BeckyC
Well-Known Member
Bit of a late report but went to Upton House last week for the 90 with my little ex racer. I shall first say I was massively impressed with the event, the ground was brilliant, the courses were really really lovely and everything was very well organised and everyone was very nice!
Was on quite late so had a nice relaxed start, Louie got a bit wound up on the way to the dressage as you had to walk past the sj and he was most disappointed not to be allowed to join in the fun but managed to hold himself together to do a nice enough test for 35. Had a long break between dressage and sj so went to walk the courses, the sj was very nice although quite bright and spooky and the xc was lovely. The first fence was a nice rolltop, followed by a slanty wooden thing with flowers underneath and then there was a log carved into a seat , then a hedge, number 5 was a double of walls with a blue rolltop bit on top, 6 was a sort of trakhener but had trees underneath so didnt really look like one, number 7 was a lovely little hay cart, 8 was a skinny wooden fox, 9 was a corner but the nicest corner ever, 10 was a skinny hanging log, 11 was a double of wood piles, 12 was a skinny log, 13 was the water with a hedge the other side, 14 and 15 were 2 blue roll tops at right angles with 4 curving strides between them, 16 was a flowerbed with upton written in it and 17 was a log pile. Very nice course but with several skinnies I had to ride my lines properly.
So onto the sj, he was a little manic warming up and it was not the most fun ever but he didnt have a complete meltdown so not too awful. My friend/trainer came with me and was laughing a lot at him throwing himself around the warmup
He is so good in the actual ring though and jumped beautifully, hes such an unspooky horse at fillers he makes it very easy, just had the last one down which was a little disappointing but the rest of the round was very nice.
Quick change and down to the xc, the warm up was brilliant as not only did they have a normal log to warm up over but they also had a spooky fence, pipes with lots of flowers on. He was feeling good in the warm up and really focusing on getting him going forwards. Set off out of the start box brilliantly, no hesitations and ears pricked
flew the first 4, unfortunately then he was so busy looking at the first wall at number 5 he stopped at the 2nd wall as he only saw it when he landed and i was a little out of balance and so couldnt ride him properly at the 2nd wall. He flew it next time though and went round the rest of the course beautifully, no hesitations or stops, for the first time it felt like he was really confident and happy he had a couple of little excited bunnyhops after some of the jumps too which made me laugh as he always does that when hes having fun and feeling very proud of himself so although we had one stop im still over the moon with him. He made it feel ridiculously easy and i actually had fun 
Here are the pro photos if anyones interested, keep going across, ignore me on top and just look at the lovely pony
http://www.onlinepictureproof.com/1...ails_2013/359878_124595/browse/0/?w=800&h=477
We came 10th in our section but only out of 12 so not any great achievement but so so so proud of
him and pleased with him next up is carlton 90 so fingers crossed for a double clear In other news, my horse that fractured a splint bone was still lame after the op so went in for more investigations and found he has a lovely big hole in his suspensory. Vet seems optimistic he will event again but obviously long time off and a bit uncertain future so have bought a new horse i will be picking him up today so will do a introductory post with lots of pics some time this week
Was on quite late so had a nice relaxed start, Louie got a bit wound up on the way to the dressage as you had to walk past the sj and he was most disappointed not to be allowed to join in the fun but managed to hold himself together to do a nice enough test for 35. Had a long break between dressage and sj so went to walk the courses, the sj was very nice although quite bright and spooky and the xc was lovely. The first fence was a nice rolltop, followed by a slanty wooden thing with flowers underneath and then there was a log carved into a seat , then a hedge, number 5 was a double of walls with a blue rolltop bit on top, 6 was a sort of trakhener but had trees underneath so didnt really look like one, number 7 was a lovely little hay cart, 8 was a skinny wooden fox, 9 was a corner but the nicest corner ever, 10 was a skinny hanging log, 11 was a double of wood piles, 12 was a skinny log, 13 was the water with a hedge the other side, 14 and 15 were 2 blue roll tops at right angles with 4 curving strides between them, 16 was a flowerbed with upton written in it and 17 was a log pile. Very nice course but with several skinnies I had to ride my lines properly.
So onto the sj, he was a little manic warming up and it was not the most fun ever but he didnt have a complete meltdown so not too awful. My friend/trainer came with me and was laughing a lot at him throwing himself around the warmup
He is so good in the actual ring though and jumped beautifully, hes such an unspooky horse at fillers he makes it very easy, just had the last one down which was a little disappointing but the rest of the round was very nice.Quick change and down to the xc, the warm up was brilliant as not only did they have a normal log to warm up over but they also had a spooky fence, pipes with lots of flowers on. He was feeling good in the warm up and really focusing on getting him going forwards. Set off out of the start box brilliantly, no hesitations and ears pricked
flew the first 4, unfortunately then he was so busy looking at the first wall at number 5 he stopped at the 2nd wall as he only saw it when he landed and i was a little out of balance and so couldnt ride him properly at the 2nd wall. He flew it next time though and went round the rest of the course beautifully, no hesitations or stops, for the first time it felt like he was really confident and happy he had a couple of little excited bunnyhops after some of the jumps too which made me laugh as he always does that when hes having fun and feeling very proud of himself so although we had one stop im still over the moon with him. He made it feel ridiculously easy and i actually had fun Here are the pro photos if anyones interested, keep going across, ignore me on top and just look at the lovely pony http://www.onlinepictureproof.com/1...ails_2013/359878_124595/browse/0/?w=800&h=477
We came 10th in our section but only out of 12 so not any great achievement
but so so so proud of him and pleased with him
next up is carlton 90 so fingers crossed for a double clear In other news, my horse that fractured a splint bone was still lame after the op so went in for more investigations and found he has a lovely big hole in his suspensory. Vet seems optimistic he will event again but obviously long time off and a bit uncertain future so have bought a new horse i will be picking him up today so will do a introductory post with lots of pics some time this week 
great result! 
