rara007
Well-Known Member
First of all around 3 weeks ago we had to make the very sad decision to have Contrast put down 
He had been lame for the best part of a year and after trying everything, and with no real prospects of improvement (fetlock DJD, navicular changes, plus more we never got round to blocking) with his hate of winter and the cold it was kindest to let him go. He was an absolutely amazing pony for me, taking me round my first adult FEI event and making advanced feel easy. All this whilst no doubt the lameness issues had been grumbling! Absolutely straight forwards and anyones drive he was very easy to have on the yard and he is missed by us all as everyone put lots of time into him over the last year trying to fix him. He was only 11 with his career ahead of him He had been the youngest at the FEI event we did
Some HHO friends very kindly got me this picture done of him which sits pride of place above my bed!
Prince however has been going from strength to strength (via plenty of blips!). He's so hilarious he's exactly like dealing with a shetland pony, in 15hh. As a consequence of this we reached a particular low in the summer where we managed to get eliminated in a tiny (think around 2 foot) SJ class and he wouldn't load to come home so we had to walk back, fortunately only 4 miles but not a great day out...
After a few months of flatwork and getting our confidence back up including some help from Tarrsteps we had a few jumping outings finishing with our local PC end of season show where we were clear around the intermediate WH for a 2nd and had one down in the open, massive improvement much improved
His flatwork had been going from strength to strength and we had riding club regionals (or whatever it is called!) a few weeks ago where he excelled himself with 70% in his first novice tests:
Since then I have been back working on the jumping as I am keen for us to get this together to be able to give the affiliated WHP classes a go.
The jumps have been creeping and we're confidently schooling around 1.10-1.15 at home, way bigger than little driving me has ever done before other than as a one off dare, he doesn't break sweat or rhythm though!
Finished off this jumping stint with a course hire at our new local venue- very pleased as only stopped when I told him to and we started off at around 90, moving up to 1m to finish. Again might not sound much but I've always been a 2'3 on a 14hher jumper!
And then onto this weekend- league dressage. I went for N30 again as he is working well at novice now, however he had other ideas. A cringy deserved sub 60% as both of us were far from our best, he was nappy tense and backwards and I was tense and placed my hands somewhere that hands don't go riding. Onwards and upwards! It can only improve at the next event in December (I hope!). Overall his behaviour was very good and I think the length of time he took to warm up as it was so cold surprised me. His buddy FrankieJ managed a cracking 68% in the prelim class!
Considering he was only rugged for the first time 2 nights ago and is an unclipped native I think he's looking pretty swish! Sadly the driving career is having to take a back seat due to the lack of horse power (Prince wouldn't be suitable), time and family pressure. I'm keeping all my equipment though, fingers crossed after a break of a year of two I'll be in a position to take something else on.
That's all for now!
He had been lame for the best part of a year and after trying everything, and with no real prospects of improvement (fetlock DJD, navicular changes, plus more we never got round to blocking) with his hate of winter and the cold it was kindest to let him go. He was an absolutely amazing pony for me, taking me round my first adult FEI event and making advanced feel easy. All this whilst no doubt the lameness issues had been grumbling! Absolutely straight forwards and anyones drive he was very easy to have on the yard and he is missed by us all as everyone put lots of time into him over the last year trying to fix him. He was only 11 with his career ahead of him He had been the youngest at the FEI event we did
Some HHO friends very kindly got me this picture done of him which sits pride of place above my bed!
Prince however has been going from strength to strength (via plenty of blips!). He's so hilarious he's exactly like dealing with a shetland pony, in 15hh. As a consequence of this we reached a particular low in the summer where we managed to get eliminated in a tiny (think around 2 foot) SJ class and he wouldn't load to come home so we had to walk back, fortunately only 4 miles but not a great day out...
After a few months of flatwork and getting our confidence back up including some help from Tarrsteps we had a few jumping outings finishing with our local PC end of season show where we were clear around the intermediate WH for a 2nd and had one down in the open, massive improvement much improved
His flatwork had been going from strength to strength and we had riding club regionals (or whatever it is called!) a few weeks ago where he excelled himself with 70% in his first novice tests:
Since then I have been back working on the jumping as I am keen for us to get this together to be able to give the affiliated WHP classes a go.
The jumps have been creeping and we're confidently schooling around 1.10-1.15 at home, way bigger than little driving me has ever done before other than as a one off dare, he doesn't break sweat or rhythm though!
Finished off this jumping stint with a course hire at our new local venue- very pleased as only stopped when I told him to and we started off at around 90, moving up to 1m to finish. Again might not sound much but I've always been a 2'3 on a 14hher jumper!
And then onto this weekend- league dressage. I went for N30 again as he is working well at novice now, however he had other ideas. A cringy deserved sub 60% as both of us were far from our best, he was nappy tense and backwards and I was tense and placed my hands somewhere that hands don't go riding. Onwards and upwards! It can only improve at the next event in December (I hope!). Overall his behaviour was very good and I think the length of time he took to warm up as it was so cold surprised me. His buddy FrankieJ managed a cracking 68% in the prelim class!
Considering he was only rugged for the first time 2 nights ago and is an unclipped native I think he's looking pretty swish! Sadly the driving career is having to take a back seat due to the lack of horse power (Prince wouldn't be suitable), time and family pressure. I'm keeping all my equipment though, fingers crossed after a break of a year of two I'll be in a position to take something else on.
That's all for now!
