Girlracer
Well-Known Member
A few months ago I wrote a post stating that I was going to hold off competition in 2017 due to wanting to purchase my own transport, however whilst that is still on the cards I have been very lucky in receiving help from people close to me in still getting out competing at the start of this year...
SO I am feeling incredibly grateful to everyone who supports me, whether it be hands on support with the mucking out, the lovely lorry lady that makes the transport so accessible to all the words of encouragement we receive via social media. I am not sure it would be as easy without that support, so thank you!
In light of this change in plans we entered Calmsden Horse Trials as our first run of 2017!
I had sociable mid morning times so we arrived with enough time to walk both the jumping phases before we set off to the dressage. And I am very glad I hadn't done this the evening before as this now gave me mere hours to stress about the twisty, turny, bright and big Show Jumping, and the castle at 4 XC and a variety of other things. How I envy those that don't suffer with jumping related nerves...
So trying to ignore the forthcoming jumping we tacked up and headed to the dressage, a thing of nightmares previously (I'm talking 49 dressage scores, and just about scraping a sub 40 dressage toward the end of 2016) but it's something we have worked really hard on over the winter and he is becoming more rideable and just generally more relaxed... we still have a way to go but the fact that we no longer trot round the dressage arena with his ears up my nose looking like a fire breathing dragon (I am not exaggerating!) is a win in my eyes... I was over the moon with a 35 dressage.
Now we don't hang about in this camp as there is every possibility I might talk myself in to going home after dressage... so we very quickly shortened the stirrups and ventured to the Show Jumping.
I never give King much warm up as he does tend to get quite hot if I'm not careful, but unfortunately on this occasion we were joined in the warm up by a very erratic combination that King was very offended by, meaning my well practiced short but sweet warm up became short and wild. I quit whilst I was ahead (i.e I hadn't yet hit the deck) and stood in the corner awaiting our turn hoping by some miracle King might come back down to earth.
So, I guess it could have been worse however he did revert to his old ways, ignored pretty much everything I was saying and towed me round to have a couple down. But WE DID IT, and actually the fact that I was so worried about what COULD happen and actually nothing did happen is a big confidence boost as it is probably one of the spookiest and biggest 80 SJ we have jumped round.
And then a very quick change, and an excellent job done by my friend who knows very well that I don't want to be walking round the XC warm up envisaging the impending doom meant we jumped one warm up fence and trotted into the start box with 30 seconds to go!
5, 4, 3, 2, 1... and we were off! He flew over the first three sweetly and then we cantered across to the castle of doom. We drifted left, then right, started to grind to a halt and thankfully some part of my brain (certainly not the conscious bit) remembered to ride and we in absolutely no style made it to the other side.
A bad shot to 5 made me sit up and actually ride, taking time to set up for the fences so that we had a positive and confident round to start the season... and that's exactly what we had! He made light work of all the questions, listened and waited and we flew round to a clear round of XC.
You can watch a few snippets from all three phases here...
[video=youtube_share;wkVvrrZ_J-E]https://youtu.be/wkVvrrZ_J-E[/video]
We have a very good habit of having two good phases and one not so good, and they never seem to be the same phase, and Calmsden was no different! I am trying not to be disheartened by my nerves, and I can only hope that as the season goes on it becomes easier again. But I can't be disappointed with Kings performance, as it is a big improvement on last year.
We head to Swalcliffe in a couple of weeks and Moreton Morrel the week after... all in preparation for our first THREE DAY EVENT! That's right we have entered the Horse & Hound 3 day event at Keysoe at the end of May, and I absolutely cannot wait. I have considered retiring after appearing on the Horse & Hound website...
Meet Horse & Hound Grassroots Eventing Championship contender Cassey Watson
SO I am feeling incredibly grateful to everyone who supports me, whether it be hands on support with the mucking out, the lovely lorry lady that makes the transport so accessible to all the words of encouragement we receive via social media. I am not sure it would be as easy without that support, so thank you!
In light of this change in plans we entered Calmsden Horse Trials as our first run of 2017!
I had sociable mid morning times so we arrived with enough time to walk both the jumping phases before we set off to the dressage. And I am very glad I hadn't done this the evening before as this now gave me mere hours to stress about the twisty, turny, bright and big Show Jumping, and the castle at 4 XC and a variety of other things. How I envy those that don't suffer with jumping related nerves...
So trying to ignore the forthcoming jumping we tacked up and headed to the dressage, a thing of nightmares previously (I'm talking 49 dressage scores, and just about scraping a sub 40 dressage toward the end of 2016) but it's something we have worked really hard on over the winter and he is becoming more rideable and just generally more relaxed... we still have a way to go but the fact that we no longer trot round the dressage arena with his ears up my nose looking like a fire breathing dragon (I am not exaggerating!) is a win in my eyes... I was over the moon with a 35 dressage.
Now we don't hang about in this camp as there is every possibility I might talk myself in to going home after dressage... so we very quickly shortened the stirrups and ventured to the Show Jumping.
I never give King much warm up as he does tend to get quite hot if I'm not careful, but unfortunately on this occasion we were joined in the warm up by a very erratic combination that King was very offended by, meaning my well practiced short but sweet warm up became short and wild. I quit whilst I was ahead (i.e I hadn't yet hit the deck) and stood in the corner awaiting our turn hoping by some miracle King might come back down to earth.
So, I guess it could have been worse however he did revert to his old ways, ignored pretty much everything I was saying and towed me round to have a couple down. But WE DID IT, and actually the fact that I was so worried about what COULD happen and actually nothing did happen is a big confidence boost as it is probably one of the spookiest and biggest 80 SJ we have jumped round.
And then a very quick change, and an excellent job done by my friend who knows very well that I don't want to be walking round the XC warm up envisaging the impending doom meant we jumped one warm up fence and trotted into the start box with 30 seconds to go!
5, 4, 3, 2, 1... and we were off! He flew over the first three sweetly and then we cantered across to the castle of doom. We drifted left, then right, started to grind to a halt and thankfully some part of my brain (certainly not the conscious bit) remembered to ride and we in absolutely no style made it to the other side.
A bad shot to 5 made me sit up and actually ride, taking time to set up for the fences so that we had a positive and confident round to start the season... and that's exactly what we had! He made light work of all the questions, listened and waited and we flew round to a clear round of XC.
You can watch a few snippets from all three phases here...
[video=youtube_share;wkVvrrZ_J-E]https://youtu.be/wkVvrrZ_J-E[/video]
We have a very good habit of having two good phases and one not so good, and they never seem to be the same phase, and Calmsden was no different! I am trying not to be disheartened by my nerves, and I can only hope that as the season goes on it becomes easier again. But I can't be disappointed with Kings performance, as it is a big improvement on last year.
We head to Swalcliffe in a couple of weeks and Moreton Morrel the week after... all in preparation for our first THREE DAY EVENT! That's right we have entered the Horse & Hound 3 day event at Keysoe at the end of May, and I absolutely cannot wait. I have considered retiring after appearing on the Horse & Hound website...
Meet Horse & Hound Grassroots Eventing Championship contender Cassey Watson
