HufflyPuffly
Well-Known Member
Yes you read that right, EVENTING 
, and with the little grey one too!
I have been out of the leaving the ground game for a fair while now, and although do the odd bits here and there, was mostly bumbling about not knowing what I was doing with Skylla and just letting Topaz do what Topaz likes!
So I thought it best to get some advice to teach Skylla what she should be doing (and me!) and see if there is any merit in the eventing dreams. My lovely new yard owner suggest an upcoming Tuffy Tilley clinic would be great for us, I've not trained with Tuffy before but have heard great things, albeit she is tough and not for the faint hearted. I was assured she is fair but yes will push us, which is perfect really, even if I was somewhat apprehensive!
Day 1
Flat work and grid work day.
We were in with the babies group, although she is 7 she really has very limited jumping exposure so a great group to be in. Tuffy assessed us warming up, gave us some exercises to do to stretch them and get them supple, the flatwork is so important for the jumping! Then we did a lot of pole work, installing control and slowing down (this was mainly us, Skylla has never been good at being slow and this was the theme of the weekend lol). We moved on to the clock face exercise, which really focuses you on where to prepare (and slow down) before the next fence, before finishing on some serious grid work!
Skylla was a little shell-shocked, but once Tuffy figured out where I was going wrong, her confidence blossomed. So as Skylla uses her speed as an evasion as she's not confident jumping, I hang on to her mouth and then fire her at the fence, leading to stops as there is no time for Skylla to think. Coming super slow, gives her chance to look, really forward soft hands and using my leg to say it's ok do it. Oh and it absolutely chucked it down for the entire two hour session, it was freezing! Oh and another thing, Tuffy's version of a 'small' fence is not the same as mine
.
Day 2
Fast turn around of washing and drying my kit, and we were back for another arena day, working up to a full course of fences.
Skylla came in and bossed it from the start, fully cottoned on to the job in hand and super confident from the day before, it is amazing what the right coach can do in such a small amount of time! The only stops this day were when I rode like a muppet and didn't set her up well. We had a lot of fillers out and Skylla didn't peep at anything, I wasn't that surprised as she isn't really 'spooky', but still awesome to know that flowers, dragons, blue barrels, gates ad super bright fences are no bother! I then let the side down when it came to the course 
, apparently courses scare me , so I forgot all the training I had literally just been given and rode like an idiot... So frustrating as I'm not normally a nervous rider, but clearly some showjumping demons are lurking so I'll need to figure how to calm down when approaching bigger fences in a course!
Outcome is pat the pony, whilst the rider needs to calm down and stop panicking!
Day 3
The one we've all been waiting for, XC day!!
Now after day two I will admit to bricking it for XC, if I couldn't cope with a set of showjumps and I know Skylla is not brave about solid fences (serious log aversion) then I couldn't see how this was going to go well. Not helped by arriving and Skylla bouncing about like Tigger and Tuffy looking a bit at her and telling me to go take her for a trot round a few times and do NOT walk, walk will not help .
Anyway after a few settling laps of Somerfords schooling field, avoiding a million pony club ponies and other groups, she settled enough to join our group! Tuffy gave us a team talk of things to think about, and then sent us off over a log, I decided not to be a massive wimp in front of the group about how she hates logs gritted my teeth, remembered by training and off we went... Straight over it, no question, no looking, foot perfect, nearly fell off in shock and was tempted to leave it there .
Tuffy obviously not shocked and very obviously was never going to let me off that easily, this was about the third fence we jumped, and honestly I was terrified, Skylla was so freaked out by this log last time we came to Somerford she wouldn't even walk near it.
This continued for the rest of the session, Skylla was epic, completely up for it, listening to me (if still a little over keen) and jumped some serious fences!
I had the best day and really believe some eventing might happen now! If anybody is thinking of doing a Tuffy clinic DO IT, she is absolutely amazing.
, and with the little grey one too!I have been out of the leaving the ground game for a fair while now, and although do the odd bits here and there, was mostly bumbling about not knowing what I was doing with Skylla and just letting Topaz do what Topaz likes!
So I thought it best to get some advice to teach Skylla what she should be doing (and me!) and see if there is any merit in the eventing dreams. My lovely new yard owner suggest an upcoming Tuffy Tilley clinic would be great for us, I've not trained with Tuffy before but have heard great things, albeit she is tough and not for the faint hearted. I was assured she is fair but yes will push us, which is perfect really, even if I was somewhat apprehensive!
Day 1
Flat work and grid work day.
We were in with the babies group, although she is 7 she really has very limited jumping exposure so a great group to be in. Tuffy assessed us warming up, gave us some exercises to do to stretch them and get them supple, the flatwork is so important for the jumping! Then we did a lot of pole work, installing control and slowing down (this was mainly us, Skylla has never been good at being slow and this was the theme of the weekend lol). We moved on to the clock face exercise, which really focuses you on where to prepare (and slow down) before the next fence, before finishing on some serious grid work!
Skylla was a little shell-shocked, but once Tuffy figured out where I was going wrong, her confidence blossomed. So as Skylla uses her speed as an evasion as she's not confident jumping, I hang on to her mouth and then fire her at the fence, leading to stops as there is no time for Skylla to think. Coming super slow, gives her chance to look, really forward soft hands and using my leg to say it's ok do it. Oh and it absolutely chucked it down for the entire two hour session, it was freezing! Oh and another thing, Tuffy's version of a 'small' fence is not the same as mine
.Day 2
Fast turn around of washing and drying my kit, and we were back for another arena day, working up to a full course of fences.
Skylla came in and bossed it from the start, fully cottoned on to the job in hand and super confident from the day before, it is amazing what the right coach can do in such a small amount of time! The only stops this day were when I rode like a muppet and didn't set her up well. We had a lot of fillers out and Skylla didn't peep at anything
, I wasn't that surprised as she isn't really 'spooky', but still awesome to know that flowers, dragons, blue barrels, gates ad super bright fences are no bother! I then let the side down when it came to the course , apparently courses scare me , so I forgot all the training I had literally just been given and rode like an idiot... So frustrating as I'm not normally a nervous rider, but clearly some showjumping demons are lurking so I'll need to figure how to calm down when approaching bigger fences in a course!Outcome is pat the pony, whilst the rider needs to calm down and stop panicking!
Day 3
The one we've all been waiting for, XC day!!
Now after day two I will admit to bricking it for XC
, if I couldn't cope with a set of showjumps and I know Skylla is not brave about solid fences (serious log aversion) then I couldn't see how this was going to go well. Not helped by arriving and Skylla bouncing about like Tigger and Tuffy looking a bit at her and telling me to go take her for a trot round a few times and do NOT walk, walk will not help .Anyway after a few settling laps of Somerfords schooling field, avoiding a million pony club ponies and other groups, she settled enough to join our group! Tuffy gave us a team talk of things to think about, and then sent us off over a log, I decided not to be a massive wimp in front of the group about how she hates logs gritted my teeth, remembered by training and off we went... Straight over it, no question, no looking, foot perfect
, nearly fell off in shock and was tempted to leave it there .Tuffy obviously not shocked and very obviously was never going to let me off that easily, this was about the third fence we jumped, and honestly I was terrified, Skylla was so freaked out by this log last time we came to Somerford she wouldn't even walk near it.
This continued for the rest of the session, Skylla was epic, completely up for it, listening to me (if still a little over keen) and jumped some serious fences!
I had the best day and really believe some eventing might happen now! If anybody is thinking of doing a Tuffy clinic DO IT, she is absolutely amazing
.
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Sounds very productive