Too Much Or Give It A Go??

UnaB

UnaB

Well-Known Member
Joined
9 September 2008
Messages
2,478
Location
Gloucestershire
Visit site
Ok, need some expert opinions from you guys as its been 10 years since i've been in the position of starting a baby off! lol

My wonderful mare is just 100% perfect. She has taken everything in her stride and seems to love everything i ask her to do. We have just started learning to jump and she is fantastic at that, one time jumping undersaddle and she can already see a stride and tuck her legs up better than my old jumping pony!!

(Thread about our first time jumping if anyone is interested: http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=392826 )

Now, local mini XC course is apparently holding a HT in a couple of months that a friend is pestering me to take Una along to. I will take my other horse Charlie along cos he loves his jumping! The course is 5 mins hack from the horses fields so an easy, relaxing (hopefully) day out and i will certainly take her along for a look, even if i dont put her in a class.

So, my question is, would you enter her or not? Im itching to get her out doing some stuff and im sure she would enjoy it, but im very conscious of not pushing her further than I should. She has been very comfortable with everything i've done so far and i dont want to upset that trust. She doesnt do water (working on it!!) and the course has no water jump so thats ideal. The maximum height is 2'6 which is fine as she could step over those if she's unsure lol!!

She is only a baby, she was 4 at the beginning of this year. Do you think i should let her have a pop around the course (i guess i could always leave out the ones i think she might be unsure about, i wont be going to win anyway!!lol) or just take her for the day out and let her just have the show "experience" without actually competing? She has been to a couple of shows in hand and was perfect, but is yet to go to a show ridden. I dont forsee there being a problem as she is very, very calm about everything but you never know!
 
If she is happy doing what you are up to then I see no harm in having a gentle potter around. You could ask the ht organisers to allow you to go last, then you can have a little trot around and take it easy without people backing up around you. Just take it gently and let her have an enjoyable day out. Just don't worry if some of the fences hide monsters!
 
See, thats exactly what I was thinking. I would stress if i was holding people up (Una has one speed - SLOW! lol But she does keep going on a nice SLOW rhythm!) so would explain to the organisers and hopefully go last, which would work well with getting my other horse a go round the course too!

If some of the fences are too scary we will trot on past them and not worry ourselves as if i do take her around it will purely be for the experience and for fun so thats not an issue :)

Would the organisers be happy with that though? Do they let you just potter round missing fences out?lol
 
If she's been good up til now then I'd def take her along. Is she good about leaving other horses on her own?

I'd be tempted to enter (as I'd hate to get there and wish I had entered esp as it can be very hard to find the right things to do with babys) but be prepared to withdraw on the day if she does find it too much.

Asking to go last is a good idea - most show organisers are usually happy to be obliging about things like this - that way you can have a gentle 'hack' round the course and jump what you feel like without worrying about people overtaking you and upsetting her.
 
Oh, yes she is very well mannered around other horses, i've not had any issues with her so far, though of course with the show atmosphere she might get a bit silly and excitable, but like you say i'd have to prepare to withdraw if necessary. I dont expect her to be badly behaved though, she is incredibly chilled out.

I guess the organisers dont really care too much what you do on the course as long as you dont interfere with other riders, they are getting the entry fee either way :D
 
If it's only a 5minute hack away maybe you could go for a practice before hand. Do they rent it out for schooling? That way you could have try at all the fences at your own pace, get rid of the monsters lurking behind them and then put it all together on the day. Good luck.
 
They do rent it out, but i really want to see how she does with the whole show atmosphere, i know she can (and most likely will) jump the fences, but i want to see if she will concentrate enough to do it with all that going on around her. I just thought it would be a good education for her :D She is not at all spooky, so it will be more green-ness if she does stop at any and that wouldnt be a problem as she will step over them as they're only small. I have a few XC fences in the woods behind my fields we can practice over, but the course im thinkiing of taking her to really is very simple you know, barrels, tyres, logs, ditches - nothing scary! The sort of thing we pop over on hacks lol!
 
if you can i think it would be ideal to rent it first - fly her round then when she goes for real - she might feel more comfortable??

thats what im hoping to do with my baby (4), take her to an indoor first (hired) then enter a show there (we will be there monthly after that)

just a thought, but if not - just go for it - you can always pull out if its too much for her :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top