Hattikins
Well-Known Member
Well firstly an apology for being absent from posting on HHO for a while, have been lurking but just busy doing not quite sure what!!
I think I last posted after Rackham, so since then my lovely Hattikins is on the market in preparation for me going to uni
and as the ground is hard she's just having a fun time SJing at the moment. Little coloured chappy on the other hand went to Little Mattingley 10days ago and excelled himself with a 26.5 dressage and double clear with 2tf time pens (massive slapped wrist for me) I was suitably embaressed but he's just so super quick and wastes no time before, over or after fences and doesnt need any setting up and being all of 15hhs his cornering is very neat! Anyway he still came away with a win which we were all very chuffed about as he hadnt jumped for 3 weeks owing to me and his owners being on holiday and us boring the pants off him the 2 preceeding weeks by taking him showing!!
Sooo..... onto W.Wilts:
It's a 4hour journey for us, so we decided as J and his stable mate were both qualified we'd make a day of it and stable them the night before. They settled in very well and the 5 of us all went off to find our lovely B&B and a good pub for the evening, after getting absolutely soaked walking the XC - we had water just pouring down our faces and my jeans were so wet I had water running into my wellies! I have never been so drenched in my entire life!
The following morning having had a monumental breakfast courtesy of the lovely B&B consisting of cereal and fresh fruit, followed by a full cooked breakfast, followed by toast and homemade marmalades we all heaved ourselves back to W.wilts! (we did feel for the poor ponies having to carry us after that!)
Our times were civilised so I had time to partially bath jack having lain in poo all night, and then plait and slowly tack up. Watched some SJing which had been moved indoors and was causing no end of trouble, though not surprisingly causing little problem in the regional sections. Tootled off to dressage and J was feeling very full of himself - he'd caught sight of his stable mate (who wasnt stabled near him over night) and took full advantage of his vocal chords whilst warming up! Once his friend had done his test, we tactfully removed him and J quietened down sufficiently enough to do another one of his lovely tests - accurate, soft, active and rideable. Didnt know how he'd fair though as he's not your typical dressage horse (or eventer for that matter!) and after half the scores were up, the best was on 33 and the worst was on 39! It seemed to be anybody's game.
Onto the SJing and Jack jumped a lovely neat round, I made sure I rode him every step of the way but he gave me no worries at anything and it was a nice clear round. Think it may have been the first time i have ever jumped him indoors!
Quick change and off to the XC which was also causing a smattering of problems across the normal 90 sections but again, no trouble in the regionals. So off we set and he proceeded to give me a lovely ride, he really does love his XC! The only hairy moment was at the final fence which had silver barrels set into a wooden box ish thing(!) and he didnt see it until we'd popped through the gap in the hedge and he stuck an extra stride in which I so wasnt ready for! But we were home safe and sound nonetheless.
So to round off a very long 2 days Jack clocked a 31.5 dressage which was joint best dressage and we finished on our dressage score but were then nudged into 2nd place overall as we went XC in 4.27 and the winner went round in 4.29 which was 2secs closer to the optimum time! Close or what!! 10th place I think finished on 35.5 so there was just 4penalties separating the top 10!
Absolutely over the moon - never thought we'd qualify for the Badminton Grassroots champs on our first attempt (or at all in fact!) and was relying on having a second shot at Firle in 2weeks time! Huge huge hugs to such a superstar pony who so far this year has won 3 out of 5 events and never been out of the top 8!
Tea and cake to those who bothered to decipher my ramblings!
I think I last posted after Rackham, so since then my lovely Hattikins is on the market in preparation for me going to uni
and as the ground is hard she's just having a fun time SJing at the moment. Little coloured chappy on the other hand went to Little Mattingley 10days ago and excelled himself with a 26.5 dressage and double clear with 2tf time pens (massive slapped wrist for me) I was suitably embaressed but he's just so super quick and wastes no time before, over or after fences and doesnt need any setting up and being all of 15hhs his cornering is very neat! Anyway he still came away with a win which we were all very chuffed about as he hadnt jumped for 3 weeks owing to me and his owners being on holiday and us boring the pants off him the 2 preceeding weeks by taking him showing!! Sooo..... onto W.Wilts:
It's a 4hour journey for us, so we decided as J and his stable mate were both qualified we'd make a day of it and stable them the night before. They settled in very well and the 5 of us all went off to find our lovely B&B and a good pub for the evening, after getting absolutely soaked walking the XC - we had water just pouring down our faces and my jeans were so wet I had water running into my wellies! I have never been so drenched in my entire life!
The following morning having had a monumental breakfast courtesy of the lovely B&B consisting of cereal and fresh fruit, followed by a full cooked breakfast, followed by toast and homemade marmalades we all heaved ourselves back to W.wilts!
(we did feel for the poor ponies having to carry us after that!)Our times were civilised so I had time to partially bath jack having lain in poo all night, and then plait and slowly tack up. Watched some SJing which had been moved indoors and was causing no end of trouble, though not surprisingly causing little problem in the regional sections. Tootled off to dressage and J was feeling very full of himself - he'd caught sight of his stable mate (who wasnt stabled near him over night) and took full advantage of his vocal chords whilst warming up! Once his friend had done his test, we tactfully removed him and J quietened down sufficiently enough to do another one of his lovely tests - accurate, soft, active and rideable. Didnt know how he'd fair though as he's not your typical dressage horse (or eventer for that matter!) and after half the scores were up, the best was on 33 and the worst was on 39! It seemed to be anybody's game.
Onto the SJing and Jack jumped a lovely neat round, I made sure I rode him every step of the way but he gave me no worries at anything and it was a nice clear round. Think it may have been the first time i have ever jumped him indoors!
Quick change and off to the XC which was also causing a smattering of problems across the normal 90 sections but again, no trouble in the regionals. So off we set and he proceeded to give me a lovely ride, he really does love his XC! The only hairy moment was at the final fence which had silver barrels set into a wooden box ish thing(!) and he didnt see it until we'd popped through the gap in the hedge and he stuck an extra stride in which I so wasnt ready for! But we were home safe and sound nonetheless.
So to round off a very long 2 days Jack clocked a 31.5 dressage which was joint best dressage and we finished on our dressage score but were then nudged into 2nd place overall as we went XC in 4.27 and the winner went round in 4.29 which was 2secs closer to the optimum time! Close or what!! 10th place I think finished on 35.5 so there was just 4penalties separating the top 10!
Absolutely over the moon - never thought we'd qualify for the Badminton Grassroots champs on our first attempt (or at all in fact!) and was relying on having a second shot at Firle in 2weeks time!
Huge huge hugs to such a superstar pony who so far this year has won 3 out of 5 events and never been out of the top 8!Tea and cake to those who bothered to decipher my ramblings!
