Good and proper.
Long term.
Lexi is about to start her first season as a proper event horse and I want every moment immobilised. Blogging fell back down the wayside last year.
Last year with Squirrel was a year of personal progress. We did not achieve the 1* I hoped for. Our record looks more than slightly appalling but the Es do not tell the full story.
Following Rackham I decided it was a now or never attempt to step back up to Novice. I enlisted everything from Hypnosis to Lunge lessons to try and achieve my aim of completing a 1*.
We went to Upton House for our first come back at Novice. To say it was a success would be a downright lie. To say I was pleased would be pushing it. We managed a dismal 38 in the dressage (not helped by Squirrel finding the only hole in the arena and falling over, then helpfully changing legs in the counter canter), I single handily destroyed the SJ course and made it xc by the skin of my teeth. We successfully got as far as fence 5.
Well now, that sounds just awful doesn't it? Well yes. However, I was slightly pleased. This step back to novice came with a whole horde of problems. I had lost all confidence in myself at this level, I was emotionally and physically out of shape due to some personal problems and I was trying to make Squirrel jump in a way he just wasn't happy.
Wilton was our next attempt. A better dressage with 34.5 and 8 faults show jumping put me in a better mood for cross country. But you know...Wilton...That's a pretty big cross country course.
We jumped the first few fences well. Then at the first question - an off set double of skinnies, we shied left, we shied right, then ground to a halt. Que light bulb moment. No matter how much I love the teeth off this animal, he is never EVER going to carry me cross country. He needs me.
So I came back to it and from that moment I rode. As cliché as it sounds, I gave him all my heart and he responded. I yelled, hollered, kicked, screamed praise at him and he bounded over corners and tables you could live under and skinnies and hedges and everything. Then came my next nemesis. A fence to two steps down to a skinny which you just couldn't get straight to. He got close but he jumped it. I literally rode away with tears coming down my face.
Unfortunately we kind of lost steam and had a stop at the next two fences. I wasn't too sure I wanted to jump that enormous corner so I decided to hang on to his mouth and basically told him to stop, and being lovely and obedient, he did. But I was delighted that we made it halfway and over some tricky fences.
But we got some nice photos.
Next up was West Wilts. I'd had some show jumping lessons with a different trainer and my horse was jumping out of his skin. Note to self - if you try and totally change an older horse's jumping style to a way he dislikes and his current way is working....he will lose confidence and stop.
Our dressage was again better at 33.8. We had a great time out there in the show jumping! It went great, he was jumping out of his skin. Unfortunately last up was the treble and I sat and I held and I held and I held so he stopped. Then jumped it second time which was great.
Cross country...we made it almost all the way round! We had a stop about halfway at a very skinny but huge log to a corner
We continued like nothing had happened. Including a tricky step up, down a steep hill to a skinny triple brush (my most HATED fence). Then we ground to a stop infront of the water. Twice.
Okay well we made it 3/4 round right?! and it hadn't been an easy course, everything is progressing nicely.
Unfortunately that ended up being the end of my season. A few minor injuries - a mystery swollen knee here, a cut and infected hock there, a random day lame in front which led me to panic and send him in for a work up (nothing wrong to be found!) in quick succession led to him having over 3 weeks off. Then when Lexi helpfully decided to tear a muscle in her shoulder I decided we had lost too much time to get fit enough to do anything decent the rest of the year and I chucked them out to become feral for 6 weeks.
They got fat. I got fat. I mused.
Then I brought them back into work.
Yee-ha one fresh Squirrel!!
I manned up and rode and led. I discovered Squirrel finds it amusing to swish his tail. All the time. And hit Lexi with it and watch her freak out. Then get excited about her freaking out. So I got my own back and bandaged his tail up like a pony HA..
We did some hunting and he behaved terribly.
The first hunt I thought he successfully dislocated all my fingers. So I changed his bit to a Cheltenham Waterford gag. This worked better on the brakes. Instead he decided to terrify small children by charging at them sideways, hole-gaping-cyclops-side first, froth everywhere, drool pink from blood dripping from his mouth. And fidgeting. And just generally being a pain. He did, however, prove to be an excellent stopping device for my friend and the infamous Basil (pictured), and also excellent at 'ponying' him (aka me grabbing hold of the reins as Basil made yet another bid to overtake the fieldmaster). Ahem.
Then we did some show jumping with reasonable success. I almost died waiting for 6 hours to ride, having arrived early for my friend to do her class and with over 70 per class...I decided to forgo the bigger classes and jump the 85cm and the 90cm.
The 85cm saw some terrible riding. AKA I dropped my reins over the first fence, and basically rode like a chinchilla on speed and we had one down. He jumped a beautiful double clear in the 90cm to earn his cricklands Q and then we went home. Arrived back at the yard at 6.45pm having left 11 hours previously! And I was first to go in that class...Crazy.
I also did my first bit of canter work which was lovely, but the old sod decided to gallop off when I was half in the saddle, having gotten off to do the gate. Oh he also successfully broke 2 of my fingers shying at a pole. Schoolmaster?!
But its okay - he's anyone's ride.
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