrendously wonky.
Some video stills - not sure why they're so small. If anyone knows of any programmes that produces bigger stills please do share!
the horrendous halt!:
Back to the trailer for a wash down and a pick of grass, to find out we'd won the first class! Our score quickly went up for the second, 74.5%! It had some lovely partnerships in that class so had a bit of a tense wait before mum appeared with our sheet and another red rossette, we'd won the second class by 3% as well. So lots of pats (no treats, diet time!) for pony and we almost saw what all this poncing was about.
Then on Sunday we headed off for Smallwood ODE, the first of the season. Jumping wise we had a wobble a few weeks ago at an arena eventing where, very unlike her, she slammed the breaks on in the XC section. So we've taken it back to basics, done lots of gridwork and practicing at home so I could get my eye back in after being away.
We had ten minutes to warm up for dressage which for her was even perhaps a bit too long! She warmed up the best I've ever known, so soft and relaxed through her neck and over her back, light in the hand and uphill. The horse before was having some issues, was cantering when supposed to be walking, rearing and diving out of the arena, so that held us up a bit. But then we powered over to the arena and did what I thought was her best test ever - she was so collected and on her hocks in the canter, really stretched in the free walk and just felt like she was floating around. No hollowing in transitions and our halt was square! Saluted and was very surprised by an outburst of applause behind us - turned around to see a little fanclub had gathered including some stewards who congratulated me on a nice test, as did the next competitor! So smiles all round and super duper proud of her, she's such a sweetheart!
Bit of a wait before SJ, so we wandered around the XC which all seemed very jumpable and inviting. A bit twisty on the latter half of the course which might throw her as she prefers a bolder stride, but it looked nice.
Tacked up and over to SJ which was causing absolute carnage. The three before me were eliminated, mainly at number three, which you had to approach down a hill and turning at the same time. Many were slipping and losing confidence round the corner and then stopping. The warm up was a bit of a crash course as well with people jumping the warm up jumps the wrong way despite red flag and placing pole being on the other side. The more I watched the more my SJ demons came to head and the course looked unjumpable!
However, cantered in and as the bell rang and we approached the first I suddenly felt very calm. She collected herself up, popped the first and that set the tone for the rest of the course! We had a slight argument on the approach to the third when she considered I was over-steadying her, but she listened and was absolutely fab to jump around for a nice clear.
Our XC time was very tight so we'd brought all her boots down to the warm up, so quick change and we were ready.
TBC....
First party was an unaffiliated dressage. Now I don't really do poncing on a great scale, I'm more about the speed and jumping. But as she's a homebred and I wanted to do things right I've forced the poncing side a bit. We had a bit of a breakthrough lesson with a new trainer who told me to man up and stop treating her like a baby as she's now 6 and is capable of coming more uphill and concentrating for a whole session. So off we toddled to a little unaffiliated, the first time I've ever done two tests.
She likes minimal warm up, so 7 minute warm up with one canter and in we went for the first test, P13. She had a spook at one corner of the arena but settled down and did a nice test, absolutely powered down the first center line, I think the judge was glad of the fence separating us or we might have ended up on her bonnet! She hollowed through the canter transitions upwards, something we're working on. Came out thinking it was a half decent test.
Had a 40 minute wait until next test so untacked her and attempted to put studs in as next test was on grass. Had a nightmare and couldn't do them as we'd forgotten the spanner and no one else had one, so had to go without. Meanwhile the score for my first went up - 72% and currently lying first.
The next warm up was mount up then wander over to the test, and trot around the outside of the ring twice before judge tooted her horn. Ruby was eyeing up the white boards and wondering where the jumps were, her dissatisfaction clear as she powered down the center line, I had to hoik her around the corner, then she settled and did another very sweet test. She just slipped into the second canter transition and lost a little confidence, so ran through the bridle and missed the marker. However she then listened and finished sweetly - though her halt was pretty horrendously wonky.
Some video stills - not sure why they're so small. If anyone knows of any programmes that produces bigger stills please do share!
the horrendous halt!:
Back to the trailer for a wash down and a pick of grass, to find out we'd won the first class! Our score quickly went up for the second, 74.5%! It had some lovely partnerships in that class so had a bit of a tense wait before mum appeared with our sheet and another red rossette, we'd won the second class by 3% as well. So lots of pats (no treats, diet time!) for pony and we almost saw what all this poncing was about.
Then on Sunday we headed off for Smallwood ODE, the first of the season. Jumping wise we had a wobble a few weeks ago at an arena eventing where, very unlike her, she slammed the breaks on in the XC section. So we've taken it back to basics, done lots of gridwork and practicing at home so I could get my eye back in after being away.
We had ten minutes to warm up for dressage which for her was even perhaps a bit too long! She warmed up the best I've ever known, so soft and relaxed through her neck and over her back, light in the hand and uphill. The horse before was having some issues, was cantering when supposed to be walking, rearing and diving out of the arena, so that held us up a bit. But then we powered over to the arena and did what I thought was her best test ever - she was so collected and on her hocks in the canter, really stretched in the free walk and just felt like she was floating around. No hollowing in transitions and our halt was square! Saluted and was very surprised by an outburst of applause behind us - turned around to see a little fanclub had gathered including some stewards who congratulated me on a nice test, as did the next competitor! So smiles all round and super duper proud of her, she's such a sweetheart!
Bit of a wait before SJ, so we wandered around the XC which all seemed very jumpable and inviting. A bit twisty on the latter half of the course which might throw her as she prefers a bolder stride, but it looked nice.
Tacked up and over to SJ which was causing absolute carnage. The three before me were eliminated, mainly at number three, which you had to approach down a hill and turning at the same time. Many were slipping and losing confidence round the corner and then stopping. The warm up was a bit of a crash course as well with people jumping the warm up jumps the wrong way despite red flag and placing pole being on the other side. The more I watched the more my SJ demons came to head and the course looked unjumpable!
However, cantered in and as the bell rang and we approached the first I suddenly felt very calm. She collected herself up, popped the first and that set the tone for the rest of the course! We had a slight argument on the approach to the third when she considered I was over-steadying her, but she listened and was absolutely fab to jump around for a nice clear.
Our XC time was very tight so we'd brought all her boots down to the warm up, so quick change and we were ready.
TBC....
