Last Monday I took Lexi to her second show at Hall Place. We entered the in hand sports horse and in hand riding horse.
This time she loaded like a dream. She was a bit tense when we arrived and took a huge dislike to the fly spray but generally was much more chilled. She didn't fidget in the ring and trotted up beautifully. I was disappointed to come 4th in the competition horse (below a welsh cob??) but won the riding horse. Not sure about the judging as the horse that won competition horse came second to us in riding horse but hey ho!
We won a lovely challenge trophy and a £100 voucher towards a photo shoot!
A face only a mother can love!!!
I would like to eat my trophy please!
We considered waiting for the championship but it was judged by the same judge and I couldn't be bothered to wait 4 hours to be judged by a strange judge so we went home! Which was lovely. She is now having a holiday - its only been a week and I'm desperate to get back on her! 3 weeks to go!
Now Firle Place. I lunged Squirrel in the pessoa the day before, which I think I may try again as he was lovely and soft in the dressage warm up.
We stayed at some lovely stabling and I took him for a little hack that evening on the south downs. Actually I feel a bit bitter as I took a wrong turn and spent 40 minutes going up and down a very very boring chalk track in a hedge, then decided to just follow the path the other way past the stabling for 10 minutes and ended up on the bloody south downs! By this point Squirrel was pretty tired and cranky (was lunged for half an hour and REALLY worked, plus 3 hours travelling and an hours hack!) so I took him back after a quite canter and a sneaky pop over a hunt fence.
It was a bit nostalgic as I actually rode the entire south downs way on Lacey on my own in aid of the Brooke charity which at 16 was an amazing experience! I arranged all the stop places, route, ect myself. I intended to follow this with a John O'Groats to Lands End trip but the pony failed her vet inspection a month prior to the kick off which was very disappointing.
Anyway. I had very late times on Sunday (not starting til 3pm!) and we were up and ready to go at 7.45am as our neighbour lost her car keys and we offered her a lift so she was able to do her 1* SJ. Her dad made it in the nick of time to give her the spare keys so we were no longer needed. However I was glad to be ready to go as the other horses stabling had left and Squirrel was getting a bit tensed up.
I spent a nice long time walking the Be100 and looking at the 1* XC. I was actually quite happy with the 1* xc and definitely feel it would be within our reach as soon as we crack some issues.
We spent some time doing activities with the dogs and having a bash at Archery before having a nap then FINALLY getting round to riding.
I wasn't particularly focused in my dressage warm up but pulled myself together for the test. As I was HC the focus was very much on schooling, and I was determine Squirrel would not switch off in the test. This meant after the free walk he had several big kicks, once he responded with a buck, but I felt very pleased with the test. I received a 33 which I was pleased with, as if I had sat and made it pretty we would of been sub 30 I'm sure. I was disappointed with the test sheet though as it was straight 6s and 7s, with no obvious difference between the active first half of the test and the less active/boot/buck half of the test. Infact I received the same mark for both canter transitions - 1 was IMO lovely, the other he didn't respond so I booted resulting in a buck and a gallop and cutting about 1/3 of the arena! But hey ho. If we were competitive we would of been left in an excellent position.
He still needs to come more off the forehand but slowly slowly...seems to have regressed a bit here but it will all slot together soon.
He warmed up like a star for the SJ. I was talking to myself the whole time "Keep the canter round the corner, balance balance ride the hind leg closer to the fence" and I could feel him starting to ping. We kept it together about 75% of the time in the ring which is great. We had a disagreement at 7 when I wanted another stride and he took one out and I errr galloped to the last double but hey ho we left it up and its starting to go the right way!
Possibly the funniest cross country I have ever done. Again he was pinging in the warm up so I was looking forward to it. Pinged fence one and fence two, then he decided the yellow sand filling some holes and covering stony bits was terrifying and he was leaping all over the place.
This ended up with a stop at fence 3 as he was so busy turning himself inside out to get away from the sand that he was sideways on to the jump so had to represent. That and the next fence were fine, then it was the first combination. A brush roll top, down and up some undulating ground to a skinny.
With Warren firmly in my head I trotted through the undulating ground, waited for him to lock on then rode the hind leg and he pinged. So on over a couple of easy fences, then a roll top to be jumped on an angle, 3 curving strides to a corner which I felt was a fair test at this level although it was very small. I thought if we would have a genuine stop then it would be here and he was straight as dice.
Next fence we hada violent spook at the dreaded sand but managed to jump the brush hedge from a standstill. Sailed over a decent hay wagon, then 2 houses, the second a skinny on more undulating ground so went back to trot to rebalance and it was lovely. Next was an easy fence that he took me to, then the water. Apparantly the log at the base of the step out was scary and he had a log but popped up and over the fence out easily enough. Next fence was simple and fine. Then it was a log and a very small step up to an angled skinny log. He promptly tripped up the step, shat himself at some sand and ran out. Looking back at the video I died over the step and did nothing so it was too easy for him to glance right. Finished the course with no problems.
So an educational day out! I'm pleased though and have decided (With Warren) to enter the novice at Moreton Morrell as feel we are getting the hang of things.
Hopefully onwards and upwards!
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