SpottedCat
Well-Known Member
So as Gamebird commented last time, I don't often do reports on here (for a variety of reasons), but I've just had a run of 3 very nice outings, so here we go.....but get a cup of tea, this is long!
Before I get into them though, bit of background. The grumpy bay one is my very nice eventer who is now 11 and whom I've owned since he was 5. In 2008 we were happily doing Novice BE, usually clear XC, mediocre dressage in the late 30s and a pole or two SJ. He then started chipping in SJ, then stopping - two different horse vets told me it was my riding and he was fine, so I tried to carry on. Then he said 'thanks but no thanks' and I couldn't even get him over a x-pole, so I took him to yet another vet who diagnosed grade 4 gastric ulcers. Treatment took a long time, and ran through 2009 when I also went to America for a few months so loaned him out. Then late 2009 got him back, had an ulcer relapse, treated that, so by the start of the 2010 season we were ready to go. Except the whole 'it's your riding' thing meant I had no faith I could SJ him, and the whole deal fell apart quite spectacularly, so I sent him to Chatter1 to compete and sell for me (he's perfect for everyone else - his loaner did 2PNs on him then went N and she'd never completed a BE event before!). He did very well with a few good N placings, some points etc....but no-one wanted him (well one girl did, but I turned down her offer of 5K - so I suppose I wasn't *that* desperate to sell him!). So he came back to me at the start of last December, and I have been in Chatter1's SJ bootcamp since then to learn how to get the best out of him. Consequently, I have dropped back to competing at mini-level to try and get all the elements right on the same day....and this is how we are faring....
First event. Stockland Lovell unaff 80cm class.
As I drove in, I pondered the wisdom of picking it as my first event, as it was this event in 2010 where I had a breakdown at the scoreboard and decided to sell him! Anyway, bit late for that. Warmed up nicely for dressage, but as we trotted round the arena he just dropped off the contact and went very light in the hand and felt a bit tense. I patted him to try and relax him, but no deal. Accurate forward test, but I felt not his best work and a bit tense. Judge liked our efforts though, rewarding us with a 30 (for the dressage divas, that's 70%). SJ - happened to bump into Chatter1 on the way - she'd finished for the day so very kindly warmed me up and calmed my nerves. It was all a bit make or break as though I can do it in training, that's bog-all use to anyone if you can't recreate it in competition. However, the grumpy bay one was obligingly ridable, I held my nerve and we jumped a nice clear. XC next - this has never been our issue, and he stormed round for a nice clear, though did pick up 1.2 time, predominantly because he was so excited to be out that he ended up facing the wrong way in the start box on 'go'! I was secretly glad at this point that I had not been cocky and entered 90cm as I saw some shockers of strides - the best part of 2 years off eventing and then a winter of jumping out of a short bouncy stride will do that to you
Ended up 3rd and won a nice set of neo-ice bandages - great start!
Second event - Pontispool unaff 80.
Now we were HC in this as I and the horse were massively over-qualified for the class. Dressage - I thought he was a lazy toad in the warmup - luckily there was enough space to gallop him a couple of times, then before I went in, I even borrowed a schooling whip. But no, I huffed and puffed my way round the dressage arena, and came out muttering darkly about the lack of tannoy and the grumpy bay one's laidback approach to the whole affair. The judge very kindly disagreed and gave us a 27
SJ - warmed up well, but they were sending you out of the warmup 2 horses before you were due to go, which was a bit early for my liking. Still, jumped another lovely clear, though they were obviously measuring the course very tight as he got 4 time faults! I saw a lot of that through the day - it was a bit of a shame as I saw several really nice well balanced clears get anything up to 12 time faults 
Stormed round the XC again to get another nice clear, and more importantly starting to see a better XC stride! So 2 double clears in 2 events. Oh yes, and had we not been HC we'd have won that one, even with the time in the SJ 
Third event. Bicton Arena unaff 80.
So yesterday I toddled off to Bicton, to hopefully consolidate the SJ before stepping up at the next event. The dressage warmup was bizzare - in a tiny space on a reasonable slope. So v crowded and not terribly easy to do much in. It was winding the grumpy bay one up, so I resorted to walking on a loose rein, which was a mistake! I then got sent through as they'd lost the person before me, to see the person before me trot up the centre line So I hung about in the vicinity of the arenas, where there was loads of space, and trotted a few circles. Went over, and the grumpy bay one was being very recalcitrant and not terribly obliging, had switched off entirely, and did a very mardy test with not a hint of his usual elevation and swing. I came out very cross with him as he really wasn't trying (actually, he was *very* trying!!). He was then a smug grumpy bay one as we got a 29.6
As I was changing tack to go and SJ I listened in to the XC commentary. '....jumps the turtle, up the steps and right handed over the bench into the woods...' kept being repeated. This baffled me somewhat, because I had no recollection of a bench into the woods, just two fences coming out. Anyway, no time to worry, went over to warmup for SJ. Which was tiny! I jumped two or three fences and gave up and went in. Now I was really worrying about this as the distances were clearly aimed at ponies (it was a PC event!) and no matter how many times I walked it, the double had 10 of my strides in, which is a very short two! So of course I saw a forward stride into it and had to almost take his back teeth out to fit two in (poor grumpy bay one!). He did come out with a clear though, so much patting ensued!
At this point, I thought I'd best go and check the section of the XC where they were mentioning the mysterious, heretofore unseen bench fence. So I ran over there (far too hot for such activity) and discovered I had indeed walked the course wrong and missed a fence out! Now the XC was testing enough for an 80cm event I thought, with a couple of things being more than you'd find BE at a 90 IMO - skinny turtle followed by a right hand turn up two steps as ABC and a drop into the water (which def doesn't come before PN unless there is an alt). By now I was seeing a decent stride, and we flew round for a nice clear - though he was being a cocky know-it-all sod so we clouted the wagon at 8 very hard as I wanted to remind him I have input for a reason, so let him do his own thing there. He was then nice and polite for the rest of the round. Upshot was, a nice 2nd place rosette and a silver box from Hi Ho Silver - I do like unaff, I get placed, the entry fee is lower, I've run over BE tracks every time, and the prizes are waaaay better!
SantaClaus was there and got some nice gallopy pics of us, but having written the title I've discovered that with FBs new gallery thing I have no idea how to get the URL and add them to a post, sorry, false promises of pictures!!
Before I get into them though, bit of background. The grumpy bay one is my very nice eventer who is now 11 and whom I've owned since he was 5. In 2008 we were happily doing Novice BE, usually clear XC, mediocre dressage in the late 30s and a pole or two SJ. He then started chipping in SJ, then stopping - two different horse vets told me it was my riding and he was fine, so I tried to carry on. Then he said 'thanks but no thanks' and I couldn't even get him over a x-pole, so I took him to yet another vet who diagnosed grade 4 gastric ulcers. Treatment took a long time, and ran through 2009 when I also went to America for a few months so loaned him out. Then late 2009 got him back, had an ulcer relapse, treated that, so by the start of the 2010 season we were ready to go. Except the whole 'it's your riding' thing meant I had no faith I could SJ him, and the whole deal fell apart quite spectacularly, so I sent him to Chatter1 to compete and sell for me (he's perfect for everyone else - his loaner did 2PNs on him then went N and she'd never completed a BE event before!). He did very well with a few good N placings, some points etc....but no-one wanted him (well one girl did, but I turned down her offer of 5K - so I suppose I wasn't *that* desperate to sell him!). So he came back to me at the start of last December, and I have been in Chatter1's SJ bootcamp since then to learn how to get the best out of him. Consequently, I have dropped back to competing at mini-level to try and get all the elements right on the same day....and this is how we are faring....
First event. Stockland Lovell unaff 80cm class.
As I drove in, I pondered the wisdom of picking it as my first event, as it was this event in 2010 where I had a breakdown at the scoreboard and decided to sell him! Anyway, bit late for that. Warmed up nicely for dressage, but as we trotted round the arena he just dropped off the contact and went very light in the hand and felt a bit tense. I patted him to try and relax him, but no deal. Accurate forward test, but I felt not his best work and a bit tense. Judge liked our efforts though, rewarding us with a 30 (for the dressage divas, that's 70%). SJ - happened to bump into Chatter1 on the way - she'd finished for the day so very kindly warmed me up and calmed my nerves. It was all a bit make or break as though I can do it in training, that's bog-all use to anyone if you can't recreate it in competition. However, the grumpy bay one was obligingly ridable, I held my nerve and we jumped a nice clear. XC next - this has never been our issue, and he stormed round for a nice clear, though did pick up 1.2 time, predominantly because he was so excited to be out that he ended up facing the wrong way in the start box on 'go'! I was secretly glad at this point that I had not been cocky and entered 90cm as I saw some shockers of strides - the best part of 2 years off eventing and then a winter of jumping out of a short bouncy stride will do that to you
Ended up 3rd and won a nice set of neo-ice bandages - great start!
Second event - Pontispool unaff 80.
Now we were HC in this as I and the horse were massively over-qualified for the class. Dressage - I thought he was a lazy toad in the warmup - luckily there was enough space to gallop him a couple of times, then before I went in, I even borrowed a schooling whip. But no, I huffed and puffed my way round the dressage arena, and came out muttering darkly about the lack of tannoy and the grumpy bay one's laidback approach to the whole affair. The judge very kindly disagreed and gave us a 27
SJ - warmed up well, but they were sending you out of the warmup 2 horses before you were due to go, which was a bit early for my liking. Still, jumped another lovely clear, though they were obviously measuring the course very tight as he got 4 time faults! I saw a lot of that through the day - it was a bit of a shame as I saw several really nice well balanced clears get anything up to 12 time faults Stormed round the XC again to get another nice clear, and more importantly starting to see a better XC stride! So 2 double clears in 2 events. Oh yes, and had we not been HC we'd have won that one, even with the time in the SJ Third event. Bicton Arena unaff 80.
So yesterday I toddled off to Bicton, to hopefully consolidate the SJ before stepping up at the next event. The dressage warmup was bizzare - in a tiny space on a reasonable slope. So v crowded and not terribly easy to do much in. It was winding the grumpy bay one up, so I resorted to walking on a loose rein, which was a mistake! I then got sent through as they'd lost the person before me, to see the person before me trot up the centre line
So I hung about in the vicinity of the arenas, where there was loads of space, and trotted a few circles. Went over, and the grumpy bay one was being very recalcitrant and not terribly obliging, had switched off entirely, and did a very mardy test with not a hint of his usual elevation and swing. I came out very cross with him as he really wasn't trying (actually, he was *very* trying!!). He was then a smug grumpy bay one as we got a 29.6As I was changing tack to go and SJ I listened in to the XC commentary. '....jumps the turtle, up the steps and right handed over the bench into the woods...' kept being repeated. This baffled me somewhat, because I had no recollection of a bench into the woods, just two fences coming out. Anyway, no time to worry, went over to warmup for SJ. Which was tiny! I jumped two or three fences and gave up and went in. Now I was really worrying about this as the distances were clearly aimed at ponies (it was a PC event!) and no matter how many times I walked it, the double had 10 of my strides in, which is a very short two! So of course I saw a forward stride into it and had to almost take his back teeth out to fit two in (poor grumpy bay one!). He did come out with a clear though, so much patting ensued!
At this point, I thought I'd best go and check the section of the XC where they were mentioning the mysterious, heretofore unseen bench fence. So I ran over there (far too hot for such activity) and discovered I had indeed walked the course wrong and missed a fence out!
Now the XC was testing enough for an 80cm event I thought, with a couple of things being more than you'd find BE at a 90 IMO - skinny turtle followed by a right hand turn up two steps as ABC and a drop into the water (which def doesn't come before PN unless there is an alt). By now I was seeing a decent stride, and we flew round for a nice clear - though he was being a cocky know-it-all sod so we clouted the wagon at 8 very hard as I wanted to remind him I have input for a reason, so let him do his own thing there. He was then nice and polite for the rest of the round. Upshot was, a nice 2nd place rosette and a silver box from Hi Ho Silver - I do like unaff, I get placed, the entry fee is lower, I've run over BE tracks every time, and the prizes are waaaay better!SantaClaus was there and got some nice gallopy pics of us, but having written the title I've discovered that with FBs new gallery thing I have no idea how to get the URL and add them to a post, sorry, false promises of pictures!!
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