Gamebird
Well-Known Member
OK so I laying all the blame for today firmly at ISZ's door as she started the 'numpty moments thread' to which I had added nothing, as I couldn't think of any numpty moments to add! 
I had a a BE90/100/90/100 wobble last week. Since his 6 week 'holiday' Fugly has been XC schooling and breezed round PN-ish fences without a second glance. He is also fairly consistently jumping 1.10-1.15 at home and his flatwork is much improved. So I entered the BE100 at Richmond. HOWEVER (and it's a big 'however') his last (and only) eventing outing was BE90 at Oasby 2 months ago and he is pitifully short of competition experience. So I wibbled and emailed Jen Caley to ask her to move him to the BE90 if there was room. I heard nothing for a few days and had got my head round the BE100 idea only to get an email reply saying 'job done'. I hadn't the heart (nor the b*lls
) to ask her to change him back, after all I may need a proper favour one day! So BE90 it was.
Dressage, as luck would have it, was on the most sloped of the 4 arenas and when you're 5 and nearly 17.2, being asked to canter in an outline downhill is quite a feat of balance. He was pretty good but changed behind in the last two strides of the first canter (something he hasn't done since his holiday
) so I trotted early. The rest was pretty nice so I was a wee bit disappointed with 39. I haven't seen the sheet yet so I'm not sure what the judge didn't like, but on seeing the other scores I cheered up a bit as there were plenty in the 40s and we were pretty much plum middle of the section.
The it all went a wee bit Pete Tong......
Showjumping looked a wee bit on the tiddly side to me, especially the short-ish double of uprights at 8 which was the smallest fence on the course. Jumped beautifully until we got to 8, sat back as much as I could between a and b but still rolled the second part. It's kind of inevitable at this stage, and it didn't help that the fences were so small. I gave him a pat and was just thinking to myself that I could live with 4 faults when out of the corner of my eye I saw the course-builder waving frantically at me just as we sailed past fence 9. Fence 9? Whoops, I hadn't noticed that one
. Tugged poor Fugs round in a sharp circle to get back to it (another 4 faults ) and inevitably we were a bit unbalanced and panicky so had it down . Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr . Please will someone take this horse away and give it to the jockey it deserves, not a brainless numpty like me . On the upside we didn't get any time faults.......
The offending tiny double is the red fence in the background:
My groom was late and had the good sense (or timing) to arrive just after I'd show-jumped so she missed the whole sorry debacle and I gave her Fugs to change boots whilst I beat myself on the head with a big lump of wood until I felt slightly better.
XC was the usual - nothing too taxing and to be honest I was wishing we were setting out on the BE100 course. I'd probably have been pretty happy to have been sat on him in the start box for the Novice if truth be told as I don't think there was anything he wouldn't have coped with.
Gratuitious picture for Thistle of me being nice to the XC steward
:
He sailed round in a lovely rhythm and made it feel like nothing. No dodgy strides, no wobbly moments and never touched a fence. I did wonder when we jumped into the double near the end why I was finding the distance slightly long as that's usually not a problem on Fugly, but kicked on and jumped it nicely on the one stride. It was only on my way to the last fence that I remembered that it should have been a 2 stride double. Whoops. I have jumped that combination on countless horses for years and know that it's a nice 2-stride distance if you jump from the middle upright to the middle upright. It's only Fugly that could make one stride feel easy!
Gratuitious bum shot at the second water (the one that used to be a horrible open ditch):
We were one of only a handful inside the time so my moment of numptyness cost me 8th place. I phoned my husband and he said 'basically the horse is great but you let it down!'. Couldn't have summed it up better myself .
So form an orderly queue to line up and kick my behind. As the above photo shows there's plenty to aim at........
All those on target can have some sauv blanc and Sainsbury's Japanese rice crackers (to which I am addicted and have been reliably informed that they contain no calories whatsoever).
The two pro pics are kind permission of Chris Lax photography. I had to buy something to cheer me up......
I had a a BE90/100/90/100 wobble last week. Since his 6 week 'holiday' Fugly has been XC schooling and breezed round PN-ish fences without a second glance. He is also fairly consistently jumping 1.10-1.15 at home and his flatwork is much improved. So I entered the BE100 at Richmond. HOWEVER (and it's a big 'however') his last (and only) eventing outing was BE90 at Oasby 2 months ago and he is pitifully short of competition experience. So I wibbled and emailed Jen Caley to ask her to move him to the BE90 if there was room. I heard nothing for a few days and had got my head round the BE100 idea only to get an email reply saying 'job done'. I hadn't the heart (nor the b*lls
) to ask her to change him back, after all I may need a proper favour one day! So BE90 it was.Dressage, as luck would have it, was on the most sloped of the 4 arenas and when you're 5 and nearly 17.2, being asked to canter in an outline downhill is quite a feat of balance. He was pretty good but changed behind in the last two strides of the first canter (something he hasn't done since his holiday
) so I trotted early. The rest was pretty nice so I was a wee bit disappointed with 39. I haven't seen the sheet yet so I'm not sure what the judge didn't like, but on seeing the other scores I cheered up a bit as there were plenty in the 40s and we were pretty much plum middle of the section.The it all went a wee bit Pete Tong......
Showjumping looked a wee bit on the tiddly side to me, especially the short-ish double of uprights at 8 which was the smallest fence on the course. Jumped beautifully until we got to 8, sat back as much as I could between a and b but still rolled the second part. It's kind of inevitable at this stage, and it didn't help that the fences were so small. I gave him a pat and was just thinking to myself that I could live with 4 faults when out of the corner of my eye I saw the course-builder waving frantically at me just as we sailed past fence 9. Fence 9? Whoops, I hadn't noticed that one
. Tugged poor Fugs round in a sharp circle to get back to it (another 4 faults ) and inevitably we were a bit unbalanced and panicky so had it down . Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr . Please will someone take this horse away and give it to the jockey it deserves, not a brainless numpty like me . On the upside we didn't get any time faults....... The offending tiny double is the red fence in the background:
My groom was late and had the good sense (or timing) to arrive just after I'd show-jumped so she missed the whole sorry debacle and I gave her Fugs to change boots whilst I beat myself on the head with a big lump of wood until I felt slightly better
.XC was the usual - nothing too taxing and to be honest I was wishing we were setting out on the BE100 course. I'd probably have been pretty happy to have been sat on him in the start box for the Novice if truth be told as I don't think there was anything he wouldn't have coped with.
Gratuitious picture for Thistle of me being nice to the XC steward
:
He sailed round in a lovely rhythm and made it feel like nothing. No dodgy strides, no wobbly moments and never touched a fence. I did wonder when we jumped into the double near the end why I was finding the distance slightly long as that's usually not a problem on Fugly, but kicked on and jumped it nicely on the one stride. It was only on my way to the last fence that I remembered that it should have been a 2 stride double
. Whoops. I have jumped that combination on countless horses for years and know that it's a nice 2-stride distance if you jump from the middle upright to the middle upright. It's only Fugly that could make one stride feel easy!
Gratuitious bum shot at the second water (the one that used to be a horrible open ditch):
We were one of only a handful inside the time so my moment of numptyness cost me 8th place
. I phoned my husband and he said 'basically the horse is great but you let it down!'. Couldn't have summed it up better myself .So form an orderly queue to line up and kick my behind. As the above photo shows there's plenty to aim at........
All those on target can have some sauv blanc and Sainsbury's Japanese rice crackers (to which I am addicted and have been reliably informed that they contain no calories whatsoever).
The two pro pics are kind permission of Chris Lax photography. I had to buy something to cheer me up......
. I think that as a former Scot/adopted Yorkshirewoman I should point out for the interest of balance that the Rice Crackers are from the Sainsbury's 'value' range and the butcher was out of pork scratchings..... 
. BD kept trying to invite me and Fugs down for some events so maybe I should agree on the stipulation that there is cake? 
