Firewell
Well-Known Member
So after umming and ahhing if to go or not I decided sod it, I would go! I did question this decision when I was feeling sick for the whole day with nerves and running around trying to get horse plaited, lorry loaded, learn test ect!
J was really chilled when we got there and he stood like a lamb while I studded him up ect. We led him down to the dressage on the lunge line in case of explosions but apart from a few stallion esque 'it's my party and I've arrived!!!' Prancing and snorting he was fine. My mum went to lunge him but tbh he didn't really need it and was trotting and cantering around as quiet and sweet as anything so I hopped on.
He warmed up lovely for the dressage, really calm and relaxed. He loves dressage, it makes him feel really safe and happy I think. He did a nice test and I felt like I rode him better than at Iping, I didn't get so tense as I was concentrating on my breathing techniques.
Then was the SJ. I was not happy as by the time we had changed his tack I literally had 5/10 minutes to warm up. This is NOT long enough for J. He finds jumping warm up's incredibly exciting and I normally have to stand him quietly and let him absorb the atmosphere for 1/2 an hr before attempting to work him. He walked and trotted nicely away from the other horses but the moment I started trying to canter him round the jump, he couldn't stand the anticipation and started to get tense, then another horse decided to nap and misbehave and the rider was shouting and smacking it, this upset J and he couldnt cope and he went into a volly of massive catleaps which very nearly sent me flying!! I was almost out the side door shouting 'woah woah!!' and he suddenly realised I was hanging by a thread and he stopped so I could clamber back into the saddle!
I couldn't do much with him after that as he was feeling incredibly reactive. I waited as long as I could before I HAD to go in and jump the round, I was on a minute warning so I quickly wizzed him over a x-pole which he leapt 6 feet over and then cantered in the ring, I hung onto the neck strap and we were off! It actually worked in my favour in a weird way because I didn't have time to over think the round and we did the smoothest nicest SJ round we have done! Sadly he got 4 faults because he landed disunited over one jump and I should of brought him back to trot but he was in such a nice rythm I didn't and he had the next one down
, still 4 faults not bad.
Then was the XC, I was one of the last to go and the light was starting to fade so I quickly shoved my BP over my SJ shirt and went like that. I didn't bother jumping the warm up fence, he had only just done the SJ and he felt so bold and I knew it would have only wound him up.
The XC was excellent! The first 5 jumps were simple fences and he jumped smoothly over those, although he did a massive leap over the shiney tyres at 3
. Number 6 was a roll top on top of a hill and you couldn't see the landing side on the approach, he had never done anything like this:-
He bounded up the hill and I could feel his confusion as we approached the fence. I kicked him and hung on to the neckstrap and he chipped a little stride in, peered over the top of the roll top and then carefully pooped over it, so cute!!!
Then was a ditch to roll top:-
This is the most ditch like ditch we have jumped so I was a bit nervous about this one! I had read my Lucinda Greex XC book though the night before and it said to ride a ditch at a bouncy canter on an increasing stride, so I tried to do just that. I got him into a slow canter looked at the roll top, hung on to the neckstrap again and kicked and I didn't stop staring at the roll top. I felt him hesitate and then he did a funny twisty jump and because of that he then did 3 short strides instead of the 2 strides into the roll top and popped it carefully.
Then there was a nice flower jump (you'll see that in a minute
) which he slowed himself up for, looked and did a big careful jump over just to make sure we were safe .
Then was another jump he hadn't seen before:-
I wanted to do the right hand side as it felt most natural to me and I thought the best thing to do would be to aim for just right of the centre as I thought he would naturally drift to the right a bit. This seemed to work quite well, again I could feel his confusion as we came in and he was very keen but he slowed himself up and I could feel him thinking 'that bit is bigger and that bit isn't, i'll jump the small bit' bless him, love how cute and careful and serious he is about these things
.
Then there was a combination with a skinny option as the 2nd part or a longer but wider part. I opted for the wider part as I didn't care about time I just wanted to go clear and he jumped it beautifully off the turn.
Then there was the first water and he wanted to stop and sniff the water first and then he walked through picking his feet up really high but he didn't step back at all 
.
Then there was a brush fence inbetween 2 ferns and for some reason he wanted to chip in a stride here but I just carried on holding my neckstrap!
Then the 2nd water which he was bolder through, his eyes were out on stalks coming in as there was lots of jumps in and around the water and he was trying to guess what I wanted him to do and he actually did a trot through this water.
Then there were a couple of pallisades on a turn and he jumped these nice. He was feeling really tired by now and his head was getting lower and lower so I wasn't asking him to go fast. Fence 16 was a step up to a log, again I had read Lucinda Green and I got him back into a short bouncy canter and I saw a nice stride into the step but as he hasn't done it before he put a small stride in and sort of flopped up the step lol and then ears pricked he took me over the log with his legs all everywhere (he has such long legs! He's like riding a wobbly spider sometimes).
Last 2 jumps were simple and he jumped these out of our stride and we were done, clear!
I was really chuffed with him!!!
As it turns out we got 33.5 in the dressage and were laying in 3rd place after that phase. The pole in the SJ had dropped us down to 5th and if we had got less than 6 time faults we would have remained 5th. However we didn't we got considerably more TF then that
. However it doesn't matter. To be amongst the leaders at our 2nd BE is a massive achievement for us! If I had known my score before the XC I may have been tempted to kick on and be more competitive but in hindsight i'm glad I didn't as its only his 3rd XC, I haven't done XC properly for 12/15 years and we are both learning and feeling our way. He's so bold he's never stopped ever and I want to keep it that way . Time is just a technicality that when we are both more established I will be happy to go faster and cut corners and ride faster into ditches and combos and such like.
All in all an excellent day and just the confidence boost I needed. I've being feeling like a bumbling rubbish rider recently and have felt so down but yesterday proved that we can do it, the pair of us together and that soon we will be a force to be reckoned with! He's my horse and we may never go to Badders but we can have fun and I know we will pick up a few rossies and have good times over the years to come, no pressure.
Here's the pictures I brought of my beautiful, clever, talented boy (can't believe my cheapie ex-racer has turned into this!!):-
I hope you enjoyed our report
J was really chilled when we got there and he stood like a lamb while I studded him up ect. We led him down to the dressage on the lunge line in case of explosions but apart from a few stallion esque 'it's my party and I've arrived!!!' Prancing and snorting he was fine. My mum went to lunge him but tbh he didn't really need it and was trotting and cantering around as quiet and sweet as anything so I hopped on.
He warmed up lovely for the dressage, really calm and relaxed. He loves dressage, it makes him feel really safe and happy I think. He did a nice test and I felt like I rode him better than at Iping, I didn't get so tense as I was concentrating on my breathing techniques.
Then was the SJ. I was not happy as by the time we had changed his tack I literally had 5/10 minutes to warm up. This is NOT long enough for J. He finds jumping warm up's incredibly exciting and I normally have to stand him quietly and let him absorb the atmosphere for 1/2 an hr before attempting to work him. He walked and trotted nicely away from the other horses but the moment I started trying to canter him round the jump, he couldn't stand the anticipation and started to get tense, then another horse decided to nap and misbehave and the rider was shouting and smacking it, this upset J and he couldnt cope and he went into a volly of massive catleaps which very nearly sent me flying!! I was almost out the side door shouting 'woah woah!!' and he suddenly realised I was hanging by a thread and he stopped so I could clamber back into the saddle!
I couldn't do much with him after that as he was feeling incredibly reactive. I waited as long as I could before I HAD to go in and jump the round, I was on a minute warning so I quickly wizzed him over a x-pole which he leapt 6 feet over and then cantered in the ring, I hung onto the neck strap and we were off! It actually worked in my favour in a weird way because I didn't have time to over think the round and we did the smoothest nicest SJ round we have done! Sadly he got 4 faults because he landed disunited over one jump and I should of brought him back to trot but he was in such a nice rythm I didn't and he had the next one down
, still 4 faults not bad.Then was the XC, I was one of the last to go and the light was starting to fade so I quickly shoved my BP over my SJ shirt and went like that. I didn't bother jumping the warm up fence, he had only just done the SJ and he felt so bold and I knew it would have only wound him up.
The XC was excellent! The first 5 jumps were simple fences and he jumped smoothly over those, although he did a massive leap over the shiney tyres at 3
. Number 6 was a roll top on top of a hill and you couldn't see the landing side on the approach, he had never done anything like this:-
He bounded up the hill and I could feel his confusion as we approached the fence. I kicked him and hung on to the neckstrap and he chipped a little stride in, peered over the top of the roll top and then carefully pooped over it, so cute!!!
Then was a ditch to roll top:-
This is the most ditch like ditch we have jumped so I was a bit nervous about this one! I had read my Lucinda Greex XC book though the night before and it said to ride a ditch at a bouncy canter on an increasing stride, so I tried to do just that. I got him into a slow canter looked at the roll top, hung on to the neckstrap again and kicked and I didn't stop staring at the roll top. I felt him hesitate and then he did a funny twisty jump and because of that he then did 3 short strides instead of the 2 strides into the roll top and popped it carefully.
Then there was a nice flower jump (you'll see that in a minute
) which he slowed himself up for, looked and did a big careful jump over just to make sure we were safe .Then was another jump he hadn't seen before:-
I wanted to do the right hand side as it felt most natural to me and I thought the best thing to do would be to aim for just right of the centre as I thought he would naturally drift to the right a bit. This seemed to work quite well, again I could feel his confusion as we came in and he was very keen but he slowed himself up and I could feel him thinking 'that bit is bigger and that bit isn't, i'll jump the small bit' bless him, love how cute and careful and serious he is about these things
.Then there was a combination with a skinny option as the 2nd part or a longer but wider part. I opted for the wider part as I didn't care about time I just wanted to go clear and he jumped it beautifully off the turn.
Then there was the first water and he wanted to stop and sniff the water first and then he walked through picking his feet up really high but he didn't step back at all
.Then there was a brush fence inbetween 2 ferns and for some reason he wanted to chip in a stride here but I just carried on holding my neckstrap!
Then the 2nd water which he was bolder through, his eyes were out on stalks coming in as there was lots of jumps in and around the water and he was trying to guess what I wanted him to do and he actually did a trot through this water
.Then there were a couple of pallisades on a turn and he jumped these nice. He was feeling really tired by now and his head was getting lower and lower so I wasn't asking him to go fast. Fence 16 was a step up to a log, again I had read Lucinda Green and I got him back into a short bouncy canter and I saw a nice stride into the step but as he hasn't done it before he put a small stride in and sort of flopped up the step lol and then ears pricked he took me over the log with his legs all everywhere (he has such long legs! He's like riding a wobbly spider sometimes).
Last 2 jumps were simple and he jumped these out of our stride and we were done, clear!
I was really chuffed with him!!!
As it turns out we got 33.5 in the dressage and were laying in 3rd place after that phase. The pole in the SJ had dropped us down to 5th and if we had got less than 6 time faults we would have remained 5th. However we didn't we got considerably more TF then that
. However it doesn't matter. To be amongst the leaders at our 2nd BE is a massive achievement for us! If I had known my score before the XC I may have been tempted to kick on and be more competitive but in hindsight i'm glad I didn't as its only his 3rd XC, I haven't done XC properly for 12/15 years and we are both learning and feeling our way. He's so bold he's never stopped ever and I want to keep it that way . Time is just a technicality that when we are both more established I will be happy to go faster and cut corners and ride faster into ditches and combos and such like.All in all an excellent day and just the confidence boost I needed. I've being feeling like a bumbling rubbish rider recently and have felt so down but yesterday proved that we can do it, the pair of us together and that soon we will be a force to be reckoned with! He's my horse and we may never go to Badders but we can have fun and I know we will pick up a few rossies and have good times over the years to come, no pressure
.Here's the pictures I brought of my beautiful, clever, talented boy (can't believe my cheapie ex-racer has turned into this!!):-
I hope you enjoyed our report
