Ambers Echo
Still wittering on
Woohoo, 2nd event done!
Manic week at work in the run up, including finishing work at 4:30pm in the centre of Manchester Friday evening so had to hotfoot it through Friday afternoon traffic to Somerford for the course walk.
Course looked hideous. Beautiful of course. But hideous. I truly cannot be objective because all jumps look horrendous to me until I am riding at them but I honestly think it was bigger and more technical than Kelsall. Am I just picking the hard ones?! The course builder made full use of the brush rule so there were some huuuuge wide, solid fences with brush that freaked me out but I knew would not really worry Amber at all. BUt there were also some more technical questions the hardest of which was a pretty solid fence on top of a small mound to a skinny.
I knew Amber would launch herself off the mound and be hard to get back for the skinny so I decided to go the long way round.
Anyway I walked the course twice, made copious notes on where to go as it was not obvious, walked the SJ a few times and eventually got home late, stressed and starving. Tea was a toasted bagel and a large glass of wine. I then slept badly, having a recurrent nightmare in which Amber and I arrived at Somerford and I put down the ramp to find her horribly injured inside.
The alarm went off at 4:45 and I felt unrested, upset by the nightmare, hopelessly underprepared and frankly **** scared. Arrrghhh. I was back in the 'why do I do this to myself' frame of mind. But once I was on the road it all felt a little less overwhelming. She was unplaited again. Oops. Deduct 4 house points. But I was too tired to get up any earlier than 4.45 and I was damned if I was plaiting up at 10pm either.
Drama 1 occurred when the dressage judge told me I was not allowed a caller. For some reason I was convinced at 80T you could have tests called but obviously not. I knew the test well after my Kelsall 6 mark deduction. But alas not well enough. Only 2 marks off this time though! And generally she was a lot calmer and more obedient. Still a very long way off troubling the leaderboard with 38.8
For SJ we had a few discussions in the warm up area ("Not so fast"; "oh please", "no", "well I am", argghhhh NOOO come back here" , "spoilsport") so I was pleased that she jumped quite calmly for the first few fences but gradually got more and more keen and we had 2 silly poles as she was losing rhythm and flattening. But not too bad - and glimpses of what's to come when she becomes more rideable.
Then onto XC. The role split in this task was pretty simply: I steer her round and she jumps stuff I present her to. Well she did her bit...... I on the other hand managed to go wrong TWICE, merrily cantering off in completely the wrong direction. I had to turn back and on the 2nd time even ask for directions. TWICE. This is beginning to get really irritating. I mean I am not particularly old or batty so why does my thick ol' brain not function when I am riding?? She is the reliable, consistent perfomer in our little doubles team - I am the weak link that keeps letting her down.
But never mind - we had fun anyway! Amber the XC machine was absolutely in her element. Once again she did not have a moment's hesitation at any fence. She locked on from 10 strides out and just took everything on with complete confidence. I was so annoyed that she had lost so much time going wrong that I made a snap decision to go the direct route after all and she flew through there. No jumping faults but 25 time faults. Given that we must have lost a shedload of time for the 2 detours, I think I was inside the time for the actual bits we did which is a great sign of things to come. I felt a lot more confident than at Kelsall and really let her move along. She was flying and jumping everything so comfortably out of her canter stride. It just felt magical. She is awesome. I cannot believe how lucky I am!!
So another event with a cricket score at the end but hey ho - there is so much more to come. I really feel like we are not far off being able to realistically hope for double clear within the times. So happy with her and can't wait for the next one. I just need to figure out how to bottle this feeling and save some of it up for the pre-event nerves.
Manic week at work in the run up, including finishing work at 4:30pm in the centre of Manchester Friday evening so had to hotfoot it through Friday afternoon traffic to Somerford for the course walk.
Course looked hideous. Beautiful of course. But hideous. I truly cannot be objective because all jumps look horrendous to me until I am riding at them but I honestly think it was bigger and more technical than Kelsall. Am I just picking the hard ones?! The course builder made full use of the brush rule so there were some huuuuge wide, solid fences with brush that freaked me out but I knew would not really worry Amber at all. BUt there were also some more technical questions the hardest of which was a pretty solid fence on top of a small mound to a skinny.
I knew Amber would launch herself off the mound and be hard to get back for the skinny so I decided to go the long way round.
Anyway I walked the course twice, made copious notes on where to go as it was not obvious, walked the SJ a few times and eventually got home late, stressed and starving. Tea was a toasted bagel and a large glass of wine. I then slept badly, having a recurrent nightmare in which Amber and I arrived at Somerford and I put down the ramp to find her horribly injured inside.
The alarm went off at 4:45 and I felt unrested, upset by the nightmare, hopelessly underprepared and frankly **** scared. Arrrghhh. I was back in the 'why do I do this to myself' frame of mind. But once I was on the road it all felt a little less overwhelming. She was unplaited again. Oops. Deduct 4 house points. But I was too tired to get up any earlier than 4.45 and I was damned if I was plaiting up at 10pm either.
Drama 1 occurred when the dressage judge told me I was not allowed a caller. For some reason I was convinced at 80T you could have tests called but obviously not. I knew the test well after my Kelsall 6 mark deduction. But alas not well enough. Only 2 marks off this time though! And generally she was a lot calmer and more obedient. Still a very long way off troubling the leaderboard with 38.8
For SJ we had a few discussions in the warm up area ("Not so fast"; "oh please", "no", "well I am", argghhhh NOOO come back here" , "spoilsport") so I was pleased that she jumped quite calmly for the first few fences but gradually got more and more keen and we had 2 silly poles as she was losing rhythm and flattening. But not too bad - and glimpses of what's to come when she becomes more rideable.
Then onto XC. The role split in this task was pretty simply: I steer her round and she jumps stuff I present her to. Well she did her bit...... I on the other hand managed to go wrong TWICE, merrily cantering off in completely the wrong direction. I had to turn back and on the 2nd time even ask for directions. TWICE. This is beginning to get really irritating. I mean I am not particularly old or batty so why does my thick ol' brain not function when I am riding?? She is the reliable, consistent perfomer in our little doubles team - I am the weak link that keeps letting her down.
But never mind - we had fun anyway! Amber the XC machine was absolutely in her element. Once again she did not have a moment's hesitation at any fence. She locked on from 10 strides out and just took everything on with complete confidence. I was so annoyed that she had lost so much time going wrong that I made a snap decision to go the direct route after all and she flew through there. No jumping faults but 25 time faults. Given that we must have lost a shedload of time for the 2 detours, I think I was inside the time for the actual bits we did which is a great sign of things to come. I felt a lot more confident than at Kelsall and really let her move along. She was flying and jumping everything so comfortably out of her canter stride. It just felt magical. She is awesome. I cannot believe how lucky I am!!
So another event with a cricket score at the end but hey ho - there is so much more to come. I really feel like we are not far off being able to realistically hope for double clear within the times. So happy with her and can't wait for the next one. I just need to figure out how to bottle this feeling and save some of it up for the pre-event nerves.
