HufflyPuffly
Well-Known Member
First up for the weekend was beach riding with Topaz and Doodle. Topaz was much calmer than my dotty old lady :lol: but did manage to dump my mum in the sand :eek3:. All ok if a little sore...
Onto Sun and normally a run the day before is a good plan as it tires her out, but it had perhaps worked too well, Topaz said it was too sunny and she was too tired
.
First up M75 and it all felt wibbly wibbly, but RELAXED
. We got very good marks for walk lol. So we had softeness but not enough engagement, one day we will get both together! Our shoulder-ins were good, travers seemed like too much effort and the same with canter halfpass . So a rather generous but welcome regional q'ing score of just over 64% 
, first in my section and second overall gaining some prize money even!
I then had had a think about the new AF structure this year and realised I was running out of time a little to decide what we should aim at. Plus in the quite near future mum might be moving Topaz with her on her new adventure in the wilds of Cheshire. Which might mean the end of my competing with her as it wouldn't be fair to only school once a week and still expect her to go out at this level.
So... Adv Med 85 :eek3:, a fairly simple medium test with two flying changes at the end. She was tired still so we just lacked the engagement to really get stuck in but the first part of the test went super with 7-8's for the trot and walk work. I 'may' have got a -2 for forgetting my blooming turn across at H :mad3: sack the jockey. Canter work was ok, we got 7's for our simple changes. Then the changes, the first I said change, Topaz was like nah you are def tricking me I'm never allowed to do this , but got there eventually. The second on the aids but described as 'a little bouncy' :lol:, to finish with a decent canter halt on the final CL. 62% and an AF sheet :clap: 1st (of one shh Topaz thinks she's amazing lol) and fourth overall.
I'm very proud and next time will try not to tire her out quite so much the day before!
I'm not sure what to do about the lack of energy/ stamina... She is finally at a good weight after two years no hard feed and work, but she is definitely lacking a bit of the right sort of oomph, she's as sharp as a tac for the first 10/20 mins and then tired.com. Should we wait for the spring grass or give in and give her some feed? She could have a bit of chop/ grass nuts and a dash of linseed???
Forgot to add thank you for reading
Onto Sun and normally a run the day before is a good plan as it tires her out, but it had perhaps worked too well, Topaz said it was too sunny and she was too tired
.First up M75 and it all felt wibbly wibbly, but RELAXED
. We got very good marks for walk lol. So we had softeness but not enough engagement, one day we will get both together! Our shoulder-ins were good, travers seemed like too much effort and the same with canter halfpass . So a rather generous but welcome regional q'ing score of just over 64% , first in my section and second overall gaining some prize money even!I then had had a think about the new AF structure this year and realised I was running out of time a little to decide what we should aim at. Plus in the quite near future mum might be moving Topaz with her on her new adventure in the wilds of Cheshire. Which might mean the end of my competing with her as it wouldn't be fair to only school once a week and still expect her to go out at this level.
So... Adv Med 85 :eek3:, a fairly simple medium test with two flying changes at the end. She was tired still so we just lacked the engagement to really get stuck in but the first part of the test went super with 7-8's for the trot and walk work. I 'may' have got a -2 for forgetting my blooming turn across at H :mad3: sack the jockey
. Canter work was ok, we got 7's for our simple changes. Then the changes, the first I said change, Topaz was like nah you are def tricking me I'm never allowed to do this , but got there eventually. The second on the aids but described as 'a little bouncy' :lol:, to finish with a decent canter halt on the final CL. 62% and an AF sheet :clap: 1st (of one shh Topaz thinks she's amazing lol) and fourth overall.
I'm very proud and next time will try not to tire her out quite so much the day before!
I'm not sure what to do about the lack of energy/ stamina... She is finally at a good weight after two years no hard feed and work, but she is definitely lacking a bit of the right sort of oomph, she's as sharp as a tac for the first 10/20 mins and then tired.com
. Should we wait for the spring grass or give in and give her some feed? She could have a bit of chop/ grass nuts and a dash of linseed???Forgot to add thank you for reading
but does that mean my Medium bronze AF sheets are useless and we should go out at silver to have the option of AM Bronze? Damn BD and the complicated rules, lol
.
