spookypony
Well-Known Member
As per yesterday's thread, last night I was wondering if we should WD after a bizarre tumble that made me wonder if his feet were sore. Took him to lesson this morning, and got go-ahead from instructor, so decided to play it by ear...
Before hacking over to the RS, I decided to give him a quick trot over a cross-pole, to see what he thought. Fine! Went over to the venue, and discovered to my horror that the little wee class we were entered (nominally 60cm, but more like 50cm max tonight) in had been moved outside into the Large Sandpaddock of Doom (site of yesterday's splat)
! I walked the course, which had been constructed along very very simple figure-of-eight lines to encourage the little kiddies just starting out...only complication was a dogleg from 3 to 4. Presumably for the same purpose, the first half of the course was all off the left rein. It couldn't have been better constructed to play to the Spooky Pony's problem areas...
A Good Thing resulting from the class moving into the Sandpaddock of Doom was, however, that the warmup could be in the big indoor school, so we had lots more room than normal, and things were less crazy in there than usual. Much appreciated! I popped 3 little jumps in the warmup, concentrating on riding forward, and on not touching his mouth after the jump, and he was very sweet, so I left it at that.
On to the round! First, he tried not to go into the Sandpaddock of Doom. Short quiet argument, and in we went! He was a bit looky trotting round (very windy day, and lots of people watching). A bit hesitant trotting into 1, but then figured it out, and cantered nicely over 2. 3 was on a very long line, with the dogleg to 4 immediately after, and I was rightly concerned that he'd get too fast over 3 (and steering on the left rein isn't our strong point yet)...Our angle to 4 was just too weird, and I thought it unfair to ask him to jump it, so I made a very strange noodle shape to represent (shouting "see, we're not crossing our tracks!" and the judge shouting back "sorry, yes you are!"...all in good fun.
). 5, he ground to a halt. Walked backwards a few steps, kick on, and over he went! Then he really got into the swing of things, and raced over the little spread at 6, and I had to bring him right back to finish with a double. GOOD PONY! 
Many pats: I was very pleased with him! It was still a bit of a chaotic round, but he was listening, and able to recover from setbacks. A year ago, I was so down in the dumps about if I would ever be able to ride him around a course (what with the A&E visits and stuff...)...and here we go!
Someone made a video, but don't have a copy yet...
Thanks for reading, and ice creams for getting to the end!
Before hacking over to the RS, I decided to give him a quick trot over a cross-pole, to see what he thought. Fine! Went over to the venue, and discovered to my horror that the little wee class we were entered (nominally 60cm, but more like 50cm max tonight) in had been moved outside into the Large Sandpaddock of Doom (site of yesterday's splat)
! I walked the course, which had been constructed along very very simple figure-of-eight lines to encourage the little kiddies just starting out...only complication was a dogleg from 3 to 4. Presumably for the same purpose, the first half of the course was all off the left rein. It couldn't have been better constructed to play to the Spooky Pony's problem areas... A Good Thing resulting from the class moving into the Sandpaddock of Doom was, however, that the warmup could be in the big indoor school, so we had lots more room than normal, and things were less crazy in there than usual. Much appreciated! I popped 3 little jumps in the warmup, concentrating on riding forward, and on not touching his mouth after the jump, and he was very sweet, so I left it at that.
On to the round! First, he tried not to go into the Sandpaddock of Doom. Short quiet argument, and in we went! He was a bit looky trotting round (very windy day, and lots of people watching). A bit hesitant trotting into 1, but then figured it out, and cantered nicely over 2. 3 was on a very long line, with the dogleg to 4 immediately after, and I was rightly concerned that he'd get too fast over 3 (and steering on the left rein isn't our strong point yet)...Our angle to 4 was just too weird, and I thought it unfair to ask him to jump it, so I made a very strange noodle shape to represent (shouting "see, we're not crossing our tracks!" and the judge shouting back "sorry, yes you are!"...all in good fun.
). 5, he ground to a halt. Walked backwards a few steps, kick on, and over he went! Then he really got into the swing of things, and raced over the little spread at 6, and I had to bring him right back to finish with a double. GOOD PONY! Many pats: I was very pleased with him! It was still a bit of a chaotic round, but he was listening, and able to recover from setbacks. A year ago, I was so down in the dumps about if I would ever be able to ride him around a course (what with the A&E visits and stuff...)...and here we go!
Someone made a video, but don't have a copy yet...
Thanks for reading, and ice creams for getting to the end!
