Nats_uk
Well-Known Member
So after a few weeks of flatwork lessons and SJ lessons I finally felt ready to take Vegas to her first SJ competiton - we had tried to get out XC schooling the week before everywhere was shut due to the bad weather.
Hired a box (new box hopefully by end of year!) and went off to Brook Farm for some unaffiliated SJ.
Got there to see the 65cm and was shocked by the number of fillers and general "lookiness" of the course so decided to put her in the 70cm and treat it as a clear round.
Got ready and I have to say she was a superstar in the warmup I put a red ribbon on her to make sure everyone gave her a wide berth as she dislikes horses getting too close at home but she wasnt too bothered. It was actually nice and quiet for a SJ show. She got excited once I had jumped in the warm up and she just wanted to canter all the time so we did a lot of walking around in the warm up!
The courses were interestingly built and included a triple bar, brush fillers, a solid rustic filler and various other fillers. I went in the 70cm as a warm up I went 9th and pretty much every horse before had been eliminated or had at least one refusal at the solid rustic filler. She was a bit shocked by the amount of fences when she went in but once we started she locked on to her job pretty well went straight over the solid rustic filler but had a cheeky run out in the second part of a double as I just didnt sit up and keep her between my hands and leg. Unfortunately numpty jockey here forgot it was a double and just redid the second part so got eliminated lol!!
Was pleased with her so skipped the next class (75cm) and went straight in to the 80cm class. The course was very similar although the triple bar now had no groundline lol. She went round all of them with no problem a couple of steering issues and as it was 2 phase the last couple of turns had to be tighter then I ideally would have liked for her first show but she went double clear and I ended up 3rd
Photos from the show - please note I have bought these low-res images from bpimages (I have the receipt if any button pusher wishes to see it)
Hired a box (new box hopefully by end of year!) and went off to Brook Farm for some unaffiliated SJ.
Got there to see the 65cm and was shocked by the number of fillers and general "lookiness" of the course so decided to put her in the 70cm and treat it as a clear round.
Got ready and I have to say she was a superstar in the warmup I put a red ribbon on her to make sure everyone gave her a wide berth as she dislikes horses getting too close at home but she wasnt too bothered. It was actually nice and quiet for a SJ show. She got excited once I had jumped in the warm up and she just wanted to canter all the time so we did a lot of walking around in the warm up!
The courses were interestingly built and included a triple bar, brush fillers, a solid rustic filler and various other fillers. I went in the 70cm as a warm up I went 9th and pretty much every horse before had been eliminated or had at least one refusal at the solid rustic filler. She was a bit shocked by the amount of fences when she went in but once we started she locked on to her job pretty well went straight over the solid rustic filler but had a cheeky run out in the second part of a double as I just didnt sit up and keep her between my hands and leg. Unfortunately numpty jockey here forgot it was a double and just redid the second part so got eliminated lol!!
Was pleased with her so skipped the next class (75cm) and went straight in to the 80cm class. The course was very similar although the triple bar now had no groundline lol. She went round all of them with no problem a couple of steering issues and as it was 2 phase the last couple of turns had to be tighter then I ideally would have liked for her first show but she went double clear and I ended up 3rd
Photos from the show - please note I have bought these low-res images from bpimages (I have the receipt if any button pusher wishes to see it)