Tweseldown novice! :) with Videos too...

Ali16

Ali16

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Amazingly I managed to get some sleep the night before this time... I'm known for not sleeping the few nights before a comp. Morris was feeling great in the school last week so I was really hopeful that we could pull a good test out the bag. However, he does like to randomly explode and wave at the judge, so I wasn't holding my breath for the first event of the season :rolleyes: He warmed up brilliantly and only had one minor 'moment' when I first asked for canter, but managed to get him back under control before we left the warm up arena :)

The test itself was quite tense - he tends to drop behind the leg and curl up in front and then suddenly explode when I kick him forwards... but he managed to hold it together for the entire test and even halted properly :) (OK not that square the first time, but all four feet on the floor is much better than last year!). I was thrilled when we got our (generous!) score of 30.5 as I know there there is definately room for improvement.

Video

On to the SJ and I was feeling really quite hopeful that a CR would be on the cards as the course was not challenging and rather small. Morris had other ideas though, despite DCs at Foxhunter this winter... Warm ups have always put him on edge and so I was careful to stay out of peoples' way and only jump when it was really clear. He remained relatively calm but jumped in his own 'special' way, with enormous leap-buck flying changes in between :) Exuberance is his middle name...

In the ring Morris jumped the first five fences faultlessly, but then he had a minor ASBO moment trying to fit four strides in before the next fence and so he took the top rail of fence six with him. When I spoke to my trainer who watched our round he said to just put it down to Morris' excitement at being out eventing again... :rolleyes: The ground was really deep on the take offs and landings so I tried to avoid it where possible but he unfortunately sank taking off for the middle fence of the triple and so very uncharacteristically had the back rail. In hindsight maybe I sat up too fast on landing and restriceted his jump (having been hunting - and having to sit back A LOT on landing - all winter on various different horses I think I need some intensive SJ lessons!).

SJ video

So, the best bit was now calling... it was a fab first run course, but again the ground was so deep that I was only ever going to go steady to ensure the best lines into the fences avoiding the deepest patches. BUT we would be showing off our BEAUTIFUL colours from Super X Country :)

Tweseldown_XC.jpg


I have to say - Morris is AMAZING xc. He made the course feel like it was an Intro and skipped around happliy. The only thing he had a (VERY cheeky) look at was the brush-ditch-brush combination, but at no point did he say 'no'. We notched up 22 time faults, mainly at the beginning of the course (which I am proud to say was was the same number as Toddy, WFP and just a couple more than my trainer ;)).

Sadly no vids of the course, but here's him warming up getting ready for the off: XC vid

Unfortunately I know of three horses that will be off for a while because of strains due to the deep ground - all were pushed hard for the time. Makes me even more pleased that I stuck to my guns and didn't push. He's my pride and joy and I would never forgive myself for pushing him around a novice when he has so much more to give...

So, off to Gatcombe Intermediate in two weeks time. SO excited! Fingers crossed for a fab season :D

Thanks for reading if you got this far - choccie cake and tea for all :)
 
LOVE this horse, how fab is he! I bet you are chuffed to bits, shame about the SJ but its early days. thanks for sharing x
 
You both look fantastic and he makes the jumps look so easy and a lovely test :)

Good for you for not pushing too much- silly people who out their pride before their horse!

Onwards and upwards!
 
He's looking fantastic, your being harsh on your test I think it deserved it's mark. Shame about the SJ but as you say they're often fresh first one out.
Good for you to sticking to your guns and watching your horse with the going :)

Very best of luck at Gatcombe looking forward to your next report :)
 
Thank you - he is rather special :)

I have always told myself that if I have any concerns at all about the ground that I either will not push him, or just not run him at all. I would rather have four legs and no rossies than three legs and a rossie. Just not worth the risk.

Just heard that one of the horses who pulled up lame is out for the rest of the season. :(
 
excellent result. Well done. I actually thought the going for the intro yesterday was very good as far as tweseldown goes - have known it a lot deeper but they had moved a few fences around to better ground and the ground had dried out further than it had on Friday. Good luck for your intermediate :-)
 
star said:
excellent result. Well done. I actually thought the going for the intro yesterday was very good as far as tweseldown goes - have known it a lot deeper but they had moved a few fences around to better ground and the ground had dried out further than it had on Friday. Good luck for your intermediate :-)
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Thanks :)

You're right about the ground - definately better than I have seen it in the past, but there were some parts that I really would not risk galloping across. Saw WFP do a huge de-tour on a horse at the end of the day to avoid a bit of ground that had been churned up by the intermediates the day before! :)
 
definitely agree - i had to take a few detours to avoid some really yucky ground churned up from previous days but most of our route was fresh ground. Never worth galloping flat out on bad ground and tweseldown is so hard to make the time anyway. Sad that some horses now broken.
 
What a lovely boy and well done both of you. Definitely agree with you about not pushing around on the first event of the season, there is always another event.

If its any consolation, on the first event of the season, its practically obligatory for Mini TX's little madame to stand up and wave to the audience, thankfully it usually in the dressage warm up!
 
TheoryX1 said:
If its any consolation, on the first event of the season, its practically obligatory for Mini TX's little madame to stand up and wave to the audience, thankfully it usually in the dressage warm up!
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Haha - I know the feeling well! I was made to feel immensely better by the fact that my trainer, who was warming up at the same time as me, was on his VERY hot horse who looked rather wild :) Made us look saintly by comparison!

Let's just call it 'enthusiasm' :)
 
Great Videos :) Your test looked lovely, and he did look great SJ despite the rails!

Dad said it was really deep at his fence on landing and lots of people looked like they might fall off it was so bad. I think he was very excited to see you go past, and he said you looked very professional! :D
 
Yay, well done great start :) It does make me giggle this time of year, so many wildly over-excited horses - if anyone thought we forced them to do it they should go and look at the warm-up at Tweseldown(1) :D
 
Golden_Match_II said:
Great Videos :) Your test looked lovely, and he did look great SJ despite the rails!

Dad said it was really deep at his fence on landing and lots of people looked like they might fall off it was so bad. I think he was very excited to see you go past, and he said you looked very professional! :D
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Thank you :) Haha - He was at 12wasn't he? We took a huge detour to that fence to avoid the bad ground. Luckily we had a good shot at that one :o

If I'd known where he was I would have waved :)
 
TableDancer said:
Yay, well done great start :) It does make me giggle this time of year, so many wildly over-excited horses - if anyone thought we forced them to do it they should go and look at the warm-up at Tweseldown(1) :D
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Tell me about it - it makes you realise how much they really do love their job :) It's quite nice to see, but you do have to be a bit careful at times - plenty of horses waving at everyone!
 
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