HufflyPuffly
Well-Known Member
Our last report was of Topaz's second dressage outing and our first attempt at Novice which she did well to score 68% and came fourth 
.
As she's been so well behaved I thought she deserved to get back out doing what she loves, bouncing...erm I mean of course jumping!
.
It was the same venue as the dressage and I'd been debating what classes to do as I really want to start moving up in height but I'm so conscious of knocking her fragile confidence. So booked in for the 80 and 90 and thought I could decided about the 1m after I've seen how she's feeling.
Bounced round the warm-up doing flying changes and basically being a little silly, which wasn't helped by the warm up being packed and not the biggest! As it was roasting and really humid decided not to do too much, and the 80 wasn't too big so knew she'd be ok. Went into the ring and she felt good, but spooky at the surroundings
. We didn't do the most stylish round, as we went from spooking at the spectators to wizzing at fences 
, (this is my dilemma as she doesn't respect small fences but god I so so don't want to over face her 
), but we managed to leave them all up for a clear 
.
Into the jump off and we had the first down, they had added a filler under the first which wasn't there before and Topaz decided to stop jumping halfway through to gawp at it:
Set off nicely:
Uhoh spotted the filler:
Ahhhh it's going to eat me:
We then legged it, (seemed a good round to get her forward off my leg as we'd already had a fence) she had another down but finished really strongly.
Onto the 90cm, she seemed bouncy still in the warm up despite the heat, and I was a little worried about the killer first fence with the new super spooky filler, but I shouldn't have worried apart from spooking at the crowds still she jumped a much smoother round for a convincing clear!
fence 1
fence 5
fence 7
So we got through to the jump off again, different course to the 80 with a very sharp turn from 2 to 9. She set off well jumped 1 + 2, but drifted right away from the spectators which meant our right handed turn to 9 which was already tricky was almost impossible! We got over it but had it down, so my fault for letting her drift and not setting her up enough. Flew 10, then came a little misunderstanding on the way round to 6.... See the course had been left up from the affliated SJ the day before so there were fences out still at their height and obviously not in our course, I wanted Topaz to go the inside of said fence to shorten the route to 6, Topaz however locked on and tried to tow me over it, I pulled her up she knocked it down then delicately tiptoed through the wreckage , they didn't buzz me to eliminate me so I carried on and jumped 6 and 3 no problem.
fence 10
fence 3
I thought that I would be eliminated for Topaz trying to 'add' to the jump off course, so was thrilled when they said we'd come fourth!!!!!!
Didn't go for the 1m as the light was fading ( don't worry though it wasn't as dark as the picture look!) and she'd done so well ( I don't actually think they ran it), so our step up will have to wait, but the way she towed me to that humongous fence I do think she will relish the challenge when we do!
As a side note if anyone remembers my post a while ago about my position, do you think I'm improving? I think I'm folding better but still don't seem to be able to control my toes?
Chocolate butter biscuits for anyone who got this far.
x x x
.As she's been so well behaved I thought she deserved to get back out doing what she loves, bouncing...erm I mean of course jumping!
.It was the same venue as the dressage and I'd been debating what classes to do as I really want to start moving up in height but I'm so conscious of knocking her fragile confidence. So booked in for the 80 and 90 and thought I could decided about the 1m after I've seen how she's feeling.
Bounced round the warm-up doing flying changes and basically being a little silly, which wasn't helped by the warm up being packed and not the biggest! As it was roasting and really humid decided not to do too much, and the 80 wasn't too big so knew she'd be ok. Went into the ring and she felt good, but spooky at the surroundings
. We didn't do the most stylish round, as we went from spooking at the spectators to wizzing at fences , (this is my dilemma as she doesn't respect small fences but god I so so don't want to over face her ), but we managed to leave them all up for a clear .
Into the jump off and we had the first down, they had added a filler under the first which wasn't there before and Topaz decided to stop jumping halfway through to gawp at it
:Set off nicely:
Uhoh spotted the filler:
Ahhhh it's going to eat me
:
We then legged it, (seemed a good round to get her forward off my leg as we'd already had a fence) she had another down but finished really strongly
.
Onto the 90cm, she seemed bouncy still in the warm up despite the heat, and I was a little worried about the killer first fence with the new super spooky filler, but I shouldn't have worried apart from spooking at the crowds still she jumped a much smoother round for a convincing clear!
fence 1
fence 5
fence 7
So we got through to the jump off again, different course to the 80 with a very sharp turn from 2 to 9. She set off well jumped 1 + 2, but drifted right away from the spectators which meant our right handed turn to 9 which was already tricky was almost impossible! We got over it but had it down, so my fault for letting her drift and not setting her up enough. Flew 10, then came a little misunderstanding on the way round to 6.... See the course had been left up from the affliated SJ the day before so there were fences out still at their height and obviously not in our course, I wanted Topaz to go the inside of said fence to shorten the route to 6, Topaz however locked on and tried to tow me over it
, I pulled her up she knocked it down then delicately tiptoed through the wreckage , they didn't buzz me to eliminate me so I carried on and jumped 6 and 3 no problem.fence 10
fence 3
I thought that I would be eliminated for Topaz trying to 'add' to the jump off course, so was thrilled when they said we'd come fourth!!!!!!
Didn't go for the 1m as the light was fading ( don't worry though it wasn't as dark as the picture look!) and she'd done so well ( I don't actually think they ran it), so our step up will have to wait, but the way she towed me to that humongous fence I do think she will relish the challenge when we do!
As a side note if anyone remembers my post a while ago about my position, do you think I'm improving? I think I'm folding better but still don't seem to be able to control my toes?
Chocolate butter biscuits for anyone who got this far.
x x x
.