blood_magik
Well-Known Member
Had a quiet few weeks as I was away on holiday and it took a while to get back into the swing of things with the horses. I had planned on getting cracking with my jumping once I got back but it never really happened due to one thing or another.
I had a decent academy lesson on Beau at the end of last month - the fences were tiny but there were a lot of scary fillers out. The fences were too small for the big guy so he got a bit careless towards the end but we had brakes and managed to keep a rhythm around a full course so I was pretty pleased.
I had lessons booked for Tuesday but they were both cancelled so my friend and I decided to do some grid work on our own. Beau was a little on the fresh side and we had a few acrobatic displays but on the whole, he felt really relaxed through the grid and I could just sit still.
Unfortunately, my poor friend had a really bad fall and her horse ended up standing on/kicking her head - I'm not exactly sure which one it was but her hat had a hoof-shaped dent in it when it was recovered. Thankfully, it took the brunt of the impact and she somehow managed to walk away with just a concussion and a few stitches. I can't believe how lucky she was - it just goes to show that hats really do save lives.
Thursday night was Grassroots showing night. The boys did really well last time (four firsts, a second, a fifth and reserve between three of them) but I'd had all morning to get them bathed/plaited etc, and I'd had a friend there to help. I was on my own on Thursday and I only had an hour to bath and plait each horse, and make sure all of my tack was gleaming. Thankfully there were a few friends on the yard who very kindly gave me a hand to tack up so I could get myself ready in time for my first class.
Lenny ended up winning Tack & Turnout, Equitation and the Riding Club horse and he was second in the Novice Horse class. The judge was quite complimentary - she said that he was a little tense through his neck in the first ridden class but that he went much better later on when I slackened my curb rein off a little bit and that he was 'a nice little horse'.
Last time we were pipped to the post in the championship and took reserve. This time however....
Then I took one of dad's horses into the training show. We did the Novice class and the Open class and he ended up winning them both. The judge said she wanted to take him home with her.
So overall, we came home with:
I'm still on cloud nine.
The last jumping show I went to was 7 weeks ago so I decided to do a warm-up class to dust off any cobwebs. Beau was first up - I entered him in the 85 NAQ to start with and he was TENSE. He was throwing his head about and calling out in the warm-up and I ended up coming back to walk to wait for it to quieten down a little bit. I can't fault him though - it was mobbed in there and people were passing really really close. I actually considered going outside to warm up at one point.
Anyways, he calmed down once we started jumping. He jumped 1-4 really nicely but muppet here made a bit of a booboo coming into number 5 and I ended up having to circle after it. We finished on something like 27 faults - 4 jumping and the rest time.
Next up was the 95 NAQ. It's the biggest class I've done with him but I actually felt relatively calm about it. It was quieter in the warm-up this time round so he was a lot more settled and more focussed when we started jumping. We had a bit of a wait to go into the ring and he got a bit arse-y - napping and trying to throw his weight around because he thought he was done for the day.
The nerves kicked in a little bit when the bell went but we got a decent shot to the first fence and things seemed to fall into place until we came round to the last - I asked him to wait and we ended up getting too close. I'm a bit annoyed at myself for interfering but overall I was really happy with how he jumped.
[video=youtube;1RCFDzWlOvU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RCFDzWlOvU[/video]
And because I love his wee face:
I had entered Lenny in the 95 NAQ as well so quickly changed over and headed back to the warm-up. He was feeling a little fresh but I'd much rather he pull my arms out than have to kick him on every stride.
My instructor had said that it was important to keep my leg on even when Lenny was strong and pulling me into the fences so I tried to bear that in mind when we headed into the ring. Lenny was raring to go but we managed to get the right number of strides between fences.
We ended up having a pole in the second phase - I did my usual trick of trying to hold him and we got too close. Mea Culpa...
I thought it wasn't too bad otherwise. The plan is to jump him round the discovery tomorrow to see if I can finally make it into the second phase.
[video=youtube;Vwb7uojPdKY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vwb7uojPdKY[/video]
So it was four fault-itis day today... A bit disappointed in some of my riding but on the plus side, I moved Beau up a class and we didn't die.
A few more 95s and I think I may be brave enough to try a discovery with the big guy. He's certainly scopey enough - I just need to learn to place him a bit better.
Lenny's back up to disco as of tomorrow and then it's a push to get both boys up to 1.05m by late July/early August in time for the bronze league qualifiers and Blair.
Thanks for reading.
I had a decent academy lesson on Beau at the end of last month - the fences were tiny but there were a lot of scary fillers out. The fences were too small for the big guy so he got a bit careless towards the end but we had brakes and managed to keep a rhythm around a full course so I was pretty pleased.
I had lessons booked for Tuesday but they were both cancelled so my friend and I decided to do some grid work on our own. Beau was a little on the fresh side and we had a few acrobatic displays but on the whole, he felt really relaxed through the grid and I could just sit still.
Unfortunately, my poor friend had a really bad fall and her horse ended up standing on/kicking her head - I'm not exactly sure which one it was but her hat had a hoof-shaped dent in it when it was recovered. Thankfully, it took the brunt of the impact and she somehow managed to walk away with just a concussion and a few stitches. I can't believe how lucky she was - it just goes to show that hats really do save lives.
Thursday night was Grassroots showing night. The boys did really well last time (four firsts, a second, a fifth and reserve between three of them) but I'd had all morning to get them bathed/plaited etc, and I'd had a friend there to help. I was on my own on Thursday and I only had an hour to bath and plait each horse, and make sure all of my tack was gleaming. Thankfully there were a few friends on the yard who very kindly gave me a hand to tack up so I could get myself ready in time for my first class.
Lenny ended up winning Tack & Turnout, Equitation and the Riding Club horse and he was second in the Novice Horse class. The judge was quite complimentary - she said that he was a little tense through his neck in the first ridden class but that he went much better later on when I slackened my curb rein off a little bit and that he was 'a nice little horse'.
Last time we were pipped to the post in the championship and took reserve. This time however....
Then I took one of dad's horses into the training show. We did the Novice class and the Open class and he ended up winning them both. The judge said she wanted to take him home with her.
So overall, we came home with:
I'm still on cloud nine.
The last jumping show I went to was 7 weeks ago so I decided to do a warm-up class to dust off any cobwebs. Beau was first up - I entered him in the 85 NAQ to start with and he was TENSE. He was throwing his head about and calling out in the warm-up and I ended up coming back to walk to wait for it to quieten down a little bit. I can't fault him though - it was mobbed in there and people were passing really really close. I actually considered going outside to warm up at one point.
Anyways, he calmed down once we started jumping. He jumped 1-4 really nicely but muppet here made a bit of a booboo coming into number 5 and I ended up having to circle after it. We finished on something like 27 faults - 4 jumping and the rest time.
Next up was the 95 NAQ. It's the biggest class I've done with him but I actually felt relatively calm about it. It was quieter in the warm-up this time round so he was a lot more settled and more focussed when we started jumping. We had a bit of a wait to go into the ring and he got a bit arse-y - napping and trying to throw his weight around because he thought he was done for the day.
The nerves kicked in a little bit when the bell went but we got a decent shot to the first fence and things seemed to fall into place until we came round to the last - I asked him to wait and we ended up getting too close. I'm a bit annoyed at myself for interfering but overall I was really happy with how he jumped.
[video=youtube;1RCFDzWlOvU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RCFDzWlOvU[/video]
And because I love his wee face:
I had entered Lenny in the 95 NAQ as well so quickly changed over and headed back to the warm-up. He was feeling a little fresh but I'd much rather he pull my arms out than have to kick him on every stride.
My instructor had said that it was important to keep my leg on even when Lenny was strong and pulling me into the fences so I tried to bear that in mind when we headed into the ring. Lenny was raring to go but we managed to get the right number of strides between fences.
We ended up having a pole in the second phase - I did my usual trick of trying to hold him and we got too close. Mea Culpa...
I thought it wasn't too bad otherwise. The plan is to jump him round the discovery tomorrow to see if I can finally make it into the second phase.
[video=youtube;Vwb7uojPdKY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vwb7uojPdKY[/video]
So it was four fault-itis day today... A bit disappointed in some of my riding but on the plus side, I moved Beau up a class and we didn't die.
A few more 95s and I think I may be brave enough to try a discovery with the big guy. He's certainly scopey enough - I just need to learn to place him a bit better.Lenny's back up to disco as of tomorrow and then it's a push to get both boys up to 1.05m by late July/early August in time for the bronze league qualifiers and Blair.
Thanks for reading.
