South of England ODE report....with a couple of pics and a liittle vid

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AutumnRose

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Pretty low key today but i had such a nice time i thought i'd share
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After Blues virus ruining July and his despicable behaviour at Little Mattingley when he was oh so excited at being back out, he's been in show jumping boot camp for most of this month. Loads of clinics and grids and clear round jumping etc etc....Aim of today was to test if normality had returned before Firle next week.

Now my entry got lost in the post apparently and they could only fit me in the Novice class rather than the intermediate/intro i'd entered. Decided to go anyway as it wouldn't harm him to have a nice easy run having not been xc since Milton Keynes in June. After walking the course i was very glad not to be doing the bigger one. It was a ridiculous course, over height and way way over technical with very unfair questions. Even my course had 5 (no joke!!!) skinnies, and i mean proper so skinny you can only just fit between the flags, with no xmas trees etc etc....PN step down....most intros are easier but a few inches bigger. Anyway I digress, rant over.....
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On for dressage and did an ok test, nothing special. Happy to get 31.5. Onto sj which was small but in a very small arena with odd, tight turns and spooky enough fillers etc. Jumped a nice clear despite a monumental miss from me and one of them, see video evidence. You wouldn't think you could miss at such small fences but of course i can manage such a thing.....

Even though it was boiling hot at this stage he was very bouncy in xc warm up, think he knew what was coming although he's still only done 4 xc rounds ever... Very spooky for the first few, not at the fences but at people, dogs, jump judges sitting under sun umbrellas etc.....After that he settled and was fab, jumped everything out a lovely flowing rhythm and was straight as a die through double of off set skinnnies (!!!). I had a lovely lovely round.

So we ended up 4th.
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His first (of many i hope!!) eventing rossie.

I think today was perfect for getting his brain back in the game and i think all those bloody show jumps i've jumped in last few weeks have done the job.

Now we just need to do the same at Firle next week....Hmmmmmm!!!

A couple of dressage pics
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Second half of the sj (missed 1st half as ex-BBC camerman OH pressed wrong button!!!). Spot the miss anyone????


And just 'cos he's cute...Blue after stealing my bag of Quavers!!
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Glass of cold white if you got through that....
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Can't believe you guys are having sun and no rain, we had 1" of rain on Wednesday and another 1" today. Everything not on a surface is being cancelled not surprisingly.

B looks very confident SJing, all the practice must be working. Couldn't see a miss though, methinks you are being over critical!!

Fiona
 
Looks like you had a really good day!

I agree about the next class up being way over height!! I was going to do it, but having done the smaller one in April and walking the class up from that then, im glad i didnt. I know the club have become aware of peoples feelings towards it being run more like an Affiliated evented rather than a unaffiliated one. So maybe next year they will get it right. . .

Good luck for Firle next week
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riaseed - Thanks
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Fiona - It's the fence behind the tree thankfully but don't worry it's there!!! If it's any consolation for us having loads of sun i'm hideously burnt and look like a tomato!!!

silicis - Its ridiculous isn't it?! There were 4 clears xc in my section and so so many E's. It's like they were trying to catch people out and not what you want at all at that level. Thanks for the luck
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Looks like you had a really good day!

I agree about the next class up being way over height!! I was going to do it, but having done the smaller one in April and walking the class up from that then, im glad i didnt. I know the club have become aware of peoples feelings towards it being run more like an Affiliated evented rather than a unaffiliated one. So maybe next year they will get it right. . .

Good luck for Firle next week
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Was it the same course as the one in April?
 
Very pleased to read this report....and of course it will be the first of many eventing rossies - this is Blue we are talking about, after all.
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Well done.
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Pebble no it wasn't the same as April...harder i think!!! Didn't do April but went with a friend.

Bubblegum thanks v much!!! We'll see about the rossies.....he's got a few dressage ones now but this is the first jumping one so he's a bit slow on the uptake!!!
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Well done! You must be chuffed to bits.
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This is why I prefer to do BE events, the cost aside, at least you know that the height will be correct and there won't be too many technical fences! (at Intro)
 
Thanks Kat - i'm hoping the wheels are back to stay!!!

Wizoz - exactly i was saying the exact same thing today. It really made me think how worthwhile it is to do BE. Despite the extra cost you know exactly what you are getting and there won't be any nasty surprises!!!
 
Well done and best of luck at Firle - hopefully the Blue pony will continue to improve
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The sj at Firle's quite spooky just for a head's up if he's the sort of pony to go "what's that over then mum *spook*"
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hee hee! Your comment of a 'nothing special' dressage mark of 31.5 - If I got that once in a year at Eventing I'd be chuffed to bits all year!!!!!
 
teapot - Thanks
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Firle is a local one for us so i know it well...part of the reason behind all the boot camp is that i was slightly concerned about the sj at Firle. He wasn't nerly as bad until he came back from his time off so i'm hoping he's settled again.

ab - Thanks
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madhossy - Haha yes well i meant the test didn't feel itself like it was anything special but that mark is fine
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Trouble is now i've had a couple of mark in the 20s i'm sort of disappointed when its not...better get that out my head before we go BD eh?! High;y unlikely to be getting 70%+ there!!!!!!
 
well done LaLa,! glad i didnt do it,it was so hot y.day plus P's earnt a nice wks break!!!
Looking 4ward to firle now!!! bring it on
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well done blue
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Love the last pic where he is mugging for the camera!
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and shame on that ex-BBC camera man missing the start and such poor quality footage! tell him he needs to bring the big camera next time the ones you sit in with little railroads to run on!!!!
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Thanks Chloe!! I know the video is terrible because it's off a phone. Don't joke, he does have a big proper camera and keeps threatening to bring it to events to film me. How embarrassing would that be?!?!
 
well done - that's great to see he is back on tracks.

I was there yesterday and ended up having a row with the organiser over the standard of the course.

Someone mentioned that they are trying to make it too much like BE - Its the complete opposite though - BE is a walk in the park compared to what they are asking the horses to jump
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I did the PN course - described as 90cm - 1m. It was quite shocking to then see the Novice / Intermediate drop in the course (albeit with an alternative), and also find fence 16 as a skinny up to steps with a one stride to a log - 4 elements not labelled up separately
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Lastly I was so disappointed that they wanted the horses to jump the novice BE fence in to the water - water was quite shallow, so it was quite a big drop in. I wouldnt have minded, but they wouldnt put an alternative route in - it was that, or elmination, and VERY UNFAIR at the last fence on the course.

I challenged the organiser on this and she said that this was standard on a PN course - I think she clearly hasnt got a clue what she's talking about, and clearly doesnt know anything about BE. She reckons that you used to have to jump in to water in PN about 10 years ago - did PN even exist 10 yrs back???!!!

I would never run there again with that club - cant stand it when they try to make things difficult just for the sake of it. Its dangerous imho, and the courses should be designed to be safe for the standard of horse that they are aiming it at.

Sorry for hijacking here- but still fuming!!!!
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good luck at firle!!
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well done - that's great to see he is back on tracks.

I was there yesterday and ended up having a row with the organiser over the standard of the course.



Lastly I was so disappointed that they wanted the horses to jump the novice BE fence in to the water - water was quite shallow, so it was quite a big drop in. I wouldnt have minded, but they wouldnt put an alternative route in - it was that, or elmination, and VERY UNFAIR at the last fence on the course.

I challenged the organiser on this and she said that this was standard on a PN course - I think she clearly hasnt got a clue what she's talking about, and clearly doesnt know anything about BE. She reckons that you used to have to jump in to water in PN about 10 years ago - did PN even exist 10 yrs back???!!!




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The PN of old used to be 3ft 6", before the days of them introducing Intro and then reducing the PN to 3ft 3".

I can't believe the courses are still like this at ARC. One of my friends did the PN equivalent course there a few years ago.

Think she came 6th with several SJ's down and 2 stops on the XC as only 10 people actually completed in total !

I think the organisers see all those lovely free jumps scattered around the place and think how wonderful to use them all, no idea that the height and difficulty doesn't match the class they're running
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Just wondered who was responsible for organising it - I think that some of the Ardingly riders are experienced, certainly at Intro level.
 
Well done - hope this means he is back on track now!

Interesting to hear about the course - was thinking of entering the Sprog, but glad I didn't now judging from some of the comments! Seems rather stupid as well that their 'Starter' class is limited to those that have not been placed in the top three in ANY horse trials, so if someone has been placed in a little local 2' ODE, they would have to jump in the Intro class!
 
Looking at the results- there were only 12 clear rounds across all 3 sections in the Intro- I know it's 'only unaffiliated' but I think the statistics speak for themselves!!
 
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Just wondered who was responsible for organising it - I think that some of the Ardingly riders are experienced, certainly at Intro level.

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I looked up the BE record of the organiser to see if she was experienced. She'd done a few intros and only one PN about 3 years back - I dont think that counts as being 'experienced' imho.

I dont think they should let people like that organise ODE's - different if its tiny, but they're actually being quite irresponsible asking 'unaffiliated' horses and riders to complete courses like the ones set up. Quite dangerous, and not at all encouraging.
 
I thought that the courses were fine, the organisers had done a wonderful job on all three. Nothing on each course exceeded the maximum height allowed. The competition was run in the true spirit of a one day event and to get a placeing you needed to be good in ALL three phases. The pre- novice asked all the right questions. The large drop had an alternative, which would create time penalties rewarding those who chose the direct route, and the "jump" into the water was really no bigger than a telegraph pole on the ground! It was clearly a ODE competition, this includes skill and bravery across country and perhaps those who think otherwise should stick to combined training events. Skinnies are commenplace in all BE events and were not out of place here. Perhaps some schooling and basic training, before the event, would help those who had problems with them.
 
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