j1ffy
Well-Known Member
Doing my bit for the forum... a report of our first 80cm ODE and second ever XC!
We arrived bright and early at West Wilts on Sunday and headed out to walk the courses. The SJ looked fairly simple apart from having the spookiest and biggest fence at number 1! The XC looked huge - both YM (who was also competing) and I were bricking it! I took a deep breath and tried to put it to the back of my mind...
Dressage - P spotted the XC jumps from the warm up and let out a few big stallion-y neighs. Comedy creature! They weren't stressy neighs or nappy neighs, they were genuine "I'm here, look at me!" neighs 😂🐴. The judges asked for a break before I went in so had an annoying extra 10 mins of warm up, which wasn't needed on such a hot day! The test went ok, though I do need to remember not to go so deep into corners on grass as I had a sudden panic about slipping. Idiot rider (me) almost forgot the second trot-walk-trot and squeezed it in one stride before the marker. - seriously, after doing our first Elementary in a 20x60 a couple of weeks earlier, I can't believe I nearly went wrong in a BE90 test. Pocholo got a horse fly on his head coming down the last centre line and flung his head around, but despite those mistakes we came out with a 30.5 score, just two marks behind the leader 😊
SJ - warmed up beautifully and headed into the ring full of confidence. Then P spooked and ran out at fence 1 in the last couple of strides :angry: Smacked bottom for him and straight back around. He flew around the course but with two more down, both times when I tried to adjust the striding but didn't get it quite right. Must let P figure out our take off spots in future 😜. 12 jumping and 9 time faults.
Then the scary XC!! Pocholo did another loud neigh and mane-toss before the start, he clearly wanted an audience. The two riders before me both had issues at fence 1, which was on an angle so you had to get right up against the string then turn away from the warm up and lorry park. I put my stick in my left hand and gave P a tickle so he knew it was there, put my leg on and he flew 1 and 2. Heading to fence 3 he kept drifting left or right to line up to jump any jump he could see 😝. 3 and 4 were fine. 5 had the same green brush as the scary SJ so I rode hard for that. Slowed to a walk to look at the water (he could see the bottom and he doesn't like that!) but then trotted through. Brush fence on a mound he was a bit unsure about but I kept him straight and he popped over.
Then onto the big bit of the course! Looked up and kicked on for 8, 9 and 10 (photo). 11 was a double and he came in disunited but trantered through with no problems. 12 was huge and I backed off a bit, P got us over but clobbered his knee. 13 was a step up and down, no problems. 14 was another big fence on a slight downhill. I slowed a bit to keep balanced and maybe overdid it (or P didn't want to knock his knee again?) as P ground to a near halt then put in a huge cat leap...cue some comedy pro pics :rollseyes: His canter felt odd on landing so I slowed to a trot...felt fine so carried on. Flew over 15-18 including a double at 17 and finished!! As we were pulling up Pocholo let out another big neigh to make sure everyone had seen him 😂
We had 18.8 time faults but I'd been asking him to slow down the whole way around as the ground was hard and pockmarked in places. No point risking his legs when we weren't going to be placed anyway.
So pleased with P, he really looked after me even when my legs were too wobbly to work. He absolutely loved it too! Took him for a gentle hack yesterday and he was bouncing along 😊
He's having a massage tomorrow as I think he needs it after his improvisation over some of the fences! You can have a laugh at us in the last three pics here: http://images.jamespyne.co.uk/v/photos/vd2191ms/C259769204
We arrived bright and early at West Wilts on Sunday and headed out to walk the courses. The SJ looked fairly simple apart from having the spookiest and biggest fence at number 1! The XC looked huge - both YM (who was also competing) and I were bricking it! I took a deep breath and tried to put it to the back of my mind...
Dressage - P spotted the XC jumps from the warm up and let out a few big stallion-y neighs. Comedy creature! They weren't stressy neighs or nappy neighs, they were genuine "I'm here, look at me!" neighs 😂🐴. The judges asked for a break before I went in so had an annoying extra 10 mins of warm up, which wasn't needed on such a hot day! The test went ok, though I do need to remember not to go so deep into corners on grass as I had a sudden panic about slipping. Idiot rider (me) almost forgot the second trot-walk-trot and squeezed it in one stride before the marker. - seriously, after doing our first Elementary in a 20x60 a couple of weeks earlier, I can't believe I nearly went wrong in a BE90 test. Pocholo got a horse fly on his head coming down the last centre line and flung his head around, but despite those mistakes we came out with a 30.5 score, just two marks behind the leader 😊
SJ - warmed up beautifully and headed into the ring full of confidence. Then P spooked and ran out at fence 1 in the last couple of strides :angry: Smacked bottom for him and straight back around. He flew around the course but with two more down, both times when I tried to adjust the striding but didn't get it quite right. Must let P figure out our take off spots in future 😜. 12 jumping and 9 time faults.
Then the scary XC!! Pocholo did another loud neigh and mane-toss before the start, he clearly wanted an audience. The two riders before me both had issues at fence 1, which was on an angle so you had to get right up against the string then turn away from the warm up and lorry park. I put my stick in my left hand and gave P a tickle so he knew it was there, put my leg on and he flew 1 and 2. Heading to fence 3 he kept drifting left or right to line up to jump any jump he could see 😝. 3 and 4 were fine. 5 had the same green brush as the scary SJ so I rode hard for that. Slowed to a walk to look at the water (he could see the bottom and he doesn't like that!) but then trotted through. Brush fence on a mound he was a bit unsure about but I kept him straight and he popped over.
Then onto the big bit of the course! Looked up and kicked on for 8, 9 and 10 (photo). 11 was a double and he came in disunited but trantered through with no problems. 12 was huge and I backed off a bit, P got us over but clobbered his knee. 13 was a step up and down, no problems. 14 was another big fence on a slight downhill. I slowed a bit to keep balanced and maybe overdid it (or P didn't want to knock his knee again?) as P ground to a near halt then put in a huge cat leap...cue some comedy pro pics :rollseyes: His canter felt odd on landing so I slowed to a trot...felt fine so carried on. Flew over 15-18 including a double at 17 and finished!! As we were pulling up Pocholo let out another big neigh to make sure everyone had seen him 😂
We had 18.8 time faults but I'd been asking him to slow down the whole way around as the ground was hard and pockmarked in places. No point risking his legs when we weren't going to be placed anyway.
So pleased with P, he really looked after me even when my legs were too wobbly to work. He absolutely loved it too! Took him for a gentle hack yesterday and he was bouncing along 😊
He's having a massage tomorrow as I think he needs it after his improvisation over some of the fences! You can have a laugh at us in the last three pics here: http://images.jamespyne.co.uk/v/photos/vd2191ms/C259769204
love it!