Things you're most proud of in your career with horses...?

kerilli

kerilli

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Something got me thinking about this, and I'd like to hear everyone else's please.
Mine, fwiw: doing 6 BE 3 day events (5 of them Long Format), 2 at 1*, 3 at 2* (with 3 diff horses all self-made), 1 at 3*, and only having 1 run out (100% rider error, i pulled him away from a v big corner when i realised i'd totally missed my line).
Getting my first homebred to Elem/med BD, and 2* level, incl double clear at CIC**.
placings at Adv on self-made pretty tricky mare. (long time ago though!)
Please forgive the introspection, doing far too much sitting about.
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Yours?
 
Um, probably the fact that every horse I have had has been self-produced (apart from pony i learnt to ride on
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) and therefore means riding has been a steep learning curve
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My first "competition" pony was self produced and we won everything we entered (after a year were we were exterminated at everything!!). Even got to the pc champs in eventing and dressage! (5th!!) after winning our areas
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My horse, I am just proud of how he has turned out. He is my first horse and i may not have done the best job producing him but together we are 1* eventing!
Hoping for more proud memories - Ive only been riding 9 years!

I love bringing on young horses/ponies - thats were my talent is in riding
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Both of mine are going to be very very baby in comparison...

When I was 12 I managed to complete an ODE on possibly the stoppiest pony about. We'd managed an entire summer of doing an ok dressage then getting eliminated in the SJ and then on the XC as well, but I managed to do a clear SJ round and get round the XC course (with about 100 penalties, but who cares!?).

And every time I jump on my current horse, as 4 years ago I was too scared after a rather scary time with my previous pony. I was so scared of jumping and every time I do a course on him I feel really proud that I didn't wimp out (pathetic, I know!). Oh, and we got 57% in a prelim the other week, one of the best marks we've ever got (previous lows have been consistently at 40odd%!).
 
Competing Catembi to 1 m 15 BSJA...didn't think I had it in me...!! We manged to scrape 9 or 10 BD points too.

Just before he got sick, we competed at the Ashwell Show on grass in the NC. Exactly as we went into the jump-off (which was bl**dy HUGE...) several friends happened to converge at the main ring & saw us both jumping the best round we'd ever done. He got sick not long after & eventually I lost him, but I'll remember that round forever, & it's great that everyone saw us at our peak.
 
winning a ODE on my old mare, bought as a 3yo when I was 11. She was an absolute cow, and tried to stop at the last show jump which was downhill, a big oxer with barrels under it. I smacked her just at the right minute and was rewarded with a huge jump, and a medal for winning!

My ex racer - after 2 years of schooling FINALLY getting canter on the right rein (11 years of steeplechasing!) I cantered round crying with joy
 
So mine is tiny compared to all of yours, but seeing as lack of transport means no real competing-and even if I was competing this'd still be a pretty big achievement for me...

Getting horse from this...
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to this...
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Sorry if you've seen them a million times before-but you asked! :P
 
You are asking us to boast here.....
Never losing a bending race on my 12:2hh welsh/arab pony.
Getting around badminton course on the trail day on my mates horse, long, long, long time ago!
Doing flying changes for the first time.
My pupils doing well in all spheres on all sorts of ponies and horses we 'found' buried in the wilds of the UK.
Pammy Hutton telling me if I ever wanted a job to call her.
Ok, I'm not going on. I have many great memories, and many more great embarrassments.
Do you want a list of them as well, they are funnier?
 
mine arent very impressive compared to other people
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but i am proud of them none-the-less!

*competing at my first ever bsja and getting a double clear
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*jumping my first 1m10 bsja course ever
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and that was on my schoolmaster Monty.

*dani jumping his first BN after his ligament injury
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*bugsy jumping his first affiliated course clear since his refusal problems last summer/autumn

*completing my first xc run last august
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i actually got a bit emotional when i finished, i was so proud of myself!
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and my mum got a bit teary eyed too!!
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haha

xxx
 
Riding wise:

Taking Millie from the Meat man (literally) to clear XC inside the time at CCI* and completing the event in the top half of the field. Everybody told me Millie wouldn't be able to do it (she isn't even 15hh!) and she would fail the trot up due to her twisted pelvis (old injury from her days in race training). She sailed through all the trot ups, and was the fastest of the day through the vet check after XC. The vets all commented on how fit she was!

Teaching wise:

Most recently when one of the girls I teach jumped double clear at the Riding Club area SJ, every one else in the team (all had been trained by a well known SJ trainer except the girl I teach) were eliminated!
 
Not that big in the grand scheme of things.
Winning an aff sj class, again no big deal but she was a 14.3 LW cob who started life in riding school. She was my first horse and I bought her on myself with no real help.
my firends who had borrowed her for their lessons got told by different dressage instructors she would go med without a prob even though i didnt 'do' dressage.
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Having nearly everyone who met her say how fab they thought she was and how they wanted her.
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I was just proud of her and pretty much everything we did.
Bucket anyone?!
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Representing Jersey in SJ, dressage and PC over the years as a junior and senior. Wore my Jersey flag with serious pride
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Coming joint 3rd in the old style talent spotters, I was amazed enough to reach the final, borrowing strange horses for each round so was very chuffed to be told I could actually ride by the likes of Ian Woodhead.
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Shame my riding has gone a little downhill in the 9 years since
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Still being more or less in one, original piece.
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Given many of the horses I've ridden over the years, I'm quite pleased.

(Except, of course, having said that, I'm going to get turned into a lawn dart tomorrow . . .)

In all seriousness, I'd say I'm most proud of the horses - and their owners - I've helped. And most bothered by the ones I feel I couldn't help enough but I hope I've been able to take the lessons from those ones on to others and made up for it to some extent.
 
Getting round Badminton and Burghley on homebred/home produced horse which was bred back to the last working Clydesdale on our family farm. He even rounded sheep and cattle as a baby bless him!!!
 
Not competition related but my proudest moments were my 2 foals being born last year, after what seemed an eternity to me both mares foaled safely & produced 2 gorgeous foals, a whole new experience for me.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Getting round Badminton and Burghley on homebred/home produced horse which was bred back to the last working Clydesdale on our family farm. He even rounded sheep and cattle as a baby bless him!!!

[/ QUOTE ]

That is a seriously good pride moment!

Mine would be jumping my Spanish boy on the Sunshine Tour and lining up for prizes and looking down the line and seeing some of my idols below me
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I can just about remember doing 3 long format events - Bramham, Chatsworth and Wylye on horses which I had broken in and taken through the grades myself. The other little thing I am quite proud of is that all four of my home produced horses won a Foxhunter competition with a double clear and all won a novice and an intermediate event on their dressage score.

Also a little bit proud of selling (or nearly) one of mine to a rather famous royal rider - OK he failed the vet, but that is beside the point!! She said some very nice things about him

Gosh, its ages since I told anyone about any of that!! !
 
Well, When I was younger, I think it was getting picked to ride at Barbury at lunchtime to do mounted games, for my PC, and our team coming second. I even met Pippa Funnell, which is really cool when you are 9, and you're riding at the same event as her!

And more recently, getting round Hambleden PN on a pony put together like a cow
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And SJing at Xmas for the pC team, and jumping clear, meaning the team won, and I got individual placing
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And bumping into Tam's old rider last week, and him asking if I'd done any BE yet. I told him I'd come 7th in an intro, 5th in a pre novice, qualified for JAS finals in both heights, was doing Novice/Elem type dressage, and jumping 1m10 BS. He was a little shocked!! :L
 
-jumping my 14.2 welsh sec D clear round the BHS Open hunter trial qualifier (it was 1m and was too big for him but he managed it for me)
-getting placed in an intro on the same horse (at the age of 25) - intro's weren't around when he was younger
-producing 2 3yo's to be well mannered, competent eventers.

Fairly small in the grand scheme of things, but there it is
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Good post K by the way
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Fiona
 
with Dubh coming 3rd out of 100 at Champions of Scotland up against pro's & competing at NC.

DA coming 11th at BE90 last year, the 1st time we went xc training it took me 45 minutes to get him over a 6" log!
 
It's funny, the things that spring to mind are not with the horses I'd assume would make my hit list!!

I was very proud of coming 5th at Rolleston advanced on Deco - santa was there she can confirm it was a bit of an epic from Exeter, including a blow out on the motorway and arriving back late at night with the first of my finals the next day. Turned out it was Deco's last event, and it was the first time I worked out the only way to stay in control was to completely let the handbrake off!

Liberty made me proud and surprised me every time he went up a level. He could be such a big girl's blouse, but luckily was more scared of me than the fences. I sold him before that balance tipped the wrong way....

I am proud of my homebreds, William and Missy, even though Missy hasn't done anything yet!
 
Rosie doesn't come on here much so I'm going to say what I'm most proud of her having done (sorry Rosie, she'd cringe if she read this).
Riding someone else's pony at the HOYS Fox Champs and coming 5th;
Winning her section at the PC Open Eventing Champs and getting to the Novice Champs at Gatcombe on the horse she had as an unbroken 3yr old;
Every single competition she's entered since her accident last March.
 
I have two that spring to mind, both with my first eventer and the horse that taught me the most, William Hill:

- being 20th at Bramham and winning the ProAm, paired with Andrew Hoy who won on Swizzle In. Even better, I got a letter from the Chairman of the selectors saying how well I'd gone and that they'd be keeping their eye on me. Eek.
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- winning the £1000 Advanced Class at Belton (my local
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) with the 2nd fastest time of the day (on my 3/4 bred not-very-fast horse, Caroline Ryan-Bell was fastest on Hooray Henry) and beating Leslie Law (Shear H20) into 2nd place, as well as Ian Stark, Pippa Funnell, Andrew Hoy, William F-P et al.
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*Baydale slinks off, embarrassed by the fact that she peaked many many moons ago and is, in fact, a has-been.*
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