Sarah_Jane
Well-Known Member
Well this was my first ever JAS
Set off at 8, now it might seem a bit (or extremely) daft to be going 4 and a half hours each way for a single class however just occasionally it nice to do something totally new. We had an uneventful journey other than the murder of a packet of Jelly Babies. I bought them at the garage to help keep the sugar levels up (good excuse I know) and threw them in the front of the lorry. It was about 2 hours later I realised the heater was on and I now had jelly baby soap. It was vaguely edible after cooling down
.
I walked the Novice course so I had plenty of time to get it in my head there was a lot of jumps in the arena and quite tight lines. Some of the distances were not straightforward, however it looked like it should ride quite nicely. I have struggled with Sarnie just recently to get her truly in front the leg so I planned my warm up to give her 40 minutes of suppling and transitions to really get her listening
.
Tacked up and started working her in walk only for them to announce as they finished the Novice early and all the Open horses were here they were bringing the time forward 15 minutes
. That was not ideal for me losing over a 1/3 of my warm up time, it didn't effect most of the others as badly as I was early to go and most of them had done the class before. I just didn't get her in front the leg properly warming up but we had to go in. Too be fair at that point they said if I wanted to go back out I could but it was a bit late by then. She jumped the first couple ok and then at the double to number 4 I had iwalked it on four and a half strides. I sat up and asked her to wait intending to do 5 strides only for us to get 6 and too close to the upright and give it a rub
(Pictures on my website here )
We finished the SJing section without any more faults and then onto the cross country which again without the impulsion we didn't have the controlled speed and aggression to make the time. Saying that she was very honest and willing and turned tightly into the skinnies and strange fences.
We were 3 seconds over the time which considering we weren't at our best wasn't bad. There was only 1 clear inside the time. Where we lost a lot of marks was style we had a penalty score of 20 with a comment 'needs to be in front your leg more today' (yes I know)
. We finished 6th which was pretty good, on a penalty score of 27. Laura Collet won on a score of 3
. So pleased with the result, not our best performance and things to work on (including an improvement in jockey style!
).
Need to find a key to getting Sarnie really in front of my leg. I think as she is getting older she sometimes has a little bit of been there done it and got the tee shirt so some jollying as well might be the order of the day
I walked the Novice course so I had plenty of time to get it in my head there was a lot of jumps in the arena and quite tight lines. Some of the distances were not straightforward, however it looked like it should ride quite nicely. I have struggled with Sarnie just recently to get her truly in front the leg so I planned my warm up to give her 40 minutes of suppling and transitions to really get her listening
Tacked up and started working her in walk only for them to announce as they finished the Novice early and all the Open horses were here they were bringing the time forward 15 minutes
We finished the SJing section without any more faults and then onto the cross country which again without the impulsion we didn't have the controlled speed and aggression to make the time. Saying that she was very honest and willing and turned tightly into the skinnies and strange fences.
Need to find a key to getting Sarnie really in front of my leg. I think as she is getting older she sometimes has a little bit of been there done it and got the tee shirt so some jollying as well might be the order of the day
