3 days later and I'm still buzzing about our trip to Aston Le Walls. As always I got everything ready the night before even though we weren't leaving till 10:30am. Sky was plaited and bathed, and tack cleaned but the only problem I had was trying to get her studs in. An urgent message sent round twitter for help came to the conclusion I would have to go stud less or hope that a new tap would fix my problem thankfully it did.
In the week leading up to the event Sky was being worked twice a day. It seems she thrives on more work and becomes much more rideable and not so wild. She warmed up nicely for dressage but she still needs to learn to settle around the boards straight away not half way through the test. Saying that it was one of our nicest test even with some blips. I was hoping for under 40 as usual. I was very pleased with our 36.5 a score we've only had once before.
We had plenty of time to walk the xc and check the scores before our showjumping time. Sadly my score wasn't up yet, but it looked like lots riders were having showjumping faults. I was trying a different bit to usual for the jumping. Instead of her normal universal I was trying her xc bit. We had a really annoying pole down where I just got the wrong stride, she tried her hardest to jump it but sadly couldn't clear it. She didnt deserve it at all as it was one of our best rounds lately. She was really listening and jumping, she did her changes when necessary.
We rushed straight off to change for xc as we were late for our time. Another wait as I forgot my medical armband. The lovely calm pony I had in the sj soon turned into a beast the second we got to the xc warm up. She flew out the start box. There was a water jump early on at fence 5; I brought her back to a steadier canter to give her time to see the water before the jump before. I still gave some vocal encouragement to keep going. She flew through the water and round to fence 8. Where we very nearly had a problem, Her mouth was a little sore so she was hanging to the left a bit thankfully we managed to jump on the angle and stay inside the flag. Fence 9 was her least favourite type of fence she still struggles to jump after cantering up a bank. I kept my leg on and thankfully she didn't hesitate. She came home clear 8 seconds inside the time hardly out of breath, shows how fit she is. As I was one of the last to go, the scores were nearly all up when I finished sorting Sky, except mine and a couple of others. It looked like I might just make the placing so naturally of course we had to stay to find out. I couldn't believe it we came 10th our first ever BE rosette. The day I've waited so long for. Our pole down proved costly as I would have been 5th without it. But to be placed at all was a huge achievement for us. Especially when we have had times thinking I may not even event her again. It wasn't until we were on our drive home I realised we had received an 8 for our halt. Of course I was in shock so had to immediatly tell my dressage instructor. Next stop is Prestwold Novice. .Both the ponies will then have a week off as I'm off to Scope to groom for a friend.
Amber x
In the week leading up to the event Sky was being worked twice a day. It seems she thrives on more work and becomes much more rideable and not so wild. She warmed up nicely for dressage but she still needs to learn to settle around the boards straight away not half way through the test. Saying that it was one of our nicest test even with some blips. I was hoping for under 40 as usual. I was very pleased with our 36.5 a score we've only had once before.
We had plenty of time to walk the xc and check the scores before our showjumping time. Sadly my score wasn't up yet, but it looked like lots riders were having showjumping faults. I was trying a different bit to usual for the jumping. Instead of her normal universal I was trying her xc bit. We had a really annoying pole down where I just got the wrong stride, she tried her hardest to jump it but sadly couldn't clear it. She didnt deserve it at all as it was one of our best rounds lately. She was really listening and jumping, she did her changes when necessary.
We rushed straight off to change for xc as we were late for our time. Another wait as I forgot my medical armband. The lovely calm pony I had in the sj soon turned into a beast the second we got to the xc warm up. She flew out the start box. There was a water jump early on at fence 5; I brought her back to a steadier canter to give her time to see the water before the jump before. I still gave some vocal encouragement to keep going. She flew through the water and round to fence 8. Where we very nearly had a problem, Her mouth was a little sore so she was hanging to the left a bit thankfully we managed to jump on the angle and stay inside the flag. Fence 9 was her least favourite type of fence she still struggles to jump after cantering up a bank. I kept my leg on and thankfully she didn't hesitate. She came home clear 8 seconds inside the time hardly out of breath, shows how fit she is. As I was one of the last to go, the scores were nearly all up when I finished sorting Sky, except mine and a couple of others. It looked like I might just make the placing so naturally of course we had to stay to find out. I couldn't believe it we came 10th our first ever BE rosette. The day I've waited so long for. Our pole down proved costly as I would have been 5th without it. But to be placed at all was a huge achievement for us. Especially when we have had times thinking I may not even event her again. It wasn't until we were on our drive home I realised we had received an 8 for our halt. Of course I was in shock so had to immediatly tell my dressage instructor. Next stop is Prestwold Novice. .Both the ponies will then have a week off as I'm off to Scope to groom for a friend.
Amber x