SNEC BS and Polnoon Castle Showing reports

blood_magik

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After last weekend's run of having four faults in every class, I booked myself in for a last-minute Academy lesson with my trainer.
We ended up jumping skinnies and fans/corners/staircases and the bigger water tray instead of nice show jumps. I have a serious aversion to water trays but the 9ft wide liverpool was the least of my worries that night.
Rather than torture the big man with more scary skinnies, Beau did some grids so I could get used to popping a slightly bigger fence in preparation for moving up a class in the near future.

We had an early start to get to SNEC on Saturday. My alarm went off at 0445 and I was on the yard for 0645 to feed and get the boys ready to leave at 0800.

After feeling relatively relaxed about jumping last weekend, my nerves kicked in with a vengeance as I was walking the course for the BN/90 open. The first fence was lovely and inviting (i.e. small) but a few of the fillers under the later fences had me a bit worried.
Beau was his usual stressy self in the warm-up. Despite having a red ribbon in his tail, several people got far too close to him and he went super tense. Thankfully the warm-up had thinned out a bit by the time we were ready to jump and he pulled himself together.
I made the mistake of not getting my number down soon enough so we had a bit of a wait and the big guy had switched off a bit by the time we made it into the ring. It felt like he was looking at everything so I had to put my leg on in front of every fence but I can't fault him at all. He jumped everything and saved my bacon when I made a mess of one of the combinations - instead of 6 and 1, we got 7 and 2. Cue big pats for Beau when we made it out of that line in one piece with everything still standing.

We ended up coming 3rd in the open section, which was a nice surprise. :)
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[video=youtube;N_KOqlNG3Cs]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_KOqlNG3Cs[/video]

Next up was our second attempt at a 95cm class.
This time I got the 6-2 stride combination along the wall right but got slightly too close to the last combination and had the first part down. That'll teach me to walk all of my lines properly. :rolleyes:
There was a heart-stopping moment when I almost made the same mistake the second time round with Lenny, but thankfully the pole stayed up and we managed double clear number two.

[video=youtube;W1hGe9zL7GY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1hGe9zL7GY[/video]
[video=youtube;8-ReXJQYZ2g]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-ReXJQYZ2g[/video]

Finally, I'd entered Lenny in the 1m novice class. This time I made sure to walk all of my lines when I walked the course. Some of the fences looked a little big and I wasn't the only one to think that.
Both Lenny and I were feeling a bit tired by this point but the wee man warmed up well and seemed up for it.
The round was pretty sticky - we made a mess of the combination along the wall again (a running theme) but Lenny was a star and got us out of it without touching a pole. Thank god he's so honest - he really should have stopped.
At least the water tray didn't cause any issues. We made it over that and over the scary German Flag fence but had an unfortunate pole coming into the one stride double at 8. I considered retiring after that but there were only two fences left to go so I kicked on coming into the massive-looking grey/red and he absolutely flew over it.
attachment.php

Then it was over the grey wall to finish with four faults, which was just a little bit disappointing considering.

Video here (I can only post three videos, apparently):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjNXN9A34Q0

Some pics:
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And the link to the pro pic I bought of Beau:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=867935495381&l=9eb1604eda

On Sunday we headed to Morris for the Polnoon Castle RA Showing show. Another 0430 start to get to the yard to plait and finish cleaning tack. Despite an infuriating diversion through Glasgow city centre, we arrived with plenty of time to enter and give Mr. Raz a final spruce up before his first class.
First up was the Ridden Novice class. Raz went nicely in the go-round and we were pulled in first but then he tripped and nearly fell on his face when we changed the rein during our individual show. I thought for sure we'd blown it when he later popped in a sneaky un-asked-for flying change. :rolleyes:
I was :D when he was pulled back in in first place. As well as a lovely frilly, we were lucky enough to win a logo-ed saddle cloth from my local feed store.

Next up I had Lenny in the LW Ridden Hunter. He was a bit lazy on the go-round and we were pulled in fourth. He went nicely enough for the judge but wasn't exactly enthusiastic in the trot-up, which I suspect lost us a few marks. On the plus side, he stood nicely while all of the horses were ridden and then stripped.
We were pulled back in in fourth. The judge said that he needed to be a bit more in front of the leg, which was more than fair as Lenny can be a lazy toad on the flat.

I misjudged my timings slightly so there was a bit of a rush to get Raz tacked up and tidied for the Riding Horse class. He was his usual polite self in the go-round and we were pulled in third. He gave the judge a nice ride and, thankfully, trotted up nicely in-hand despite not having practiced, and we ended up coming in second.

The Riding Club Horse was next so it was off of Raz and straight back onto Lenny. Lenny felt far more enthusiastic this time round and perked right up when he realised there was jumping involved.
There were 10 in the class so we were split into two groups for the go-round and then told to come into the middle in any order. Lenny did a nice enough individual show. I thought he fell out of the canter during one of the rein changes but apparently it looked much nicer than it felt. He popped the jump easily and did a nice extension along the long side.
I didn't think we would place as there were some lovely horses in the class so I was :D when they called my number and pulled us in in second place.

Finally, it was time for the championship. I had a bit of a dilemma as to who to take in but eventually settled on Raz as he'd placed higher than Lenny.
We didn't get anything but I'm over the moon with how well both boys behaved. They both stood nicely and behaved for the judge ride so I can't really have asked any more of them.

Raz man (in the middle),
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And the boys' lovely rosettes.
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All-in-all, we've had a pretty good weekend. It was worth having to get up at 0430. ;)
Hopefully our next few outings will be just as successful.
Thanks for reading.
 

blood_magik

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Thank you. :)
We're finally getting there. Another few shows and I think we'll be ready to move up to the next class with the big man.

Your wee mare was fab.
 

dixie

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Ah lovely report. Well done, especially on those early starts. I got up at 5.30 to go to a show, looked at the weather and went back to bed!
Lovely to see how you are progressing with both the horses. Job well done��
 

Bantry

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Well done! You look so much more confident now on both boys. Just sitting there, riding the rhythm, no panic, all chilled out. Must feel great :)
 

measles

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Thank you. :)
We're finally getting there. Another few shows and I think we'll be ready to move up to the next class with the big man.

Your wee mare was fab.

We were delighted with her as that was her first BS show with us and she had only arrived with us at the beginning of the week.

Fingers crossed it dries up for the Scooby Doo castle location this weekend!
 
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