Street_Skill
Well-Known Member
Ted and I are off to our first ever Winter Regionals on Friday, so a few weeks ago I decided that it would be a good idea to go somewhere beforehand as a warm up. Bearing in mind that his last competitive outing was on the 5th of December, we are a little bit rusty! The chosen date was Sunday the 21st of February at a venue local to us that we have schooled at before but never competed.
The run up to this confidence boosting warm up outing was rocky to say the least. Ted has not liked this wet winter and his paper thin Thoroughbred feet have liked it even less. He has insisted on pacing the fence line of his field, digging himself a trench of epic proportions. While digging the trench he turfed up all manner of flints and stones which he has then proceeded to walk over. Numerous times. The result? A lame horse. A farrier visit and a vet visit later, bruised soles were diagnosed and a period of box rest prescribed. When I finally had myself a sound horse I put him out again, only to repeat the experience! Finally, I gave in and resigned myself to the fact that I had a "fair weather" horse and kept him in. I rode him twice a day and kept him entertained with all manner of treat balls and goodies hung from the ceiling of his stable.
Fast forward to the date of our warm up competition and I had myself a sound, but extremely fit and unusually excitable horse. It had all the hallmarks of a disaster, especially as it was blowing a gale when I got there and found myself sharing the warm up with about 6 other horses, all of whom seemed to be cantering when we went in. Needless to say we bronked and reared our way around the warm up, the final straw being when someone put their lorry ramp down on the other side of the hedge resulting in us arriving on the other side of the arena at double quick speed. Valuing my life over a decent warm up, I got off only for another horse to canter past us at close quarters causing my usually reliable saint to rear up in my face. To cut a long story short, I managed to get him into the arena to do our test despite reversing down the horse walk at high speed, only for him to start the rearing antics all over again. I threw in the towel, withdrew and went home where I nearly put a "free to any home" advert on the first Facebook selling page I could find.
Cue a week of intensive pony boot camp, a few hours turnout a day (dry and sunny weather only please!) and a lost shoe (I had the audacity to put him out on a slightly overcast day) and I thought I had better take a day off work for another Regionals trial run in a do or die attempt to make sure he was sane. We arrived with an hour before our first time, which is nothing short of a miracle, and passed the first test (unloading next to a field of Pygmy Goats) with flying colours. He was a bit fresh in the warm up, but soon settled although was not quite his usual self. He was really hanging on my right hand and nothing I was doing was making any difference. Went in for the prelim test and to honest it was rubbish. I lost the second canter and try as I might, I just couldn't get it back until the last minute right before the next movement. The contact in my right hand felt like a brick and it was affecting the shape of our circles and the overall feel of the test. I pulled my socks up for the second warm up and decided to push my right hand forward to try and resolve the contact issue. I felt as though my right hand was half way up his neck, and when I looked down at my hands they were level!! Lesson learnt that it was all my fault, we carried on with our warm up and he felt amazing. Went in for the novice and he did a really lovely test. He felt a little flat in the mediums (probably too much warm up!), but overall I was very pleased with it especially after his previous appalling behaviour and the fact that it is only his third test at this level. We finished second in our prelim section with 63% and fourth overall, and to my great surprise won our section in the novice by a nice margin with just over 65% and came third overall.
With the horse's halo firmly back on his head and our confidence restored I'm now packing for the Regionals. Must remember to take something the eat off this time...
The run up to this confidence boosting warm up outing was rocky to say the least. Ted has not liked this wet winter and his paper thin Thoroughbred feet have liked it even less. He has insisted on pacing the fence line of his field, digging himself a trench of epic proportions. While digging the trench he turfed up all manner of flints and stones which he has then proceeded to walk over. Numerous times. The result? A lame horse. A farrier visit and a vet visit later, bruised soles were diagnosed and a period of box rest prescribed. When I finally had myself a sound horse I put him out again, only to repeat the experience! Finally, I gave in and resigned myself to the fact that I had a "fair weather" horse and kept him in. I rode him twice a day and kept him entertained with all manner of treat balls and goodies hung from the ceiling of his stable.
Fast forward to the date of our warm up competition and I had myself a sound, but extremely fit and unusually excitable horse. It had all the hallmarks of a disaster, especially as it was blowing a gale when I got there and found myself sharing the warm up with about 6 other horses, all of whom seemed to be cantering when we went in. Needless to say we bronked and reared our way around the warm up, the final straw being when someone put their lorry ramp down on the other side of the hedge resulting in us arriving on the other side of the arena at double quick speed. Valuing my life over a decent warm up, I got off only for another horse to canter past us at close quarters causing my usually reliable saint to rear up in my face. To cut a long story short, I managed to get him into the arena to do our test despite reversing down the horse walk at high speed, only for him to start the rearing antics all over again. I threw in the towel, withdrew and went home where I nearly put a "free to any home" advert on the first Facebook selling page I could find.
Cue a week of intensive pony boot camp, a few hours turnout a day (dry and sunny weather only please!) and a lost shoe (I had the audacity to put him out on a slightly overcast day) and I thought I had better take a day off work for another Regionals trial run in a do or die attempt to make sure he was sane. We arrived with an hour before our first time, which is nothing short of a miracle, and passed the first test (unloading next to a field of Pygmy Goats) with flying colours. He was a bit fresh in the warm up, but soon settled although was not quite his usual self. He was really hanging on my right hand and nothing I was doing was making any difference. Went in for the prelim test and to honest it was rubbish. I lost the second canter and try as I might, I just couldn't get it back until the last minute right before the next movement. The contact in my right hand felt like a brick and it was affecting the shape of our circles and the overall feel of the test. I pulled my socks up for the second warm up and decided to push my right hand forward to try and resolve the contact issue. I felt as though my right hand was half way up his neck, and when I looked down at my hands they were level!! Lesson learnt that it was all my fault, we carried on with our warm up and he felt amazing. Went in for the novice and he did a really lovely test. He felt a little flat in the mediums (probably too much warm up!), but overall I was very pleased with it especially after his previous appalling behaviour and the fact that it is only his third test at this level. We finished second in our prelim section with 63% and fourth overall, and to my great surprise won our section in the novice by a nice margin with just over 65% and came third overall.
With the horse's halo firmly back on his head and our confidence restored I'm now packing for the Regionals. Must remember to take something the eat off this time...
, though thankfully none of mine are 'quite' that upset at being out! Super good luck for Regionals!
