kirstyhen
Well-Known Member
We ventured oop north yesterday to have a JB Lesson at Somerford. Given we have at least 3/4 fantastic XC schooling venues on our doorstep, we've never been before as it just seemed a bit pointless!
After 2 hours and a LOT of traffic, we arrived and straight away I started to feel a bit windy! I proceeded to use the men's toilets and stand around like a muppet thinking they office door was locked, when in fact it wasn't
Put teeny studs in, more to practise than anything (remember my face after Keysoe??), tacked up and set off for the course.
I'm not sure I have ever seen so many XC fences in on place, it is quite incredible! Moot's eyes were on stalks and she was getting rather strong, she certainly hasn't forgotten the XC game. My nerves continued to increase, especially when i discovered we had an Int. horse in our group...
Jeanette continued the theme from our lessons into XC, she wanted her in a longer, more relaxed frame. I really struggled with this as Mally was pulling hard, but as JB predicted, if I let my reins out a touch and lowered my hand, she stopped pulling
I hadn't thought my hands got that high, but watching the video I can really see it. She gave us courses but let us pick our own fences, so we were never pressured into jumping anything huge. As I was feeling nervy, I stuck with smaller stuff, although having watched the videos back and thinking about where I was in terms of confidence before Mal, I'm not so sure they are the small fences! 
Warming up
The spooky fence that caused the other horse problems
Skinny roll top thingy
Green brush to sunken road (she thought about stopping after this, and I thought about carrying on alone!)
Big drop after this fence, she stopped at first, but went through fine after.
Triple brush after water
We had one slight moment were Mally stopped at a skinny brush, because I rode like a total tool, but other than that we weren't too bad. Just a tad rusty, but we haven't been XC since October, so I might let us off.
She also took me totally by surprise at some drop fences by stopping (Moot never stops!) but didn't bother the next couple of times.
She did her first ever owl holes without so much as a look, apparently made a few spooky fences look easy (I never think about things like that, because Mally never spooks at anything she has to jump!) and was as straight as anything. Mega pleased with my little donkey and ready for Oasby now.
A few video clips stuck together, there's no sound as the background noise was just wind and people chatting, so a bit pointless really! I know I jump a couple of fences the wrong way, but I was just doing as I was told, so no point in pointing it out to me
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=z4P4gyz7waY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4P4gyz7waY
(Same link, but one only works off mobiles and tablets I think)
Although I did worry when we were walking back to the trailer and she went very footy. At which point my mum noticed she had lost a shoe! We had found one near the start of the session, but I hadn't thought anything of it as Mally never pulls her shoes off and she didn't feel any different! Mum trekked back to Jeanette, who was also amazed at how tough Mals had been, and we retrieved the shoe. Text my farrier on the way home, and by 7pm Mally had her shoe back on, the other front refitted just in case and all for free, how's that for service!?
I do wonder if its what made her hesitate at the drops, as she is usually so bold.
After 2 hours and a LOT of traffic, we arrived and straight away I started to feel a bit windy! I proceeded to use the men's toilets and stand around like a muppet thinking they office door was locked, when in fact it wasn't
Put teeny studs in, more to practise than anything (remember my face after Keysoe??), tacked up and set off for the course.
I'm not sure I have ever seen so many XC fences in on place, it is quite incredible! Moot's eyes were on stalks and she was getting rather strong, she certainly hasn't forgotten the XC game. My nerves continued to increase, especially when i discovered we had an Int. horse in our group...
Jeanette continued the theme from our lessons into XC, she wanted her in a longer, more relaxed frame. I really struggled with this as Mally was pulling hard, but as JB predicted, if I let my reins out a touch and lowered my hand, she stopped pulling
I hadn't thought my hands got that high, but watching the video I can really see it. She gave us courses but let us pick our own fences, so we were never pressured into jumping anything huge. As I was feeling nervy, I stuck with smaller stuff, although having watched the videos back and thinking about where I was in terms of confidence before Mal, I'm not so sure they are the small fences! Warming up
The spooky fence that caused the other horse problems
Skinny roll top thingy
Green brush to sunken road (she thought about stopping after this, and I thought about carrying on alone!)
Big drop after this fence, she stopped at first, but went through fine after.
Triple brush after water
We had one slight moment were Mally stopped at a skinny brush, because I rode like a total tool, but other than that we weren't too bad. Just a tad rusty, but we haven't been XC since October, so I might let us off.
She also took me totally by surprise at some drop fences by stopping (Moot never stops!) but didn't bother the next couple of times.
She did her first ever owl holes without so much as a look, apparently made a few spooky fences look easy (I never think about things like that, because Mally never spooks at anything she has to jump!) and was as straight as anything. Mega pleased with my little donkey and ready for Oasby now.
A few video clips stuck together, there's no sound as the background noise was just wind and people chatting, so a bit pointless really! I know I jump a couple of fences the wrong way, but I was just doing as I was told, so no point in pointing it out to me
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=z4P4gyz7waY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4P4gyz7waY
(Same link, but one only works off mobiles and tablets I think)
Although I did worry when we were walking back to the trailer and she went very footy. At which point my mum noticed she had lost a shoe! We had found one near the start of the session, but I hadn't thought anything of it as Mally never pulls her shoes off and she didn't feel any different! Mum trekked back to Jeanette, who was also amazed at how tough Mals had been, and we retrieved the shoe. Text my farrier on the way home, and by 7pm Mally had her shoe back on, the other front refitted just in case and all for free, how's that for service!?
I do wonder if its what made her hesitate at the drops, as she is usually so bold.
