Lolo
Well-Known Member
It's been a while since you had a Team Reggie update, but things have been all go (as ever!). Al and I have been stable managing at PC camp, where we had a record of 47 11-18yo attending. Not going to lie, come Friday morning we were ready to throttle a good half of them 
First up, the invalid. Or not. Smokey is now very slowly coming back into work- he had a holiday after his leg infection while Al was busy with PC camps, teaching at rallies and riding too many other horses. He's in fine form, but very fat (yep... He now has an obesity problem- he is a barrel on legs!) so the return to work is very slow. Not helped by his constant quest for more food. Hopefully he'll be fully fit for autumn/ early season hunting though
The day before camp started, Reg was out at PC area dressage as part of the intermediate team. Last year, the test was reasonably difficult. This year it was updated, and was utterly foul (aka Novice-ish level). Al was a bit apprehensive- counter canter, medium trot, 5m canter loops, 10m circles and stretchy trot do not feature strongly in Reg's list of Dressage Movements I Can Do.
Lots of practice (and a few "what are your legs doing?" moments) the big day came round and, to cut a long story short, Reg was amazing.
Canter loops...
Walking (without chinning himself- proud moment)
Stretchy trot...
10m loops...
Thy came out of the arena to most of Team Reggie in tears- even their instructor (who'd kindly warmed them up) was a bit emotional.
Mummy hugs...
Their score of 64% to leave them mid-field was a bit disappointing initially, but Al watched the video back and after the second canter he went unlevel behind. Then they got their dressage sheet and up til then they'd gotten 7s with a few 8s- the final 4 movements where he was unlevel rightly received 4s, dragging the mark right down. The vet thinks he's just run out of bionic hocks, and so will be done again soon. Obviously this isn't a long term solution, but we think 2014 will be fine and then things will be reconsidered. Reg owes us nothing and what he says goes- currently, with bionic hocks he's amazing and very keen. If that changes Al will listen.
And finally, very exciting news. Everyone, meet Tango. (please don't ask why a decidedly dark brown horse is called tango- he's registered as Tango IX too...)
He's Al's first ever paying guest
He is 5, and is a homebred of the owner'ss by Sir Game out of a Irish Draught mare who her husband hunted. He's 16hh, but has taken a while to grow into himself (and he still is, really) and was lightly backed last year and then turned away and brought back this year. The lady who backed him also backed Bee, and when his owner asked who he could go to Al was recommended
Today was his first ever show, and true to form he was a total pro. His owner came to watch and was very pleased with how he looked which made Al happy! He did a walk/trot dressage test and a 65cm SJ class, as Al wanted it to be easy for him (especially as the SJ was his first course).
He was a bit tired by the time he did his test, what with all the thinking he'd had to do about the lorries and other horses, and got a bit deep at times. But overall he tried very hard. Al managed to completely miss a move, and when the judge beeped she just smiled and kept going. She'll never hear the end of it Despite his numpty jockey, he posted an impressive 70% to win his class by a clear margin- Al keeps trying to say this means she can't be that numpty, but Team Reggie disagrees...
And the video:
[video=youtube;hPH9DydZlmA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPH9DydZlmA&list=UU8Bu1at0ZeLX4u4QZELauKw[/video]
And he then trotted straight over to do his 65cm class, where he was ridiculously brave and clever about all the scary fillers to do a clear round. This turned out to the be only clear round, meaning he bagged himself another red rosette...
He was very cute The goal is to keep it quite small for a while so he never has to turn back to a fence (he's never stopped, at worst he goes slow-mo so he can look better before going for it!) and then see what happens. There's a 70cm ODE class there next week, so if Al can take him XC before then he may do that.
Here's his SJ video:
[video=youtube;GQ3yoHtBjtQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQ3yoHtBjtQ[/video]
So yes, a mammoth Team Reggie update- well done to those who've trogged through to the bottom of it!
First up, the invalid. Or not. Smokey is now very slowly coming back into work- he had a holiday after his leg infection while Al was busy with PC camps, teaching at rallies and riding too many other horses. He's in fine form, but very fat (yep... He now has an obesity problem- he is a barrel on legs!) so the return to work is very slow. Not helped by his constant quest for more food. Hopefully he'll be fully fit for autumn/ early season hunting though
The day before camp started, Reg was out at PC area dressage as part of the intermediate team. Last year, the test was reasonably difficult. This year it was updated, and was utterly foul (aka Novice-ish level). Al was a bit apprehensive- counter canter, medium trot, 5m canter loops, 10m circles and stretchy trot do not feature strongly in Reg's list of Dressage Movements I Can Do.
Lots of practice (and a few "what are your legs doing?" moments) the big day came round and, to cut a long story short, Reg was amazing.
Canter loops...
Walking (without chinning himself- proud moment)
Stretchy trot...
10m loops...
Thy came out of the arena to most of Team Reggie in tears- even their instructor (who'd kindly warmed them up) was a bit emotional.
Mummy hugs...
Their score of 64% to leave them mid-field was a bit disappointing initially, but Al watched the video back and after the second canter he went unlevel behind. Then they got their dressage sheet and up til then they'd gotten 7s with a few 8s- the final 4 movements where he was unlevel rightly received 4s, dragging the mark right down. The vet thinks he's just run out of bionic hocks, and so will be done again soon. Obviously this isn't a long term solution, but we think 2014 will be fine and then things will be reconsidered. Reg owes us nothing and what he says goes- currently, with bionic hocks he's amazing and very keen. If that changes Al will listen.
And finally, very exciting news. Everyone, meet Tango. (please don't ask why a decidedly dark brown horse is called tango- he's registered as Tango IX too...)
He's Al's first ever paying guest
He is 5, and is a homebred of the owner'ss by Sir Game out of a Irish Draught mare who her husband hunted. He's 16hh, but has taken a while to grow into himself (and he still is, really) and was lightly backed last year and then turned away and brought back this year. The lady who backed him also backed Bee, and when his owner asked who he could go to Al was recommended
Today was his first ever show, and true to form he was a total pro. His owner came to watch and was very pleased with how he looked which made Al happy! He did a walk/trot dressage test and a 65cm SJ class, as Al wanted it to be easy for him (especially as the SJ was his first course).
He was a bit tired by the time he did his test, what with all the thinking he'd had to do about the lorries and other horses, and got a bit deep at times. But overall he tried very hard. Al managed to completely miss a move, and when the judge beeped she just smiled and kept going. She'll never hear the end of it
Despite his numpty jockey, he posted an impressive 70% to win his class by a clear margin- Al keeps trying to say this means she can't be that numpty, but Team Reggie disagrees...
And the video:
[video=youtube;hPH9DydZlmA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPH9DydZlmA&list=UU8Bu1at0ZeLX4u4QZELauKw[/video]
And he then trotted straight over to do his 65cm class, where he was ridiculously brave and clever about all the scary fillers to do a clear round. This turned out to the be only clear round, meaning he bagged himself another red rosette...
He was very cute
The goal is to keep it quite small for a while so he never has to turn back to a fence (he's never stopped, at worst he goes slow-mo so he can look better before going for it!) and then see what happens. There's a 70cm ODE class there next week, so if Al can take him XC before then he may do that.Here's his SJ video:
[video=youtube;GQ3yoHtBjtQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQ3yoHtBjtQ[/video]
So yes, a mammoth Team Reggie update- well done to those who've trogged through to the bottom of it!
