Went to Golden Cross Derby Meeting today........

R

Rambo

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...............and wished we'd never bothered
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As the venue is just a few minutes down the road from us, i popped in yesterday to see how things were going. The going looked superb and everything looked good, so i was looking forward to our turn on sunday
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We arrived at 9am in time for class 2 in the main ring...the 1.05m Open Derby. Bo was defending his 4th place from last year, but today it was different...it was wet.........very wet
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The heavens opened overnight, and it didn't stop all day. They had put 30,000 litres of water on the ring on friday as it hadn't rained all week...and i reckon another 30,000 litres fell today at least
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Bo was less than happy with the going, despite his studs, and slid into the first fence for a refusal. He then jumped it at the second time of asking, but only got as far as number 7 before the same happened again...so elimination. I withdrew him from the 1.15m Derby as the ground was deteriorating rapidly and he clearly wasn't happy
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Trike was originally entered for the 90cms Am qualifier in ring 2, but that clashed with the 1.05m Derby so i swapped him to the 1m Am qualifier instead. He seemed to be okay with the ground at first, although he had a nappy, silly runout at the first fence. Then he picked up his game and was jumping great until number 4 when he completely lost his backend and sat down as he slid
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So, another elimination...
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I felt sorry for Trike as he was jumping really nicely to that point. He managed to stud himself in the stifle where he sat down too, so is probably a little sore this evening although he's been sprayed and bedded down nicely for the night
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All in all, a cr@p day out, and a dreadful days preparation for Hickstead which start on thursday for us.

We weren't alone though, plenty of people were having problems today.........
 
Oh, poor you. Put it behind you though and fingers crossed the ground is better at Hickstead for you. What classes are you doing there?
 
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Oh, poor you. Put it behind you though and fingers crossed the ground is better at Hickstead for you. What classes are you doing there?

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I'll be honest and say, our confidence is shattered at the moment
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We're in the 1.10m Amateur on thursday and the 1.15m Derby on saturday............but i'm not confident about either if i'm honest
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If the worst comes to the worst, i might try and persuade a pro that i know to do the Derby with him.........at least try and salvage something from the £110 entry fees
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Oh dear. I once went to a hypnotist as I felt really crap about my riding. This is what he told me to do.

Remember a time it all went right and how that made you feel. Think of this before you go near Bo, so that you are radiating cocky confidence as you approach him and think of it while you go into the ring etc. It does help.

Also think of the time it went wrong. Now you are sat in a room with a TV in the corner, 'play' the image on the TV. remove the colour from the picture and the sound and make it all grainy as you replay it thru your head and somehow it makes what happended less significant until it no longer matters and you can think about with out the emotion attached.

It did help me but I probably haven't explained it too well.

Jump the 1.10 as you have been very successful at that lately and 1.15 is only 1 hole bigger and smaller than the 1.10 jump off so you'll do great.
 
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Rambo, could you hire a venue on Tuesday and take them for a school round, making the fences really inviting and straight forward, it would be nice to give the boys a confidence boost before hickstead!

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I've been running through the options with OH this evening....thing is, we have all the facilities at home, and we have no problems. I've come to the conclusion that we don't 'do' anything that isn't on a perfect surface, and even if i go to Royal Leisure on tuesday to jump on their surface, i still have to contend with the mud at Hickstead
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sorry to hear about your day - and cant believe its meant to be summer!! Must have been such a disappointment for the organisers

If its any consolation, I took my mare to a riding club ODE today at borde hill and had an accident in the show jumping. I kept her really, really steady because the ground was so wet. Came to the 2nd part of the double and she slipped (no idea how it happened as she was going in a straight line with big studs in!!) and went right over on her side, landing on me
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now feeling very sore - luckily she only had a little graze from the studs and seems ok now.

think i may emmigrate to a country with more consistent weather!!!
 
Sorry to hear that
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I hope both boys are none the worse for wear. It has been horrendous here and I was due to run at Marchington yesterday. To be honest I am glad they did - the going would have been horrendous. When is our summer going to start?
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sorry to hear about your day - and cant believe its meant to be summer!! Must have been such a disappointment for the organisers

If its any consolation, I took my mare to a riding club ODE today at borde hill and had an accident in the show jumping. I kept her really, really steady because the ground was so wet. Came to the 2nd part of the double and she slipped (no idea how it happened as she was going in a straight line with big studs in!!) and went right over on her side, landing on me
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now feeling very sore - luckily she only had a little graze from the studs and seems ok now.

think i may emmigrate to a country with more consistent weather!!!

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Ouch!

I hope you are both okay in the morning.

The weather today has been dreadful...and like you, both of mine had big studs in today, but they seemed to have little effect
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[ QUOTE ]
Oh dear. I once went to a hypnotist as I felt really crap about my riding. This is what he told me to do.

Remember a time it all went right and how that made you feel. Think of this before you go near Bo, so that you are radiating cocky confidence as you approach him and think of it while you go into the ring etc. It does help.

Also think of the time it went wrong. Now you are sat in a room with a TV in the corner, 'play' the image on the TV. remove the colour from the picture and the sound and make it all grainy as you replay it thru your head and somehow it makes what happended less significant until it no longer matters and you can think about with out the emotion attached.

It did help me but I probably haven't explained it too well.

Jump the 1.10 as you have been very successful at that lately and 1.15 is only 1 hole bigger and smaller than the 1.10 jump off so you'll do great.

[/ QUOTE ]

Lol!

Well, while I don't necessarily belive in hypnotists or the like, what you say is about positive thoughts is very true. Problem for me now is that I stepped down to 1.05m today to boost the confidence but it's had the opposite effect as I now feel completely useless as I couldn't even get round that
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Neither did I, I sat there the whole time completely scepitical and thinking this is never going to work. But I rode very differently at the next show.

I've always been told that wet ground adds an extra 10cms to the height of a jump so you were really doing a 1.15 today
 
gutted, put it down to just a bad day. i had a rubbish day too yesterday, fell off in the b&c(entirely my faults and i so deserved it!) but hey
really hope hickstead is a bit better for you...fingers crossed
 
Just seen the weather forecast for the next few days and it's looking wet, wet, wet
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A months rainfall in the next 24hrs for some places.

Who's idea was it to move the Derby Meeting to the same weekend as Wimbledon anyway
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