Finally our season arrived. We headed over to Great Witchingham with both horses on board. Barbie was entered for the BE80 class as it was her 1st event and Sky was doing the BE100.
Once we arrived we went to pay our start fees and walk Barbies XC course. Barbie has only ever been xc schooling once so it was a big ask for her. Once back to the trailer we unloaded her allowing her to look around and settle. We didn't get off to a great start as I was trying to put her studs in she caught my finger. Me being the wuss I am and nearly fainting 10 minutes later I was back up and finishing her studs. I tacked up fairly early and headed over to the warm up giving her plenty of time to walk around and take in her surroundings before asking for any work. There was the odd moment I thought she could go into melt down and throw a bronc. Thankfully she did settle and we did our best impression of dressage divas, which lets be honest after a winter of hunting was never going to be world beating. Barbie has never done a dressage test containing canter before and this was to be her 1st test on grass. I knew it wasn't anything special and theres plenty of room for improvement but felt her score of 41.5 was slightly harsh for a BE80 class. Again we were very under prepared for such a big event for a baby horse only ever taking her out showjumping once. She never once looked at the fences and flew round the course with just the last fence down due to rider error. The xc was quite a big course and a few questions. She flew round the first half the course extremely confident. However being the polite horse she is, she kindly asked me to check the monsters out first at the trakehner. Luckily once I ditched my air jacket we were allowed to continue. Not quite satisfied I fully checked the ditch for monsters we had a another run out. Determined to not have another run out at this fence with a lot of vocal encouragement we made it to the other side. She went straight through the water but whether she lost her rhythm or confidence slightly we had a run out at part b. She came back round and popped over and we went on to finish the course. I know it might sound a disastrous round but I'm very proud of her. She'd only ever seen XC fences once before I hope she will learn from our mistakes and come out even better next time. We will go and have lots of practice over trakenhers before our next event.
Sky's dressage test was in a long arena. I've only ever ridden a long arena test once before. Our trot work was very tense but she did have some good canter steps. Dressage will always be our weakest phase but we are constantly trying to improve. All last season I showjumped sky in the universal with leather curb strap, but this year I have been jumping her in the pelham at home. I decided to try the pelham out as that's what we've used for practising, annoyingly we had the 1st fence down. Luckily we did manage to keep the rest of the fences up just for the 4 faults. Sky loves the XC phases and gets excited as soon as we head over to the warm up. She was jumping well but felt rather strong and keen, which meant we had a few awkward jumps due to our striding. She nearly jumped me off over a few fences and I lost a stirrup 3 fences from home not wanting to pull her up to get it back I decided to hang on and trust she'll keep going. Thankfully we crossed the finished line together. I can't believe how slow I was going it didn't feel that slow which shows how out of practice we are. I do feel if I had let her go more I'm not sure I would have got her back enough to jump safely. We didn't have a great day on paper, but it was great to get the ponies out and although a long day I can't wait for our next event.
Amber x
Once we arrived we went to pay our start fees and walk Barbies XC course. Barbie has only ever been xc schooling once so it was a big ask for her. Once back to the trailer we unloaded her allowing her to look around and settle. We didn't get off to a great start as I was trying to put her studs in she caught my finger. Me being the wuss I am and nearly fainting 10 minutes later I was back up and finishing her studs. I tacked up fairly early and headed over to the warm up giving her plenty of time to walk around and take in her surroundings before asking for any work. There was the odd moment I thought she could go into melt down and throw a bronc. Thankfully she did settle and we did our best impression of dressage divas, which lets be honest after a winter of hunting was never going to be world beating. Barbie has never done a dressage test containing canter before and this was to be her 1st test on grass. I knew it wasn't anything special and theres plenty of room for improvement but felt her score of 41.5 was slightly harsh for a BE80 class. Again we were very under prepared for such a big event for a baby horse only ever taking her out showjumping once. She never once looked at the fences and flew round the course with just the last fence down due to rider error. The xc was quite a big course and a few questions. She flew round the first half the course extremely confident. However being the polite horse she is, she kindly asked me to check the monsters out first at the trakehner. Luckily once I ditched my air jacket we were allowed to continue. Not quite satisfied I fully checked the ditch for monsters we had a another run out. Determined to not have another run out at this fence with a lot of vocal encouragement we made it to the other side. She went straight through the water but whether she lost her rhythm or confidence slightly we had a run out at part b. She came back round and popped over and we went on to finish the course. I know it might sound a disastrous round but I'm very proud of her. She'd only ever seen XC fences once before I hope she will learn from our mistakes and come out even better next time. We will go and have lots of practice over trakenhers before our next event.
Sky's dressage test was in a long arena. I've only ever ridden a long arena test once before. Our trot work was very tense but she did have some good canter steps. Dressage will always be our weakest phase but we are constantly trying to improve. All last season I showjumped sky in the universal with leather curb strap, but this year I have been jumping her in the pelham at home. I decided to try the pelham out as that's what we've used for practising, annoyingly we had the 1st fence down. Luckily we did manage to keep the rest of the fences up just for the 4 faults. Sky loves the XC phases and gets excited as soon as we head over to the warm up. She was jumping well but felt rather strong and keen, which meant we had a few awkward jumps due to our striding. She nearly jumped me off over a few fences and I lost a stirrup 3 fences from home not wanting to pull her up to get it back I decided to hang on and trust she'll keep going. Thankfully we crossed the finished line together. I can't believe how slow I was going it didn't feel that slow which shows how out of practice we are. I do feel if I had let her go more I'm not sure I would have got her back enough to jump safely. We didn't have a great day on paper, but it was great to get the ponies out and although a long day I can't wait for our next event.
Amber x