3Beasties
Well-Known Member
I took Charlie to a local event centre today to hire the school and scary SJ's. This was his first time out since last summer so I was really pleased with how he behaved 
He is a 16 year old, Ex-racer that is mainly used for happy hacking and the occasional lesson and funride!
Loading has always been a bit of an issue for us which probably isn't helped by the fact I get into such a state about it (to the point that I make myself ill!
) Going out he loaded first time (YAY 
) was a bit wary but managed to keep his cool! He was nice and calm when we got there so tacked him up straight away and headed down to the school.
Warmed up on the flat and then moved on to the jumps. I was expecting LOTS of refusals as he's never jumped proper fillers before and all the jumps were really bright and scary, it was also the first time we have been round a course of more then about 5 jumps!
I started by jumping them all individually first, only had one refusal which was mainly my fault as I was thinking he was going to stop so didn't ride him into it properly, it was a scary pink one stride double so I was being a wimp 
Then I went on to jumping the full course, first time round felt very quick, he was towing me into them and not really listening so it wasn't very pretty. As he hasn't been in a school much he was also quite unbalance around the corners and had a few moments of being dis-united. We got round in one piece though so was quite please.
Put some of the jumps up a bit for the 2nd round and it felt much better, he seemed to keep his canter more and wasn't quite so strong, think it was probably a mixture of him starting to tire and the bigger jumps making him back off a bit more. We went back to trot a few times just to rebalance and sort ourselves out but otherwise it felt much smoother and less messy!
I really need to work on setting him up a bit more and getting him back to me in between fences, also need to work on planning my turns and sorting my position out. I think he could probably do with a sheepskin nose band for jumping as once he is surrounded by jumps all our schooling (as feeble as it is!) is thrown out the window and Mr Charlie Giraffe arrives Am also debating a stronger bit for jumping just to see if that gives me a bit more control in between fences but will have to think about that. Once I move him to the other yard hopefully the increase in schooling and jumping will really help, better flat work will definitely help when it comes to jumping
Loading to go home was quite tricky, took half an hour but we got there in the end without any major tantrums (from either of us
)
All in all I am really pleased with him, OK the jumps weren't very big but I didn't go there with the aim of jumping massive, I just wanted to familiarise him with the jumps and work out what we need to work on. 18 months ago he would refuse, gallop flat out, cat leap, run out, knock poles etc as soon as I tried to jump him so I am so, so pleased with how he is jumping now, he actually feels like he enjoys it which makes it so much more enjoyable for me
Anyway sorry for rabbiting on, here are a few piccys in no particular order (Not the best as they are video stills again, not sure why everyone struggles so much with my camera 
)
CC more then welcome!!
Thanks for reading, well done if you made it to the end
Signed one very happy, proud owner
He is a 16 year old, Ex-racer that is mainly used for happy hacking and the occasional lesson and funride!Loading has always been a bit of an issue for us which probably isn't helped by the fact I get into such a state about it (to the point that I make myself ill!
) Going out he loaded first time (YAY ) was a bit wary but managed to keep his cool! He was nice and calm when we got there so tacked him up straight away and headed down to the school.Warmed up on the flat and then moved on to the jumps. I was expecting LOTS of refusals as he's never jumped proper fillers before and all the jumps were really bright and scary, it was also the first time we have been round a course of more then about 5 jumps!
I started by jumping them all individually first, only had one refusal
which was mainly my fault as I was thinking he was going to stop so didn't ride him into it properly, it was a scary pink one stride double so I was being a wimp Then I went on to jumping the full course, first time round felt very quick, he was towing me into them and not really listening so it wasn't very pretty. As he hasn't been in a school much he was also quite unbalance around the corners and had a few moments of being dis-united. We got round in one piece though so was quite please.
Put some of the jumps up a bit for the 2nd round and it felt much better, he seemed to keep his canter more and wasn't quite so strong, think it was probably a mixture of him starting to tire and the bigger jumps making him back off a bit more. We went back to trot a few times just to rebalance and sort ourselves out but otherwise it felt much smoother and less messy!
I really need to work on setting him up a bit more and getting him back to me in between fences, also need to work on planning my turns and sorting my position out. I think he could probably do with a sheepskin nose band for jumping as once he is surrounded by jumps all our schooling (as feeble as it is!) is thrown out the window and Mr Charlie Giraffe arrives
Am also debating a stronger bit for jumping just to see if that gives me a bit more control in between fences but will have to think about that. Once I move him to the other yard hopefully the increase in schooling and jumping will really help, better flat work will definitely help when it comes to jumping Loading to go home was quite tricky, took half an hour but we got there in the end without any major tantrums (from either of us
)All in all I am really pleased with him, OK the jumps weren't very big but I didn't go there with the aim of jumping massive, I just wanted to familiarise him with the jumps and work out what we need to work on. 18 months ago he would refuse, gallop flat out, cat leap, run out, knock poles etc as soon as I tried to jump him so I am so, so pleased with how he is jumping now, he actually feels like he enjoys it which makes it so much more enjoyable for me
Anyway sorry for rabbiting on, here are a few piccys in no particular order
(Not the best as they are video stills again, not sure why everyone struggles so much with my camera )CC more then welcome!!
Thanks for reading, well done if you made it to the end
Signed one very happy, proud owner
