SOS
Well-Known Member
Finally a report to write! Some of you may have read our last report which was when a ODE went disappointing and horse stopped unexpectedly. Since then a full MOT has been done including dentist, saddle refit, lameness work up, physio etc. He now feels much better especially as his saddle was pinching and making his withers quite sore. Thanks to the very wet weather we were a little behind on grass practice for this weekend but had dropped down a level for a real confidence boost. A very successful arena XC hire trip had us jumping 100 fences on tight lines so felt much more confident.
So we headed off to HH BE80 on Sunday with surprising organisation. It was over 2 hours to drive but with no wrong turns it was fairly simple. Everything was going so well at this point that we did question whether the horse was even on board as hadnt heard a peep from him whilst travelling. Normality resumed when I drove merrily past the entrance. Quick U turn around the village and we were here!
From the lovely man at the entrance to the secretarys and volunteers, everyone was so lovely. A great atmosphere was created too with a few food and trade stalls and beautifully dressed courses.
Checked horse was indeed still on board and offered a drink, as at this point it was midday and the sun was very much shining, and headed off for our course walk with the BE80 coach. Was confidence boosting and informative, telling us the simple lines to take which helped me visualise us actually getting round the course a bit better. Nothing looked too scary at all especially after our recent arena XC. My main concern was if horse got too strong atleast half of the course was downhill and we may end up flying down it.
Back for some lunch in the sun and a relaxed tack up for dressage. Very hot at this point and once stock + tweed + bib + hat combo was on me I felt like I was being cooked alive. Dressage warm up was on a slight hill and the wind had picked up. Either this or my underlying nerves really got to us and unfortunately we had a very tense warm up, managed to get settled. Trotted towards the arena for my test and horse got quite upset about a flapping marque. He is not normally spooky but as he was already wound up it got to him. The test was disappointing, he has been getting better and better at regular local dressage yet was quite hard to ride for this. It was a very simple test and parts had schooled beautifully at home. However our left canter was lovely, right involved a disagreement about whether we were galloping away from the marque or not:
I later found out I scored a 37.3, mid section score.
As we ambled back to the lorry park post dressage unfortunately there was an incident. A girl was having trouble getting her horse to go over the showjumping fences and crashed through one next to the horse walk, there was then quite a bit of shouting and smacking. My horse is very sensitive to shouting (something we have picked up on at the yard) and had a meltdown leaping sideways several times and then reversing. I decided to jump off as there were several families picnicking on the horse walk. He walked back shaking to the lorry so we decided to untack him and let him chill out with a haynet as we had an hour in hand before showjumping.
At this point I was feeling down but with some encouragement I got him ready for showjumping. He seemed to have settled again. In the warm up he flew everything with plenty to spare, feeling confident. Headed in to the course. Very small and very simple although with a lot of white. He gave me a lovely clear round even if I got jumped out of the tack a little as he decided to jump the course at 100 height instead of 80!
Really pleased and couldnt wait for XC so headed back and complete outfit change for me (yay no more mobile tweed sauna) and booted him up. XC warm up was quiet and he was very relaxed just popping everything, I hoped this wasnt luring me into a false sense of security.
3..2...1 and we were off, first jumped a little awkwardly so kicked on to the second and third and before I knew it we were flying over a log mid course. I was happily galloping when I saw some fence judges, hmm thats strange they are sitting no where near a jump. Of course they were, and it was my jump. So a large circle back to pop a simple rails. Kept going, and I realised we were cantering downhill, and he wasnt strong still, I wasnt exhausted and he was listening. Kept my leg on to pop the ditch towards home, another table and then to a log before the water and one after, got a long stride to the second log but he flew. One more to go so sat up and rode it properly and over he flew! We had done it! Double clear at my first ever BE and our first successful ODE.
We racked up a fair few time faults, especially with the sat nav error but couldnt be prouder of him. Feel much more positive and ready to kick on for my next!
Pictures below.
So we headed off to HH BE80 on Sunday with surprising organisation. It was over 2 hours to drive but with no wrong turns it was fairly simple. Everything was going so well at this point that we did question whether the horse was even on board as hadnt heard a peep from him whilst travelling. Normality resumed when I drove merrily past the entrance. Quick U turn around the village and we were here!
From the lovely man at the entrance to the secretarys and volunteers, everyone was so lovely. A great atmosphere was created too with a few food and trade stalls and beautifully dressed courses.
Checked horse was indeed still on board and offered a drink, as at this point it was midday and the sun was very much shining, and headed off for our course walk with the BE80 coach. Was confidence boosting and informative, telling us the simple lines to take which helped me visualise us actually getting round the course a bit better. Nothing looked too scary at all especially after our recent arena XC. My main concern was if horse got too strong atleast half of the course was downhill and we may end up flying down it.
Back for some lunch in the sun and a relaxed tack up for dressage. Very hot at this point and once stock + tweed + bib + hat combo was on me I felt like I was being cooked alive. Dressage warm up was on a slight hill and the wind had picked up. Either this or my underlying nerves really got to us and unfortunately we had a very tense warm up, managed to get settled. Trotted towards the arena for my test and horse got quite upset about a flapping marque. He is not normally spooky but as he was already wound up it got to him. The test was disappointing, he has been getting better and better at regular local dressage yet was quite hard to ride for this. It was a very simple test and parts had schooled beautifully at home. However our left canter was lovely, right involved a disagreement about whether we were galloping away from the marque or not:
I later found out I scored a 37.3, mid section score.As we ambled back to the lorry park post dressage unfortunately there was an incident. A girl was having trouble getting her horse to go over the showjumping fences and crashed through one next to the horse walk, there was then quite a bit of shouting and smacking. My horse is very sensitive to shouting (something we have picked up on at the yard) and had a meltdown leaping sideways several times and then reversing. I decided to jump off as there were several families picnicking on the horse walk. He walked back shaking to the lorry so we decided to untack him and let him chill out with a haynet as we had an hour in hand before showjumping.
At this point I was feeling down but with some encouragement I got him ready for showjumping. He seemed to have settled again. In the warm up he flew everything with plenty to spare, feeling confident. Headed in to the course. Very small and very simple although with a lot of white. He gave me a lovely clear round even if I got jumped out of the tack a little as he decided to jump the course at 100 height instead of 80!
Really pleased and couldnt wait for XC so headed back and complete outfit change for me (yay no more mobile tweed sauna) and booted him up. XC warm up was quiet and he was very relaxed just popping everything, I hoped this wasnt luring me into a false sense of security.
3..2...1 and we were off, first jumped a little awkwardly so kicked on to the second and third and before I knew it we were flying over a log mid course. I was happily galloping when I saw some fence judges, hmm thats strange they are sitting no where near a jump. Of course they were, and it was my jump. So a large circle back to pop a simple rails. Kept going, and I realised we were cantering downhill, and he wasnt strong still, I wasnt exhausted and he was listening. Kept my leg on to pop the ditch towards home, another table and then to a log before the water and one after, got a long stride to the second log but he flew. One more to go so sat up and rode it properly and over he flew! We had done it! Double clear at my first ever BE and our first successful ODE.
We racked up a fair few time faults, especially with the sat nav error but couldnt be prouder of him. Feel much more positive and ready to kick on for my next!
Pictures below.
where are you off to next?
