BeckyD
Well-Known Member
Before I start my report, I just have to share this glorious photo:
http://www.everybodysmile.biz/cgi-bin/public.cgi?form_status=order_image&event_id=187738&img=dlsu9397d{654-BALLYDUFF BILL Rebecca Kilby.jpg&anc=p426_0004_es&ss=4&imgcat=654-BALLYDUFF BILL Rebecca Kilby
He might be a bit "special" at times but that picture just shows what a super chap he is.
Anyway! On with my report:
Fresh off the back of our near-placing at Aston le Walls with a 25.5 dressage, pole down SJ and a few XC time faults, I was feeling waaaay too confident about Keysoe. I’ve been working hard on our XC speed at home and bless him Bill was rising to the challenge and surprised us both with how quick he was and how careful he was jumping at speed. I thought Keysoe might be it – the time we get placed. Alternatively I could fall off in the SJ as I have never yet SJ’d in that arena at Keysoe without falling off (bogey venue – fell off the first 6 times there – 4 times in the SJ ring!)! I wasn’t worried about the XC as it was lots of skinnies off turns – playing right to Bill’s strengths – he needs to be challenged then he goes up a gear and really operates.
Ohhhhhhhh how wrong could I be
The moment he threatened to buck me off when I put my leg on in the dressage warmup, I thought “Houston we have a problem”. Did a test that we could have done with more energy if I had carried HIM round. 37.5 was fair really. The video does make me want to take a lunge whip to him
[youtube]YxixL7La4rk[/youtube]
The SJ warmup fences were huge (all max height on the wings for BE100) and my OH doesn’t do changing them for me, so I just had to get on with it. Bill seemed a bit surprised and had to get himself out of trouble over the first oxer but that did him the world of good as he was really locking on after that. He was giving everything plenty of air so I felt very confident going into the ring! Doh.
Bearing in mind Bill has never been the same twice to SJ, and that I’m neither the most capable nor experienced rider, our SJ rounds can be somewhat entertaining. For a moment he went into “feral pony” mode that he did at Carlton and I thought “Aha! I’ve got you as I know how to ride this Bill” (quietly) but it seems I went too quietly as before I knew it we were spooking, ducking and diving our way to the first fence, and grinding to a halt some way in front of it. Sigh. Bang go my hopes of our first BE clear at SJ (don’t ask me why, but he can jump clear at BS and unaff 1m ODEs but not BE!).
Soooooo, I rode again at fence 1 with more conviction and made it all the way round to the double where he wobbled again but jumped it, tapping the first part down. Finished with 3 time faults to add to 8 jumping faults. Sigh again. But at least I didn’t fall off!!
[youtube]1YuDaPLEoqU[/youtube]
I got Bill ready for XC and set off determinedly for XC warmup where Holidays_are_coming was the best XC collecting ring steward ever . I ran through my repertoire of exercises to get Bill back on his hocks but not a single one was working; instead he was choosing to nosedive over all the jumps. At this point I thought our numbers were up as he hit a small fence full whack with his front legs and we SO nearly tipped up. I bashed my hand on his neck (and fractured a finger?!) and gave him a kick and a wallop and brought him immediately round to the biggest warmup fence which thankfully he jumped nicely.
Sooooo, off we set over fence 1, all good, then onto 2, got a super jump over that, cantered on to fence 3, out of our stride and then he chipped in at 4 for absolutely no reason, and clouted it. Again I gave him a kick and smack and lost concentration so failed to get on my line for fence 5. Too late I swerved right to get in line for it but Bill didn’t have time to acclimatise himself to the flowers on top and ducked out, doing a 180 and tipping me over his shoulder. He’s not the sort to hang around when spooked so he galloped home. There was no point trying again as he wasn’t up for it at all, so I called it a day. So that stop was my fault really.
Bill seemed fine and none the worse for it, so I iced his legs, washed off and got him comfy, and headed home. Got back to yard, all fine. Hosed his legs as usual, all OK. Sorted lorry out and got kit tidied away and went back to arnica and witch hazel his legs, and hey presto we had a fat left foreleg (puffy but not hot). Emergency call to vets followed by cold hosing and pressure bandage and bute. Vet coming out to scan on Friday. Looks like giant windgall so fingers crossed that's all it is.
No Blenheim RC Eventer challenge for us (sob) next week.
I learnt several very valuable lessons though, and am itching to correct my errors:
• In my desperation to make the time, I quashed my gut instinct to take the long route instead of the corner (the route to get to the corner wasn’t great). I sacrificed completion.
• It is more disappointing to fall off at fence 5, than it is to complete the course slowly and with time faults.
• I need more practice SJ. I’m going to dedicate this winter to SJ (if he’s OK). Last winter I worked on dressage and he’s now happily/easily medium level at home and is correct in his training albeit he doesn’t naturally have a quick hind leg. We won’t get consistently good scores at dressage competitions until the day when I can keep him in front of my leg in every test and no amount of practice seems to fix that. One day it will happen. So for now I need to focus on SJ as consistently having one fence down is driving me totally insane.
• I love Bill and can’t bear to think of anything bad happening to him (injury) so perhaps I’m not cut out for eventing?
• Keysoe is still our bogey venue.
I really do think I’m pretty rubbish at this eventing lark. Has anyone else evented for 3 years with not even the sniff of a frilly?!
http://www.everybodysmile.biz/cgi-bin/public.cgi?form_status=order_image&event_id=187738&img=dlsu9397d{654-BALLYDUFF BILL Rebecca Kilby.jpg&anc=p426_0004_es&ss=4&imgcat=654-BALLYDUFF BILL Rebecca Kilby
He might be a bit "special" at times but that picture just shows what a super chap he is.
Anyway! On with my report:
Fresh off the back of our near-placing at Aston le Walls with a 25.5 dressage, pole down SJ and a few XC time faults, I was feeling waaaay too confident about Keysoe. I’ve been working hard on our XC speed at home and bless him Bill was rising to the challenge and surprised us both with how quick he was and how careful he was jumping at speed. I thought Keysoe might be it – the time we get placed. Alternatively I could fall off in the SJ as I have never yet SJ’d in that arena at Keysoe without falling off (bogey venue – fell off the first 6 times there – 4 times in the SJ ring!)! I wasn’t worried about the XC as it was lots of skinnies off turns – playing right to Bill’s strengths – he needs to be challenged then he goes up a gear and really operates.
Ohhhhhhhh how wrong could I be
The moment he threatened to buck me off when I put my leg on in the dressage warmup, I thought “Houston we have a problem”. Did a test that we could have done with more energy if I had carried HIM round. 37.5 was fair really. The video does make me want to take a lunge whip to him
[youtube]YxixL7La4rk[/youtube]
The SJ warmup fences were huge (all max height on the wings for BE100) and my OH doesn’t do changing them for me, so I just had to get on with it. Bill seemed a bit surprised and had to get himself out of trouble over the first oxer but that did him the world of good as he was really locking on after that. He was giving everything plenty of air so I felt very confident going into the ring! Doh.
Bearing in mind Bill has never been the same twice to SJ, and that I’m neither the most capable nor experienced rider, our SJ rounds can be somewhat entertaining. For a moment he went into “feral pony” mode that he did at Carlton and I thought “Aha! I’ve got you as I know how to ride this Bill” (quietly) but it seems I went too quietly as before I knew it we were spooking, ducking and diving our way to the first fence, and grinding to a halt some way in front of it. Sigh. Bang go my hopes of our first BE clear at SJ (don’t ask me why, but he can jump clear at BS and unaff 1m ODEs but not BE!).
Soooooo, I rode again at fence 1 with more conviction and made it all the way round to the double where he wobbled again but jumped it, tapping the first part down. Finished with 3 time faults to add to 8 jumping faults. Sigh again. But at least I didn’t fall off!!
[youtube]1YuDaPLEoqU[/youtube]
I got Bill ready for XC and set off determinedly for XC warmup where Holidays_are_coming was the best XC collecting ring steward ever . I ran through my repertoire of exercises to get Bill back on his hocks but not a single one was working; instead he was choosing to nosedive over all the jumps. At this point I thought our numbers were up as he hit a small fence full whack with his front legs and we SO nearly tipped up. I bashed my hand on his neck (and fractured a finger?!) and gave him a kick and a wallop and brought him immediately round to the biggest warmup fence which thankfully he jumped nicely.
Sooooo, off we set over fence 1, all good, then onto 2, got a super jump over that, cantered on to fence 3, out of our stride and then he chipped in at 4 for absolutely no reason, and clouted it. Again I gave him a kick and smack and lost concentration so failed to get on my line for fence 5. Too late I swerved right to get in line for it but Bill didn’t have time to acclimatise himself to the flowers on top and ducked out, doing a 180 and tipping me over his shoulder. He’s not the sort to hang around when spooked so he galloped home. There was no point trying again as he wasn’t up for it at all, so I called it a day. So that stop was my fault really.
Bill seemed fine and none the worse for it, so I iced his legs, washed off and got him comfy, and headed home. Got back to yard, all fine. Hosed his legs as usual, all OK. Sorted lorry out and got kit tidied away and went back to arnica and witch hazel his legs, and hey presto we had a fat left foreleg (puffy but not hot). Emergency call to vets followed by cold hosing and pressure bandage and bute. Vet coming out to scan on Friday. Looks like giant windgall so fingers crossed that's all it is.
No Blenheim RC Eventer challenge for us (sob) next week.
I learnt several very valuable lessons though, and am itching to correct my errors:
• In my desperation to make the time, I quashed my gut instinct to take the long route instead of the corner (the route to get to the corner wasn’t great). I sacrificed completion.
• It is more disappointing to fall off at fence 5, than it is to complete the course slowly and with time faults.
• I need more practice SJ. I’m going to dedicate this winter to SJ (if he’s OK). Last winter I worked on dressage and he’s now happily/easily medium level at home and is correct in his training albeit he doesn’t naturally have a quick hind leg. We won’t get consistently good scores at dressage competitions until the day when I can keep him in front of my leg in every test and no amount of practice seems to fix that. One day it will happen. So for now I need to focus on SJ as consistently having one fence down is driving me totally insane.
• I love Bill and can’t bear to think of anything bad happening to him (injury) so perhaps I’m not cut out for eventing?
• Keysoe is still our bogey venue.
I really do think I’m pretty rubbish at this eventing lark. Has anyone else evented for 3 years with not even the sniff of a frilly?!
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