weekend plans!

I don't think we are going anywhere, after having a hugely busy week...

Me and Fionn the Connie had arena eventing last Sunday, an xc lesson on Wednesday and an SJ clinic at a new venue today... All went well, though he can sti be very green and spooky.

LO and his Welsh sec A had an all day PC rally yesterday where he did his first ever bounce and double bounce, a 3ft wide skinny, a corner fence and lots of sj and XC.

Might take LO to Halloween SJ on Sunday if we are feeling recovered but at the moment I'm sitting with a Lemsip feeling cold and shivery....

Good luck everyone out and about..... Kick on 😉😉😉

Fiona
 
Ooft... not used to the early starts anymore 😳 plus it was miserable here this morning - wet and pretty windy.

Quick detour to pick Eleanor up from trainers yard and made it to Muirmill only 10 minutes behind schedule. The 80 looked tiny so decided to just do the 85, which, of course, looked decent 🙄

Henry went very green on me coming round to the first fence. He just tipped the front rail but bucked up his ideas once we were over one and two. Only our third show together so still very much a work in progress - planning to move up to the novice next week so we’ll see how that goes.

Ellie was a star, as usual... not too keen on the indoor warmup so trainer took outside and she didn’t even flinch in the wind - not even when one of the jump wings got blown over.

She jumped another DC to finish 3rd so that’s her now got her 4 BN and Discovery double clears for second rounds.

It’s my turn next week 😧
Lesson Monday so 🤞🏻 I can remember what I’m supposed to be doing.
 
Had a lovely schooling session today. First time I've enjoyed schooling in absolutely ages. Got a date set for our first competition since May! After this summer I'll be glad just to be out... Simply getting out and about is amazing :D We went hacking on Thursday which was plenty of fun. She loaded perfectly on her own. Super girl.

Good luck to all competing!! And those staying at home or having lessons, enjoy!
Attached photo of her out hacking as I still can't quite believe we have our own transport :)
 

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My weekend went to poo this afternoon when Red decided that the hitching of the trailer in advance of being brought in was too much temptation. Whether it was the thought of a trip out or the wind, she set off round the field like a loon, front hoof stands and skidding stops are a specialty when shes feeling like this! No warm up required! Caught her, sorted her out and loaded and off we went. Wind at lesson arena was bad so she was equally special and whilst i got on ok with a little help she was exuberant and managed the sort of collected walk i would normally only dream of. Now it took 10 minutes of this before she agreed the waving hedge wouldnt eat and then the problem really started. Asked for trot, expected rocket like enthusiasm and only got a sticky shuffle. Gave it another try on other rein and she was clearly not comfortable. Not lame but not happy. So off i pop and a check showed she was tender and tight in lower back - pranged something looning! So physio called, sachet of bute and rest and hopefully what looks like a muscle prang will respond to physio.
 
We had 2 brilliant, challenging and productive lessons. My lesson on Friday was hard. It needed to happen, but it was challenging for my confidence and I just had to ride through somethings I would rather not but needed to to progress. My coach got on Henry too and showed me a few things so on Saturday I was feeling so much more confident.

Saturdays lesson saw huge improvement and for the first time ever I felt like my baby horse was grown up and the sort of horse I'd want to sit on in a competition. He was amazing, and my confidence in my horse, and my training and ability to train is there. It's been missing for a while but I needed these lessons to show me I can do this, and that my baby horse is a very good boy.

I feel so excited to keep progressing with this horse. I know it will continue to be a challenge but I think that we have over come our biggest challenge, my own confidence, and now things will be a lot easier.IMG_5233 (1).jpg
 
We had great fun at our SJ comp this morning- M was just perfectly behaved, he got some new fans who held him for me while I walked the course, he's such a sociable wee dude.

We had one down in both classes, small mistakes but overall very happy with his way of going. Will try and get out most weekends now before Christmas (weather dependant!)
 
Can you believe it...My horsebox broke so I had to withdraw, again!! It always manages to break on a competition (normally pre entered) day, never on a day when I'm just going out for schooling 🙄 looks like it needs a new water pump. It's frustrating as it's just spent 2 months in the garage getting fixed and welded to get through it's MOT (they were doing it around other stuff) so was happy to get out and it was waterfalling when I pulled it out this morning 😅

Never mind, there's always another competition. Just worried about my confidence issues as i need to get out again. Hope everyone else did well!
 
Hopefully this week will see T and me start proper fitness hacking. We've been in economy mode whilst waiting to get her hocks jabbed again. She had them done a week ago, then we waited on getting scary-but-nice team GB physio out to treat her back, which is still quite weak. I was relating to the physio how I finally thought we have all our ducks in a row to start proper work, only for T come of the stable dead lame on her off fore :eek:. I could have died. Much prodding and poking ensued, and we both agreed it looked like foot, so physio advised getting farrier before vet and carried on treating T's back as normal.
T was virtually sound again the next day so I think she must have trodden in a stone. It was one of those 'FFS why do I keep horses' moments, though.
 
We got two red rosettes by default at the showjumping :-) Didn't realise they were splitting us seniors and juniors and no other seniors came to play in the later classes.

We had a silly stop in the 70. Went nicely to fence 6, which was a particularly awful filler with vertical gaps in it, which make awful shadow patterns, and I'm ashamed to say I basically pulled him up because I remembered my old mare and how much she hated it. Bless him, he stopped politely when he realised I didn't want to jump! Yelled at myself, and we popped over and went lovely around the rest.

We would have been 5th if they'd combined the juniors with seniors.

80 was over the same track, and we flew round for a lovely clear. It was A5 so a quick breather and we were in the jump off - we managed to leave a stride out the double and clear the ladder off of three turning strides and then numpty rider decided we could also leave out a stride to the last fence and we caught the back pole. Gutting! Red rosette which my instructor threatened to confiscate, but we'd have been 2nd if they'd combined and 1st overall if we'd been clear - we were 2.1 seconds ahead on the clock!

He also mortified me in the warmup - trailers were parked around the outside of the warmup because the water laying everywhere and we were trotting along happy when he dived sideways and attacked a haynet on the side of a trailer. Luckily there was no one else around and I got him away with only one stolen mouthful.

A lovely day, even if we didn't quite deseve two wins!
 
Great day at Eland Lodge Arena Eventing. Initially entered the 90 but chickened out and dropped down to the 80. Amber jumped everything as if it was a metre so I needn't have bothered. :D:D

Happy with a safe clear outside the optimum time. I'll speed up next time!

Jenny was AWESOME. Also entered the 80 and flew over everything without hesitation - just got in too deep to an oxer for 4 faults. Just love that pony. Have ordered some pics but in the meantime here they are....


On a less good note Max is lame again..... Vet has now seen him lame...sound....lame...sound...lame so we will start investigating tomorrow. Fingers crossed for a simple answer. Or at least an answer.
 
We did this! 2nd time out so he knew what was coming and was very excited but kept a lid on it, we just did a bit of circling in walk before the off. Once we got going he was awesome! I am still a chicken when it comes to jumping but galloping about the countryside is so much fun. 😁
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Michen said:
We’re you at Moundsmere!?
Click to expand...

<waves> I did look out for you actually but now I know what you look like in hunting attire, I should be able to spot you next time. You’ll be in the front though, we tend to stick to the back! Lovely day but hit traffic on the m3 heading back and then F took a while to settle, so I got home after 9 (I was on poo watch haha). An 11 hour day!

ETA boggle looks fantastic!
 
I've managed to get hold of a saddle that fits, so Blue and I had our first ridden lesson on Saturday, where she was an absolute star. She's very green, but extremely smart and willing, and so much more forward than when I tried her. On the ground, she's a grumpy moo with her ears back all the time, but she perks up as soon as she's given something to think about. We've got a few basic things to sort - not rushing into trot, learning what 'bending' is - but mostly it's all there, and she responds beautifully.

On Sunday, we went for our first hack, nannied by an extremely large and steady gelding, who she spent five minutes trying to flirt with before giving up. She was absolutely perfect. We encountered so many things that would have sent my old share horse into a tizzy of spinning and bunny-hopping and trying to run home, but, other than a bit of a jump when a stealth cyclist shot past, she didn't even twitch an ear.

I'm not sure I've ever felt so safe on a horse. So far, she's been everything she was sold as, and I love her to bits.
 
We've had a busy busy few days, with jumping lessons for me and an all day PC rally for LO. Then yesterday we took LO and pony out for some Halloween SJ and they were brilliant. Won the warm up style class, and then went beautifully in the 45 and 55cm classes to jump 2 double clears and win both classes against the clock...

He rode so well on a very spooky pony, and didn't go mad against the clock, just did a few nice flowing inside turns and kept coming... Very proud mummy here.

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I'm really jealous of all the hunting pics bernster and michen, I really miss hunting since our bloodhound pack folded 😣😣

Fiona
 
Rather quiet weekend for us, just schooling at home.
Although we have recently partnered with SoloGroom so yesterday consisted of a mini photo shoot for their website wearing some gorgeous branded items ... exciting stuff :p
 

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