DollyPentreath
Well-Known Member
So, yesterday myself and my trainer set off for Tweseldown in the sunshine
to have a go at a second IN. Thank you to Rachel (Rachelferd), Ferdie's owner, for coming along despite suffering from tonsilitis!
I've been working quite hard on mine and Ferd's dressage as I often struggle to get him round without being on his forehand and working 'through'. He much prefers to tow himself along with those rather hefty shoulders of his!
He warmed up really well, despite there being hundreds of horses in the warm up and I was really careful in sitting trot not to jab him with a spur, as he's a sensitive little soul and I'd rather not wear them for the dr really. He did a nice test, with a few wobbles, my 10m circles were a little large, our shoulder in was a bit unsteady to begin with and our canter to walk resembled a western sliding stop!
But I felt the test was alot better than at Pontispool, it was the same test too, as it was more consistent and settled. (At Pontispool, he was a bit of a toad and boiled over in the warm up.) My trainer thought I rode well too and I often come out of tests really deflated so was pretty happy with this one. Our score at Pontispool was 42.4 so I was expecting something around 40. I was thoroughly disappointed when I checked the scores to be on 47.1.
I just can't seem to crack event dressage, our scores unaff BD are good and we seem to get consistently poor scores BE for both good and bad tests.
He did a cracking test at Mattingley novice and scored 39, we've scored 39 for some pretty bad tests in the past. Oh well, enough doom and gloom, onto the sj!
The sj was pretty big with a couple of tricky combinations and one difficult line. Ferd's sj seems to be improving all the time and my main (recurring!) knightmare was being CR after the sj..
The warm up poles were those really light plastic ones that were clattering to the floor every 10 secs, great!! And it was pretty busy in the ring too. Our main fault sj is down to me getting to forward before a fence and/or pushing for a long one and letting flatten/get on his forehand. So 'sit up' tends to be the main theme of our sj rounds, as he's very keen too!
We had the first upright part of a double down which was 5 strides from an oxer, trainer says I rode it well and he was careless behind, so not really a worry. Number 6 was a huge black and white thing, I saw a (very) long one and I probably should've sorted my knitting out earlier and waited but bless him, he did us proud and cleared it!
I then had to pull up pretty quick (new bit working well!) for an upright which I was sure would come down but I sat up and waited and we jumped it pretty well. We had the second part of the triple down because I let him flatten and didn't sit up.. My fault, my fault, Argh!
Cleared the 1.20 fence by a mile and didn't knock the planks, despite them having a good wobble on the cups..
So 8 faults, over a big course and I was pleased!
Onto the xc, which walked IMO as a generally nice course with a few tricky questions. Xc is our strongest phase as Ferd is pretty bold so I wasn't overly worried about anything in particular, esp as the corner I've never had a good shot at xc schooling wasn't included!
Numbers 1, 2, 3 and 4 were fine apart from nearly getting decapitated at fence 4 by a branch. 5 was a combination which we came into a bit bold but the new bit provided me with ample braking, so no problems there. 6 was a big oxer and I saw another really long shot and also heard the camera shutters go, so I'm looking forward to seeing my face in that one as we made our leap up to the sky! 7 was a double of roll tops on a left turn, I kept my whip on his shoulder and despite being faster than I would've liked we were fine. By now I'd got my eye in and 8 (large table), 9 (angled hedges) and 10 (hay rack - I think!) we jumped in textbook style!
Then the notorious coffin, a bit quick but I sat up over the first part and we flew over no probs. Then onto the water, a hanging log, one stride to a little log drop into the water 90 degree turn left out of water over a house, back in water and sharp turn right out of the water to a nasty little toothbrush arrowhead! Phew.. As I approached I could see a very wet Sophie Hawke pottering about with a nice grey..
Apart from not sitting up enough down the drop (A real problem of mine!) and telling myself off on landing, then having reins like washing lines over the house all was fine!
Good shot at the toothbrush arrowhead which I was pleased about. Heading home now, there was an angled double of houses, bit quick again but no problems. Then a hanging log arrowhead which he ignored me a bit at (tbh, I was flagging a bit!) and put himself deep at, but never mind. The owl hole looked straight forward but was a bit shadowy so I was careful not to take it for granted and rode quite boldly into it. The last three fences were fairly straight forward and we got a cracking shot at the last, a large, square flower box to gallop home clear!
I was chuffed with him as, per usual, he tried his little heart out over the whole course. We got 14.8 time faults, I hadn't really kicked on as I didn't see the point with a 47 dr!! We finished 22nd, not quite the 13th at Pontispool, but I was still fairly pleased. My trainer had an ok dr, 3 down sj and clear xc to finish 11th in the Int, so she was pleased too!
So, I'm looking forward to dropping back down to novice for a couple of runs (Brightling and Wilton, we thought Brightling was the week after next - oops) and I'll keep plugging away at the dressage. I think I've learn't we wouldn't disgrace ourselves at Intermediate level and before contesting a 1* would like to give at least one a go. Our new double bridle (Thank you Rachelferd's mummy!) should be arriving soon so if he takes to it, we'll try and give it a go at Aston. Then drop back to novice for Brock Park just in case we had a drama at Aston.. Well, that's the plan!
Thank you for reading, sorry for the essay and well done if you made it to the end!!
I've been working quite hard on mine and Ferd's dressage as I often struggle to get him round without being on his forehand and working 'through'. He much prefers to tow himself along with those rather hefty shoulders of his!
The sj was pretty big with a couple of tricky combinations and one difficult line. Ferd's sj seems to be improving all the time and my main (recurring!) knightmare was being CR after the sj..
Onto the xc, which walked IMO as a generally nice course with a few tricky questions. Xc is our strongest phase as Ferd is pretty bold so I wasn't overly worried about anything in particular, esp as the corner I've never had a good shot at xc schooling wasn't included!
So, I'm looking forward to dropping back down to novice for a couple of runs (Brightling and Wilton, we thought Brightling was the week after next - oops) and I'll keep plugging away at the dressage. I think I've learn't we wouldn't disgrace ourselves at Intermediate level and before contesting a 1* would like to give at least one a go. Our new double bridle (Thank you Rachelferd's mummy!) should be arriving soon so if he takes to it, we'll try and give it a go at Aston. Then drop back to novice for Brock Park just in case we had a drama at Aston.. Well, that's the plan!
Thank you for reading, sorry for the essay and well done if you made it to the end!!
