Street_Skill
Well-Known Member
Bit of a late report on this-it's taken me nearly a week to recover!
We headed off to Sheepgate over the Bank Holiday weekend for the Tack and Togs Championship which we qualified for at prelim and novice. I was a bit dubious about going as it is quite a log way from us, but due to his appalling behaviour at the Winter Regionals I wanted to give him a bit more championship experience. So I booked some time off work and entered him for two novice classes on the Saturday and the prelim and novice championship classes on the Sunday and Monday (you compete in the championship classes on both days and then they take an average of you score to determine the championship placings).
Checked my times on the Wednesday morning before going to work and realised that I'd made a small administrative error and entered classes on Friday, Sunday and Monday instead of Saturday, Sunday and Monday... Unfortunately the classes on Saturday were full so I had to grovel to my supervisor to try and get the Thursday off so I could get packed ready to go. Extra day off secured, I got up at 4:30am (!!) on Friday to get him loaded up and get to Sheepgate in time for our first novice test at 11:30. Managed to plait him up between tests and get to the arena in time for our second. Comments were fair, but our inability to perform any counter canter at all (this is a horse that counter canters for fun at home), and my lack of accuracy on the basics was seriously affecting our marks. Plus, he was a little bit, err, bright in the warm up!
Due to my administrative error, on Saturday the horse got schooled in the morning and I spent the afternoon in Skegness. Which was interesting (but fun!). Thought about trading him in for a beach donkey but in the end decided against it.
I decided that my aim was to achieve some counter canter by the end of the weekend and to improve the size of my circles! I was pleased with the first prelim championship test, although again he was excited in the warm up and didn't really give me his best work. There were some exciting moments on the long side in canter during the test when I felt that I didn't really have the best brakes! We also managed to nail the counter canter in the novice so day two was pretty successful. He managed a plus 65% prelim test and just over 60% in the novice (average of two judges) which was a good improvement on Friday's 58%.
Monday saw the final championship tests and I finally felt that I had a horse that was soft and supple in the warm up and wasn't trying to run off with me at every opportunity! The prelim test felt fab and he was rewarded with over 67% which was great. We had a long wait of about 3 hours before our novice test so I took him back to the stable, untacked him and took him for some grass in hand. I put my competition jacket over the bars to the side of the stable door... Yup, you guessed it! When I returned it had fallen in the water bucket and was soaked... Cue a rather damp warm up for the novice test! He felt a little tired in the novice test, but on the whole tried his best and I have to be pleased with that. In fact, one of the judges had him on over 63% which is about a 5% improvement from his first novice test! Our averaged score was plus 61% so all our marks had improved as the weekend went on which was fantastic. I was just a little disappointed with our marks and comments of "little difference shown" for our medium trot. He definitely showed a difference, even my non-horsey other half noticed, but I wonder if the more conservative paces of a Thoroughbred struggle to stand up to a warmblood or if I'm just doing something wrong. Something to work on though!
I went back to the stable, got changed, mucked him out and got him loaded before going to check my score. Having had a look I then had to rush to the trailer to get changed back into my competition kit for the prize giving because we had got 4th in the silver section of the prelim championship and an 8th in the silver section of the novice championship! Got a whole load of rosettes (placed in every class apart from the first one) including lovely championship ones, goodies and some great jute bags to put it all in. Finally arrived home at gone 9pm, very tired but very happy! What a wonderful weekend! The staff and stewards were great and everyone was very friendly and helpful especially when they realised I was on my own on the Friday. Enjoyed a great hog roast (free!) and game of bingo with other competitors on the Sunday too. Would definitely go back!
Some piccies for those that are interested...as you can see he got a little onward bound at times!
Thanks for reading!
We headed off to Sheepgate over the Bank Holiday weekend for the Tack and Togs Championship which we qualified for at prelim and novice. I was a bit dubious about going as it is quite a log way from us, but due to his appalling behaviour at the Winter Regionals I wanted to give him a bit more championship experience. So I booked some time off work and entered him for two novice classes on the Saturday and the prelim and novice championship classes on the Sunday and Monday (you compete in the championship classes on both days and then they take an average of you score to determine the championship placings).
Checked my times on the Wednesday morning before going to work and realised that I'd made a small administrative error and entered classes on Friday, Sunday and Monday instead of Saturday, Sunday and Monday... Unfortunately the classes on Saturday were full so I had to grovel to my supervisor to try and get the Thursday off so I could get packed ready to go. Extra day off secured, I got up at 4:30am (!!) on Friday to get him loaded up and get to Sheepgate in time for our first novice test at 11:30. Managed to plait him up between tests and get to the arena in time for our second. Comments were fair, but our inability to perform any counter canter at all (this is a horse that counter canters for fun at home), and my lack of accuracy on the basics was seriously affecting our marks. Plus, he was a little bit, err, bright in the warm up!
Due to my administrative error, on Saturday the horse got schooled in the morning and I spent the afternoon in Skegness. Which was interesting (but fun!). Thought about trading him in for a beach donkey but in the end decided against it.
I decided that my aim was to achieve some counter canter by the end of the weekend and to improve the size of my circles! I was pleased with the first prelim championship test, although again he was excited in the warm up and didn't really give me his best work. There were some exciting moments on the long side in canter during the test when I felt that I didn't really have the best brakes! We also managed to nail the counter canter in the novice so day two was pretty successful. He managed a plus 65% prelim test and just over 60% in the novice (average of two judges) which was a good improvement on Friday's 58%.
Monday saw the final championship tests and I finally felt that I had a horse that was soft and supple in the warm up and wasn't trying to run off with me at every opportunity! The prelim test felt fab and he was rewarded with over 67% which was great. We had a long wait of about 3 hours before our novice test so I took him back to the stable, untacked him and took him for some grass in hand. I put my competition jacket over the bars to the side of the stable door... Yup, you guessed it! When I returned it had fallen in the water bucket and was soaked... Cue a rather damp warm up for the novice test! He felt a little tired in the novice test, but on the whole tried his best and I have to be pleased with that. In fact, one of the judges had him on over 63% which is about a 5% improvement from his first novice test! Our averaged score was plus 61% so all our marks had improved as the weekend went on which was fantastic. I was just a little disappointed with our marks and comments of "little difference shown" for our medium trot. He definitely showed a difference, even my non-horsey other half noticed, but I wonder if the more conservative paces of a Thoroughbred struggle to stand up to a warmblood or if I'm just doing something wrong. Something to work on though!
I went back to the stable, got changed, mucked him out and got him loaded before going to check my score. Having had a look I then had to rush to the trailer to get changed back into my competition kit for the prize giving because we had got 4th in the silver section of the prelim championship and an 8th in the silver section of the novice championship! Got a whole load of rosettes (placed in every class apart from the first one) including lovely championship ones, goodies and some great jute bags to put it all in. Finally arrived home at gone 9pm, very tired but very happy! What a wonderful weekend! The staff and stewards were great and everyone was very friendly and helpful especially when they realised I was on my own on the Friday. Enjoyed a great hog roast (free!) and game of bingo with other competitors on the Sunday too. Would definitely go back!
Some piccies for those that are interested...as you can see he got a little onward bound at times!
Thanks for reading!
