FigJam
Well-Known Member
I'd like to start my report with a huge thank you to kirkton for allowing us to hitch a lift with her and her lovely ponies as otherwise this is an event we would never have competed at, being far too far North for a wee trundly trailer. Hopalong seemed to enjoy her luxury lorry travelling, although thankfully deigned to return to her trailer to go the last wee stretch home last night!
Set off yesterday midday with kirkton and I enjoying a good blether (and whinge about so many flipping roadworks on the A9) and Mr FigJam snoozing his hangover off in the back. Arrived at Scotsburn 4pm ish and got the horses settled into their "stable" pens- luckily being early enough to nab a corner one for grumpy Hopalong (meaning only one horse on one side for her to grunmp at- sorry to Olivio's lovely boy, but at least it seemed confined to when I was around and she saw me = food!) and nab a few spare stables nearby for pals. We had quite a HHO section of the stabling going on with kirkton, Olivio and myself in an area of 4, then bogpony, Blimey and ABE just up from us.
Since Mr FigJam wasn't keen on chucking straw around, sent him off to fill water bucket for me... he came back having managed to empty some sort of oily/diesely stuff into her bucket which wouldn't rinse out?! There was me thinking it was an easy foolproof task?!
To be fair, the water was pretty well hidden! So had to use my two small buckets instead and Mr FigJam will be billed for a new giant TubTrug! 
kirkton set off to walk intro and I waited to catch Olivio and we set off to walk PN. Neither of us are ever going to set any course walking records I don't think as we found far too many folk to belther to en route and also took some scenic routes via the novice fences to "eek" at the drop (it looks like you're jumping off the edge of the world!) and huge brush fences. Apologies to the poor novice rider who wasn't very convinced by our efforts to backtrack on the "eeeks" at the drop!
Course looked ok, fences I was worried about were the huge steps at no.6 (uphill as well) and ditch at the half coffin, it was very wide. Mr FigJam's tip when walking brush fence with 2 half moons cut into the brush was "just don't jump the middle"... well duh! There were plenty that seemed a decent height and the step, to step, to step into water at 16/17ab would require concentration, but wasn't feeling too awful about it. They had a really cute way of adjusting the water fences between classes- they were made to look like canal locks, and opened the same as lock gates would, so could be opened/closed easily depending on the class, very clever.
We did a 2nd "power walk" (which still managed to take us ages?!) walking proper lines and sticking to our own course this time. Then skipped around the SJ which didn't look too bad. A couple which looked decent size but on nice level ground.
Back to the stables/lorry to plait up and then get the BBQ fired up- yum! LOADS of food and talk of a giant cookie ensured folk came over to visit! Complaint of the evening was wet socks/feet with not enough dry socks/footwear having been brought. Had a good night's sleep although woke up a couple of times to hear it pouring down and was desperately hoping it would dry up in time for the morning.
Luck on our side meant it was dry when we got up to feed ponies and start getting ready- my dressage time was 8.24am so no long lies, even being on site! The ground had really soaked up the overnight rain and was looking fine. Having been ribbed about my faffing/insistence on allowing too much extra time for everything, I relented to allowing Mr FigJam to pick up my number for me when we went down. I headed on to warm up (with more than one person helpfully pointing out my lack of number, nice to know others will look out for you at least!) with Mr FigJam to bring me my number. Heard no.53 being shouted on as next to go- still no sign of Mr FigJam and my number though!!
Starting panicking and trotted out of warm up, up hill to look for him. Still no sign, starting to really worry I'd not get my number in time. Eventually saw him, got numbers, back to warm up to be told next to go!!! So mega rushed, she had been going nicely first time around warming up, but my to-ing and fro-ing and panic had unsettled both of us and the relaxed, soft trot disappeared as we headed over to the arena.
It should have been a good arena for us as away from the others with the least distractions.
However, as we turned to go down the centre line she broke into canter! Quick circle around as we hadn't actually entered yet, back to trot and in, but the whole test was horrid. Both of us as tense as each other (not good!), free walk on long rein the highlight with the rest feeling rushed, tense and yuck. Came out in tears and may have had a diva-esque strop at Mr FigJam with him being informed "next time, I don't care how much you take the p*ss, I'm doing things my way, in my time, not your's, it's my competition"! 
Slight overreaction, but I was so stressed about all the rushing to get number sorted etc.
Then discovered it was actually still before my scheduled dressage time. If I'd known, I would have waited and taken those precious extra minutes to warm up and calm down before going in to the arena. Lesson learnt- don't go in before your scheduled time unless 110% ready. Ended up with score of 44, felt worse than that tbh and we at least weren't very bottom, just mid bottom half according to Mr FigJam who looked at scoreboard. Got an 8 for our free walk, but the rest 5s/6s and a 5 for my riding.
A few photos to prove rubbishness!
Since it was a bit of a trek between DR/stables and then back down to SJ, I'd just taken my boots and breastplate down with me and mooched beside Olivio until SJ. Watched her go in and show us how it was done and then went away to warm up myself. Warmed up fine over the upright but had a couple horrid jumps over the spread (I never jump these well in the warm up!) including properly demolishing it once. Just me panicking and not getting the right pace into it. Jumped it nicely with a x-pole in front and left it at that.
Went in determined to ride positively and mostly managed it. She saw some short ones and I saw some longs ones, but came out clear.
She really backed off the first part of the double at 4, was really gawking and spooking at something, but was determined not to let her drift out to the side or grind to a halt, so she got a kick, a growl and went! Had to kick on for the two strides in the middle but made it and she was much better over the second half of the course, just getting a little close to the last, but nice, agile and careful over it and it stayed up. So very pleased with a clear as I'd been a little worried about the SJ part of a PN.
SJ pics;
No.1;
No.3;
Seeing a long 'un at no.5!
No.7;
No.9 (last fence, got in a bit close!);
XC chat to follow... too many words/pictures!
Set off yesterday midday with kirkton and I enjoying a good blether (and whinge about so many flipping roadworks on the A9) and Mr FigJam snoozing his hangover off in the back. Arrived at Scotsburn 4pm ish and got the horses settled into their "stable" pens- luckily being early enough to nab a corner one for grumpy Hopalong (meaning only one horse on one side for her to grunmp at- sorry to Olivio's lovely boy, but at least it seemed confined to when I was around and she saw me = food!) and nab a few spare stables nearby for pals. We had quite a HHO section of the stabling going on with kirkton, Olivio and myself in an area of 4, then bogpony, Blimey and ABE just up from us.
Since Mr FigJam wasn't keen on chucking straw around, sent him off to fill water bucket for me... he came back having managed to empty some sort of oily/diesely stuff into her bucket which wouldn't rinse out?! There was me thinking it was an easy foolproof task?!
To be fair, the water was pretty well hidden! So had to use my two small buckets instead and Mr FigJam will be billed for a new giant TubTrug! kirkton set off to walk intro and I waited to catch Olivio and we set off to walk PN. Neither of us are ever going to set any course walking records I don't think as we found far too many folk to belther to en route and also took some scenic routes via the novice fences to "eek" at the drop (it looks like you're jumping off the edge of the world!) and huge brush fences. Apologies to the poor novice rider who wasn't very convinced by our efforts to backtrack on the "eeeks" at the drop!
Course looked ok, fences I was worried about were the huge steps at no.6 (uphill as well) and ditch at the half coffin, it was very wide. Mr FigJam's tip when walking brush fence with 2 half moons cut into the brush was "just don't jump the middle"... well duh!
There were plenty that seemed a decent height and the step, to step, to step into water at 16/17ab would require concentration, but wasn't feeling too awful about it. They had a really cute way of adjusting the water fences between classes- they were made to look like canal locks, and opened the same as lock gates would, so could be opened/closed easily depending on the class, very clever.We did a 2nd "power walk" (which still managed to take us ages?!) walking proper lines and sticking to our own course this time. Then skipped around the SJ which didn't look too bad. A couple which looked decent size but on nice level ground.
Back to the stables/lorry to plait up and then get the BBQ fired up- yum!
LOADS of food and talk of a giant cookie ensured folk came over to visit! Complaint of the evening was wet socks/feet with not enough dry socks/footwear having been brought. Had a good night's sleep although woke up a couple of times to hear it pouring down and was desperately hoping it would dry up in time for the morning.Luck on our side meant it was dry when we got up to feed ponies and start getting ready- my dressage time was 8.24am so no long lies, even being on site! The ground had really soaked up the overnight rain and was looking fine. Having been ribbed about my faffing/insistence on allowing too much extra time for everything, I relented to allowing Mr FigJam to pick up my number for me when we went down. I headed on to warm up (with more than one person helpfully pointing out my lack of number, nice to know others will look out for you at least!) with Mr FigJam to bring me my number. Heard no.53 being shouted on as next to go- still no sign of Mr FigJam and my number though!!
Starting panicking and trotted out of warm up, up hill to look for him. Still no sign, starting to really worry I'd not get my number in time. Eventually saw him, got numbers, back to warm up to be told next to go!!! So mega rushed, she had been going nicely first time around warming up, but my to-ing and fro-ing and panic had unsettled both of us and the relaxed, soft trot disappeared as we headed over to the arena.
It should have been a good arena for us as away from the others with the least distractions.However, as we turned to go down the centre line she broke into canter! Quick circle around as we hadn't actually entered yet, back to trot and in, but the whole test was horrid.
Both of us as tense as each other (not good!), free walk on long rein the highlight with the rest feeling rushed, tense and yuck. Came out in tears and may have had a diva-esque strop at Mr FigJam with him being informed "next time, I don't care how much you take the p*ss, I'm doing things my way, in my time, not your's, it's my competition"! Slight overreaction, but I was so stressed about all the rushing to get number sorted etc.Then discovered it was actually still before my scheduled dressage time.
If I'd known, I would have waited and taken those precious extra minutes to warm up and calm down before going in to the arena. Lesson learnt- don't go in before your scheduled time unless 110% ready. Ended up with score of 44, felt worse than that tbh and we at least weren't very bottom, just mid bottom half according to Mr FigJam who looked at scoreboard. Got an 8 for our free walk, but the rest 5s/6s and a 5 for my riding. A few photos to prove rubbishness!
Since it was a bit of a trek between DR/stables and then back down to SJ, I'd just taken my boots and breastplate down with me and mooched beside Olivio until SJ. Watched her go in and show us how it was done and then went away to warm up myself. Warmed up fine over the upright but had a couple horrid jumps over the spread (I never jump these well in the warm up!) including properly demolishing it once.
Just me panicking and not getting the right pace into it. Jumped it nicely with a x-pole in front and left it at that.Went in determined to ride positively and mostly managed it. She saw some short ones and I saw some longs ones, but came out clear.
She really backed off the first part of the double at 4, was really gawking and spooking at something, but was determined not to let her drift out to the side or grind to a halt, so she got a kick, a growl and went! Had to kick on for the two strides in the middle but made it and she was much better over the second half of the course, just getting a little close to the last, but nice, agile and careful over it and it stayed up. So very pleased with a clear as I'd been a little worried about the SJ part of a PN.SJ pics;
No.1;
No.3;
Seeing a long 'un at no.5!
No.7;
No.9 (last fence, got in a bit close!);
XC chat to follow... too many words/pictures!
and the dressage will always be a 
but not a bad score if you call that your worst 
