Tweseldown UA ODE this weekend

Another one here who didn't manage to pull it together on the day!
A disappointing 40 in the dressage, 2 down SJ and although we did make it round the XC in one piece, the less said about it the better. :)
Despite not getting the performance I was hoping for, I thought the event was really well organised and the weather was great so we did really enjoy ourselves.
 
The XC was bigger than BE with things that you wouldn't find at BE at that level - the pre intro had a trak, large ditch, corner and owlhole which you wouldn't see at BE80 plus the 2 waters.

We had a long discussion with the FJ at the waters then lots of chat with other competitors. Apparently some people didn't do the first water and just went straight to the second. At the second water the FJ said you could either go straight through and then round the back to approach jump with more space or go into second water turn right and go through all the water (staying to the left to get the angle to the jump!) We were really worried as last year had water issues but he was a star and went into 1st no issues and sprog was able to turn right in second water so would say water issues are thing of the past!!

The SJ was small but lovely course and yes it was extremely well organised. We were delighted with the day despite green looky looky at FJ's yapping dog at corner so circled for 20 pens. Ground was quite energy sapping as deep sand in places but good to gauge fitness before Chilham.
 
Clarew22

I heard them announcing your results, as we were warming up for dressage, WOW.. very well done and fab dressage score as well :-)


Clarew22 said:
How did everyone get on?

We had a good day, 29.5 in the dressage, although how that happened is still a mystery and clear show jumping our first ever so a monumental day :) and clear xc. We ended up 2nd thanks mainly I think to quite a lot of people getting eliminated at the water due to the flagging. Thankfully there were lots of people scratching their heads when I walked the course so benefited from the group discussion and their superior knowledge!

Also thank you to the lady who had just been xc who stopped me on my way to warm up and made sure I knew where I was going at the water :)
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MCTM, was lovely to see you on Saturday, well done on SJ and the dressage , i heard lots people fell foul to the water jump flags in the PIntro class. i made sure i rewalked XC course on the day just in case too!
will post report shortly :-) a day of ups and downs!


MCTM said:
On paper it looked like a pretty disastrous days for me, but I can take some positives out of it. Dressage felt lovely, was a bit disappointed that I didn't break the sub 30 barrier but was happy enough with a 31 and I think we may have been equal 2nd in the section (haven't looked closely at all the scores). SJ is our bête noire so only having one pole is an improvement, just a shame we also had a really silly stop - don't know what happened as she rarely stops, she just wasn't paying attention to me. So with time penalties it looks horrible..... :(
Lottie was awesome across country, well within the time so I was gutted to see that I was one of the many who fell foul of the flagging at the second water. Still not sure where the right white flag was but totally my fault for not paying enough attention when I walked the course in a rush on Friday afternoon and I was fairly early to go so had t picked up there was an issue. I think I can partly blame my general state of mind about competing over the past few weeks which have been very stressful at work. I've never made a mistake like that before but, if you're going to do something silly like that at least do it on a day when you aren't going to win or be placed!!

I saw you in the distance Clarew22, but afraid I didn't make it over to say hi, I did have a quick chat with Monte1 though.

Now just waiting to see whether I'm going to Chilham - I'm next on the waitlist so keeping my fingers crossed.
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Well our day was full of ups and downs. Horse decided not to load first of all, so cue very stressed me ( he used to be a bad loader but has been fine now for years!) anyway 40 mins later than planned horse loaded and we off. thank goodness we are only about 20 mins away! but it put me behind and had only about 20 mins dressage warm up time, horse felt very tense and just would not relax ( think partly was me as well, so can't completely blame him ..)on to the test and started fairly OK still not forward enough but calm, then I made a course error !!! sorted that out and finished test, but we have done better ones.. ended up with 39 including the error. judge was very fair though and wrote some nice comments on my sheet :) Horse was still not very settled seemed on edge. We had a long gap ( 2 hrs) till SJ so went back to walk the XC course again to check a couple of my lines etc. when we got back found out some man had come around corner with their dog on one of those stretchy extended cord lead things and it ran through inbetween my horses legs , the cord got tangled round him and ended up nearly knocking him to the ground . my friend who was thankfully holding my horse managed to free the dog and get my chap untangled and lovely person in a lorry nearby watched her run him up to be sure he was sound ( luckily all fine) but certainly not helping his stress levels. off to SJ and he still very inattentive, warming up kept staring over at XC and was a bit nappy at times (with hindsight think he was just wired about going XC, so not concentrating) jumped all practice fences fine just not his normal calm self. went into the arena for our turn and had two poles ( which is not like him at all) he just got very strong then flat and long over two very simple jumps and looking at the video I reckon I rode like an idiot not collecting him or sitting down and balancing when I should . so lots to practice at home. finally on to XC, I was getting a bit green by then, worrying about fence four in particular, a skinnish roll top with brush on top which looked about 3ft6 to me! he was a bit nappy again in XC warm up but my sister called me over told me to relax and he would and she was right ! counted down in start box and we were off, well what a super star jumped the lot flew everything without hesitation easy to pilot round the whole course, didnt put a foot wrong and finished full of running. we got 6 time penalties, due to me steadying in the water to get my turn to a skinny ( with hindsight didnt need to) and few times on the course we could have galloped on a bit more when i was checking where to go next ( lack of experience on my part) , but I was more than happy with him and can always push on a bit more now I know he is fit enough. thinking about it all, i reckon i have fed him up a bit too much lately, we have the spring grass (he lives out 24/7 most of the time) is also getting sugar beet, nuts ,hi fi and oil . maybe sugar/starch overload?? he was still very hyper when we got back to the box, so we sorted him out cleaning him off and then got loaded ( took about 5 mins but he was much better) decided to just go home not leave him standing on trailer while we went to have a wander as we usually would do. back home he was fine. I have now cut out the nuts and sugar beet for the moment and will see if that helps! sorry for the epic post a real day of ups and downs but overall lots has been learned and we did have fun. I had the biggest grin ever coming off the XC course.
 
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well done for the double clear :-)

Suziq77 said:
My rather brilliant pony got a double clear in the intro on Sunday yay! But I got about a billion (24!!!) time faults, largely due to acute water flag paranoia - when I got home my friend said "you were the only person I saw who trotted so slowly in the water". Oops sorry pony! It was a fab day out tho, thanks to all organisers and stewards :)
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monte1 said:
well done for the double clear :-)
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Thank you :)

and yes I also thought the SJ looked small, the XC was nice though - fence 11 was a bit of a beast for a relatively short striding pony but it rode fine.

Thanks NicNac for the tip about the water flags on Sat night, much appreciated!
 
monte1 said:
Clarew22

I heard them announcing your results, as we were warming up for dressage, WOW.. very well done and fab dressage score as well :-)
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Thank you it was just one of those (rare!) days everything went well, and being the last in my section meant the warm ups were really quiet and that helped me as I get myself all wound up when they are busy!

Well done sounds like you had a good day even though things didn't start too well getting loaded. I think there is definitely something in the air or probably the grass at the moment, I have been having problems at home and stopped the majority of his hard feed from Thursday as he was wired and I started to panic about competing him like that!

I thought the 90 course looked huge so that must have been a massive buzz to cruise round that so well :)
 
Clarew22 said:
I thought the 90 course looked huge so that must have been a massive buzz to cruise round that so well :)
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LOL.. so did I when I walked the course, but it rode really well - he made it feel so easy and was just a pleasure to ride, it really was a huge and very much needed confidence boost for me, I think I am still buzzing now in fact :-)) .
after looking at the jump photos,( where he makes nothing of the fences!!) I have even considered that we should be capable of tackling the pre novice course, but need to get better at riding quicker between fences to make the time. after making such a mess of it at Mattingley last year I would not have even considered it!!!! what a difference a year and a good run makes!
 
Clarew22 said:
Great pic!

Thankfully none of mine were worth buying so took the temptation away for me as really shouldn't buy any more lol
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Were yours worse than this one of us actually climbing fence 4?? http://www.johnbritterphotography.com/eventpics/tdownun114/12/ppages/ppage37.htm I thought my pony had stopped, despite my best leg on efforts, but he was just sizing it up apparently, I couldn't believe it when he got on it - so glad it was fixed!!!

That was our only hiccup thank goodness and flew after that http://www.johnbritterphotography.com/eventpics/tdownun114/12/ppages/ppage17.htm
 
Suziq77 said:
Were yours worse than this one of us actually climbing fence 4?? http://www.johnbritterphotography.com/eventpics/tdownun114/12/ppages/ppage37.htm I thought my pony had stopped, despite my best leg on efforts, but he was just sizing it up apparently, I couldn't believe it when he got on it - so glad it was fixed!!!

That was our only hiccup thank goodness and flew after that http://www.johnbritterphotography.com/eventpics/tdownun114/12/ppages/ppage17.htm
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Love that second pic, I would have to buy one like that lol
 
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