Ellie2893
Well-Known Member
So never done a report before - thought I'd give it a shot as so many of you lovely HHOs helped me!
So we made the 4 1/2 hour journey up to Bury Farm the day before as we were on farirly early and didn't think it'd be too fair to make him compate straight after such a long trip! He settled in fine after taking him for a quick walk about around the centre to get him accustomed to the place!
Sunday woke up early (so nervous I hadn't slept a wink all night!) got to the centre and plaited/cleaned and did my usual OCD routine - which I found out wasn't very OCD compared to some of the mums there!
Got him out to a nice long warm up, felt a bit like he was on springs for the first 30 mins, shying and generally being a complete brat about being woken up and dragged into the warm up as usual!
Anyway, he settled just before we took him into the first class (prelim 7)
got around it, thought it was 'okay' but nothing spectacular... and as I came out I had a few 'wow, what a lovely test' comments from other competitors which made me feel a tad better! The canter work was stronger than usual but the trot on the left rein still curling under a little bit (pet hate and I worked so hard to correct it in the run up to the competition!) so kicked myself a bit! So went to look at the scores before I tacked up for the next class and we were sitting in the lead with 70.4% and went on to win that class - super happy mum!
So next class was Prelim 12 - never done it before so gave it our best shot! Deffo, its safe to say was NOT our best test! It was an argument till the end typical stroppy appaloosa moments the whole way around so put that one down to experience and wrote off the chance of winning the overall Prelim Championship! However, we still came out with 66.8% and 3rd in our section which I was happy with considering his attitude!
Normally we just do prelim & novice but I was told it was a friendly show with a nice atmosphere and helpful judges so I somehow got persuaded into doing an elementary - i felt VERY out of my depth, pony was exhasusted and so was I... Managed to pull 64.9% and didn't get anywhere with it (not surprising!) but some nice photos!
After we'd packed his stuff away the results had been published and to my surprise... We WON the Prelim Open Championship! Safe to say, it was a very worthwhile 9 hour round trip and a bit of a confidence boost to finally take the plunge and join BD!
Thanks for reading - sorry if its a bit of a rubbish report!
So we made the 4 1/2 hour journey up to Bury Farm the day before as we were on farirly early and didn't think it'd be too fair to make him compate straight after such a long trip! He settled in fine after taking him for a quick walk about around the centre to get him accustomed to the place!
Sunday woke up early (so nervous I hadn't slept a wink all night!) got to the centre and plaited/cleaned and did my usual OCD routine - which I found out wasn't very OCD compared to some of the mums there!
Got him out to a nice long warm up, felt a bit like he was on springs for the first 30 mins, shying and generally being a complete brat about being woken up and dragged into the warm up as usual!
Anyway, he settled just before we took him into the first class (prelim 7)
got around it, thought it was 'okay' but nothing spectacular... and as I came out I had a few 'wow, what a lovely test' comments from other competitors which made me feel a tad better! The canter work was stronger than usual but the trot on the left rein still curling under a little bit (pet hate and I worked so hard to correct it in the run up to the competition!) so kicked myself a bit! So went to look at the scores before I tacked up for the next class and we were sitting in the lead with 70.4% and went on to win that class - super happy mum!
So next class was Prelim 12 - never done it before so gave it our best shot! Deffo, its safe to say was NOT our best test! It was an argument till the end typical stroppy appaloosa moments the whole way around so put that one down to experience and wrote off the chance of winning the overall Prelim Championship! However, we still came out with 66.8% and 3rd in our section which I was happy with considering his attitude!
Normally we just do prelim & novice but I was told it was a friendly show with a nice atmosphere and helpful judges so I somehow got persuaded into doing an elementary - i felt VERY out of my depth, pony was exhasusted and so was I... Managed to pull 64.9% and didn't get anywhere with it (not surprising!) but some nice photos!
After we'd packed his stuff away the results had been published and to my surprise... We WON the Prelim Open Championship! Safe to say, it was a very worthwhile 9 hour round trip and a bit of a confidence boost to finally take the plunge and join BD!
Thanks for reading - sorry if its a bit of a rubbish report!
