JennBags
HHOSS Wonder Woman
On Friday I loaded up the lorry and we headed off to Aston for weekend camp! I'd been very smug about the weather up until about 2 days before we were due to go as forecast had been lovely up there and very wet down here, but as time went on the forecast swapped around and I was feeling rather less smug *waterproofs packed*. Got there, grabbed a stable, and accosted some random strangers who luckily were other campers, and some of us went out on a little hack around the estate.
Wow, they have some impressive facilities there but also rather a lot of horse-flies - as we're quite near the coast, we are spoilt as almost never see them but they love G - I managed to splat a few of them
First comedy moment with G - we approached a water and I gave another girl a lead in - everyone was praising G saying how brave he was, when one of the dogs moved, and he span sideways and almost dumped me in the water :rolleyes3:
A friend came to stay the night - we had a mini-B&B-disaster as she turned up at the place she'd booked, found out the host was a bit lecherous, that it was actually an hour away - and horror of horrors - it had a purple bathroom :eek3: :biggrin3: Thankfully we managed to find another one, which was really quite pleasant even if we did have to share a bed - good thing we've known each other for so long. Saturday morning she proved very useful as she grazed G while I mucked out, and then as she was rather horrified by my lack of grooming skills, also tidied up his mane and fetlocks, and made him look super-smart.
Went in for my first session, which was me on my own, and G was rather full of it, especially as horses were cantering through the water right next to the arena, but we got him thinking about what he was doing and he soon forgot it. RI had me working on "pause and push" and I got the best medium trot I'd ever had out of him - was a really great flatwork session (in my jump saddle with jump length stirrups!) then quickly headed into the SJ arena where we had G's 2nd big comedy moment - trotting through some poles on the floor, and halfway through he decided he didn't like the sand changing colour and whipped round. I was almost off, but managed to stay on - the photographer was very upset that she hadn't got her camera out for that one! We put him at a small filler just to get our confidence back and then called it a day
After lunch my friend went home and then the lovely ElleSkyWalker turned up to see me with her beautiful Lady Arabella and we sat in the sunshine watching some of the others SJing.
Elle then left just before my afternoon session which was arena XC - again I had a lesson all to myself. I went up and down the banks between all the schools, over a little course, and down the step into the water. Really confidence-giving round. No pictures as I was on late in the day and everyone else was busy getting ready for our night out! Got G to bed, got changed and sorted the lorry out ready for my first ever night in her....was slightly worried about getting up in the cab but someone else assured me getting up was the easy bit - it was getting down that was problematic :wink3: Decided not to drink too much!
Sunday morning I awoke to the sound of rain
Our first session was XC, and as it was so wet, we stayed in arena XC again - I thought this was great as I could really build on the previous day. We started off doing pretty much the course I had done the previous day, and the rain got heavier and heavier, so my plan of doing a couple of the bigger ones got washed away (d'you see what I did there?), and so we ended up sticking to the smaller ones as I had no grip on my reins. Still very confidence-giving despite a few naughty stops/run-outs. Quite a few pics from here:
A naughty run-out:
Hence my backwards stance here:
Step into water:
The afternoon session was SJ and we ended up on a really good round - I would have liked to have gone up another hole but RI said that as we'd had such a good round and we were both tired, it was better to end it there rather than push too far. Sadly, again no photos from that session.
It was a brilliant weekend, and although I didn't get as much done as I'd have liked, we really gained in confidence and met some lovely people.
Wow, they have some impressive facilities there but also rather a lot of horse-flies - as we're quite near the coast, we are spoilt as almost never see them but they love G - I managed to splat a few of them
First comedy moment with G - we approached a water and I gave another girl a lead in - everyone was praising G saying how brave he was, when one of the dogs moved, and he span sideways and almost dumped me in the water :rolleyes3:A friend came to stay the night - we had a mini-B&B-disaster as she turned up at the place she'd booked, found out the host was a bit lecherous, that it was actually an hour away - and horror of horrors - it had a purple bathroom :eek3: :biggrin3: Thankfully we managed to find another one, which was really quite pleasant even if we did have to share a bed - good thing we've known each other for so long. Saturday morning she proved very useful as she grazed G while I mucked out, and then as she was rather horrified by my lack of grooming skills, also tidied up his mane and fetlocks, and made him look super-smart.
Went in for my first session, which was me on my own, and G was rather full of it, especially as horses were cantering through the water right next to the arena, but we got him thinking about what he was doing and he soon forgot it. RI had me working on "pause and push" and I got the best medium trot I'd ever had out of him - was a really great flatwork session (in my jump saddle with jump length stirrups!) then quickly headed into the SJ arena where we had G's 2nd big comedy moment - trotting through some poles on the floor, and halfway through he decided he didn't like the sand changing colour and whipped round. I was almost off, but managed to stay on - the photographer was very upset that she hadn't got her camera out for that one! We put him at a small filler just to get our confidence back and then called it a day
After lunch my friend went home and then the lovely ElleSkyWalker turned up to see me with her beautiful Lady Arabella and we sat in the sunshine watching some of the others SJing.
Elle then left just before my afternoon session which was arena XC - again I had a lesson all to myself. I went up and down the banks between all the schools, over a little course, and down the step into the water. Really confidence-giving round. No pictures as I was on late in the day and everyone else was busy getting ready for our night out! Got G to bed, got changed and sorted the lorry out ready for my first ever night in her....was slightly worried about getting up in the cab but someone else assured me getting up was the easy bit - it was getting down that was problematic :wink3: Decided not to drink too much!
Sunday morning I awoke to the sound of rain
Our first session was XC, and as it was so wet, we stayed in arena XC again - I thought this was great as I could really build on the previous day. We started off doing pretty much the course I had done the previous day, and the rain got heavier and heavier, so my plan of doing a couple of the bigger ones got washed away (d'you see what I did there?), and so we ended up sticking to the smaller ones as I had no grip on my reins. Still very confidence-giving despite a few naughty stops/run-outs. Quite a few pics from here:
A naughty run-out:
Hence my backwards stance here:
Step into water:
The afternoon session was SJ and we ended up on a really good round - I would have liked to have gone up another hole but RI said that as we'd had such a good round and we were both tired, it was better to end it there rather than push too far. Sadly, again no photos from that session.
It was a brilliant weekend, and although I didn't get as much done as I'd have liked, we really gained in confidence and met some lovely people.
. 
