JennBags
HHOSS Wonder Woman
Got back from a lovely 3 day camp which was held at Rackham. The only downside was being plagued by horseflies - and the heat!
Friday morning we arrived early for our first session which was XC. Disaster almost struck before I'd even tacked up as I managed to fall off the lorry :eek3: but managed to hang onto G's lead rope which saved me.
There were only 3 in our group which was great, and we all wanted to make a point of getting into a rhythm rather than tackling one obstacle at a time IYSWIM so we headed off pretty quickly putting together several fences at a time each time. G and I came roaring out, absolutely flew them and were having a ball! There are a few good pro-pics but I haven't ordered them yet, so I can't put them on here. As we went further round the course, my headache which had been nagging away started raging so I cooled it down, and spent a lot of time watching the other two who were doing fantastically, they were flying a lot of the BE100 course.
Afternoon was a flatwork session, but the heat was fairly intolerable and my head was still raging despite pouring as many paracetamol down my throat as I could, so I didn't get a huge amount out of it. Had an early night on Friday and slept well which really helped to dissipate the headache; then I was greeted with this lovely view on Saturday morning
Saturday morning was SJ which was really good but none of us felt particularly challenged, then flatwork again on Saturday afternoon. This was all on grass so I really took the opportunity to practice a bit of my test for next week as we don't often school on grass. Saturday night was great fun, we drank far too much and the team that I joined went & won the quiz, so that involved more alcohol! A couple of friends and I stayed up until gone midnight, drinking in my lorry, then I had a complete panic as I couldn't find my phone which I'd left in a very obvious place :rolleyes3:
Sunday morning was a slow start, but we got the bacon & egg rolls on the go, and scoffed them down before our next SJ session. I'd been (very drunkenly) chatting to our instructor the previous evening, and mentioned that I'd entered the ODE at Borde Hill next weekend (my first one ever!) so she wanted to get me jumping similar type fences. It started off well, but I need to learn to kick kick kick for that canter, I am always quite satisfied by G lobbing along which does nothing for us as he just doesn't have the impulsion to then jump. That right rein canter lead is often still very elusive, and my god I need to stop waving my arms around before the fence!
We jumped some - for me - quite big fences, a few going downhill (wow how have I managed to get over that fear so quickly?), and strung a good course together.
Then I got cross with G at one point as he just wasn't listening to me (when I was trying to change canter lead) and things started going a little awry. He was a little sticky over a couple, then came down the triple and ducked out at the last element - I managed to hang on and not fall, then we came back round to do the double, and he proper ducked out at the second element, so I went flying. I got back on, and CJ made me come round and do it again. And again. And again. And again, until we did it well.
Video of the session here, the fun bit is at around 4:54:
[video=youtube_share;krJTNeBC0hs]https://youtu.be/krJTNeBC0hs[/video]
We had a polework session scheduled for this afternoon, but we were all really tired and pleased with how the horses had gone, so we all dipped out and came home instead. Shattered, but what a great few days. It was a shame we only had one XC session for each group, but apart from that, we had no complaints at all.
Friday morning we arrived early for our first session which was XC. Disaster almost struck before I'd even tacked up as I managed to fall off the lorry :eek3: but managed to hang onto G's lead rope which saved me.
There were only 3 in our group which was great, and we all wanted to make a point of getting into a rhythm rather than tackling one obstacle at a time IYSWIM so we headed off pretty quickly putting together several fences at a time each time. G and I came roaring out, absolutely flew them and were having a ball! There are a few good pro-pics but I haven't ordered them yet, so I can't put them on here. As we went further round the course, my headache which had been nagging away started raging so I cooled it down, and spent a lot of time watching the other two who were doing fantastically, they were flying a lot of the BE100 course.
Afternoon was a flatwork session, but the heat was fairly intolerable and my head was still raging despite pouring as many paracetamol down my throat as I could, so I didn't get a huge amount out of it. Had an early night on Friday and slept well which really helped to dissipate the headache; then I was greeted with this lovely view on Saturday morning
Saturday morning was SJ which was really good but none of us felt particularly challenged, then flatwork again on Saturday afternoon. This was all on grass so I really took the opportunity to practice a bit of my test for next week as we don't often school on grass. Saturday night was great fun, we drank far too much and the team that I joined went & won the quiz, so that involved more alcohol! A couple of friends and I stayed up until gone midnight, drinking in my lorry, then I had a complete panic as I couldn't find my phone which I'd left in a very obvious place :rolleyes3:
Sunday morning was a slow start, but we got the bacon & egg rolls on the go, and scoffed them down before our next SJ session. I'd been (very drunkenly) chatting to our instructor the previous evening, and mentioned that I'd entered the ODE at Borde Hill next weekend (my first one ever!) so she wanted to get me jumping similar type fences. It started off well, but I need to learn to kick kick kick for that canter, I am always quite satisfied by G lobbing along which does nothing for us as he just doesn't have the impulsion to then jump. That right rein canter lead is often still very elusive, and my god I need to stop waving my arms around before the fence!
We jumped some - for me - quite big fences, a few going downhill (wow how have I managed to get over that fear so quickly?), and strung a good course together.
Then I got cross with G at one point as he just wasn't listening to me (when I was trying to change canter lead) and things started going a little awry. He was a little sticky over a couple, then came down the triple and ducked out at the last element - I managed to hang on and not fall, then we came back round to do the double, and he proper ducked out at the second element, so I went flying. I got back on, and CJ made me come round and do it again. And again. And again. And again, until we did it well.
Video of the session here, the fun bit is at around 4:54:
[video=youtube_share;krJTNeBC0hs]https://youtu.be/krJTNeBC0hs[/video]
We had a polework session scheduled for this afternoon, but we were all really tired and pleased with how the horses had gone, so we all dipped out and came home instead. Shattered, but what a great few days. It was a shame we only had one XC session for each group, but apart from that, we had no complaints at all.
