Fiona
Well-Known Member
I bet nobody has had such a frustrating day as us today....
Flo's second intro of the season at Rademon. She was 3rd on her last run.
Dressage went well, though she was noticeably more tense than she has been for a good while..Not sure whether this is due to being a new venue for her, or the fact that she has been on a different calmer for the past fortnight.
ANt while I'm talking 'stressage', I can't really get my head round intro 92. The trot-walk-trot transitions are in a corner (rather than at C or somewhere sensible) so harder to maintain rhythm, and you WALK up the centre line for final halt at X. Any horse in the world who'se ever done a dresage test before knows to trot up the centre line, I didn't see one competitor who managed to get from K round to A and up the c line to X without at least a couple of strides of jog..
Anyway, she managed a decent score of 37 (which was about 5th).
I was a little worried about the SJ, because although they went XC schooling last weekend, they haven't SJed since last event 4 weeks ago, and she's a bit of a 'dangly' TB sort.
However they went in and jumped a lovely clear..
fence 1
fence 3
fence 5
fence 6
The XC was pretty much the same as the PN with very few changes. A lot of the course is wooded and twisty but the going is good on the tracks.
They set out great guns over fences 1-3 which I could see
fence 2
fence 3 (bizarrely this caused a few probs with baby horses as beside warmup but FLo whizzed over)
and they disappeared off into the trees. Then the commentary went silent, and I didn't know what was going on, so I was frantic as a couple of horses who had been behind OH appeared in the finishing field. Nearly started to head back to the lorry park, as thought he had been elim, or had lost a shoe and had to pull up.
However EVENTUALLY who appears but OH and Flo, down the slide, into the river and over this brush (she jumped VERY big as not used to jumping from trot)
Once I caught up with them I got the whole story...
Seemingly she had a stop at fence 4 (step up, but the bank falls away v steeply on the other side), but round again and sailed over, straight through the river going out, more steps, barrels, log into space etc and came to where the PN had to jump a big open ditch. Someone decided in their wisdom this was too big for intro, so flags crossed on it, and they had to turn to the side, slide down slope into small stream, up opposite bank and jump a log a couple of strides later. The stream was a hazard, and the log was the actual fence.
Gues what - she planted at the little stream. OH said she didn't seem to have a clue what to do with her feet, and as it was too big to jump in one, she just refused to move. As it was a hazard rather than a fence, she wasn't 'refusing' as such, and fortunately after he had stood aside to let next couple of horses through, she seemed to suddenly sort it out, slid down the slope through the stream and on, and jumped the rest of the course absolutely fine.
The most totally frustrating thing about the day is, the course actually caused quite a bit of trouble, and even with the one stop and a few time - he still would have been placed (but of course madam decided to have a game of 'statues' in the woods
!
I think I need a BIG glass of wine, and lots of sympathy.
Anyone????
Fiona
Flo's second intro of the season at Rademon. She was 3rd on her last run.
Dressage went well, though she was noticeably more tense than she has been for a good while..Not sure whether this is due to being a new venue for her, or the fact that she has been on a different calmer for the past fortnight.
ANt while I'm talking 'stressage', I can't really get my head round intro 92. The trot-walk-trot transitions are in a corner (rather than at C or somewhere sensible) so harder to maintain rhythm, and you WALK up the centre line for final halt at X. Any horse in the world who'se ever done a dresage test before knows to trot up the centre line, I didn't see one competitor who managed to get from K round to A and up the c line to X without at least a couple of strides of jog..
Anyway, she managed a decent score of 37 (which was about 5th).
I was a little worried about the SJ, because although they went XC schooling last weekend, they haven't SJed since last event 4 weeks ago, and she's a bit of a 'dangly' TB sort.
However they went in and jumped a lovely clear..
fence 1
fence 3
fence 5
fence 6
The XC was pretty much the same as the PN with very few changes. A lot of the course is wooded and twisty but the going is good on the tracks.
They set out great guns over fences 1-3 which I could see
fence 2
fence 3 (bizarrely this caused a few probs with baby horses as beside warmup but FLo whizzed over)
and they disappeared off into the trees. Then the commentary went silent, and I didn't know what was going on, so I was frantic as a couple of horses who had been behind OH appeared in the finishing field. Nearly started to head back to the lorry park, as thought he had been elim, or had lost a shoe and had to pull up.
However EVENTUALLY who appears but OH and Flo, down the slide, into the river and over this brush (she jumped VERY big as not used to jumping from trot)
Once I caught up with them I got the whole story...
Seemingly she had a stop at fence 4 (step up, but the bank falls away v steeply on the other side), but round again and sailed over, straight through the river going out, more steps, barrels, log into space etc and came to where the PN had to jump a big open ditch. Someone decided in their wisdom this was too big for intro, so flags crossed on it, and they had to turn to the side, slide down slope into small stream, up opposite bank and jump a log a couple of strides later. The stream was a hazard, and the log was the actual fence.
Gues what - she planted at the little stream. OH said she didn't seem to have a clue what to do with her feet, and as it was too big to jump in one, she just refused to move. As it was a hazard rather than a fence, she wasn't 'refusing' as such, and fortunately after he had stood aside to let next couple of horses through, she seemed to suddenly sort it out, slid down the slope through the stream and on, and jumped the rest of the course absolutely fine.
The most totally frustrating thing about the day is, the course actually caused quite a bit of trouble, and even with the one stop and a few time - he still would have been placed (but of course madam decided to have a game of 'statues' in the woods
I think I need a BIG glass of wine, and lots of sympathy.
Anyone????
Fiona
) so very bad luck 
