Snowball Farm Eventer trial

Unfortunately Lexi wasn't able to have her scan on Thursday as a couple of emergencies came in and the cardiologist was needed in theatre until early evening.

They're rescheduled for next Tuesday so fingers crossed we don't find anything awful.

Gladly, the vet okayed me to take her to the eventer trial I entered for last weekend in hope that she would be okay to go (desperately wanted an  XC outing before portman 90!).

Yesterday was my birthday and I had some lovely presents including a book of 101 dressage exercises, which  I tested out on Lexi. Just tried some basic stuff including really lengthening and shortening her trot which got her swinging beautifully and starting to ask her to do some turns on the haunches - that was interesting but she managed it, and she's a sponge so next time I ask her I expect she'll of got it. Shoulder in in trot is getting there too although I neglected to ask for haunches in. Her laterial work is a real priority at the moment to get her stronger and working straighter.

So today I was entered for the 80cm SJ and 90cm XC - was a little worried about the xc as we didn't have the greatest time at boomerang and that's our biggest XC course to date...however I didn't fancy 70cm SJ so figured we would wing it and it would set us up well for Portman or I would know it was too soon.

Why did I worry?!

We had a very hasty warm up - we tacked up leisurely as they were running 20 minutes behind on the previous class, only to get on to find out we were now on time so my warm up was a hasty 10 minutes.

She was pretty sticky in the show jumping but went clear...and we went over to the XC.  It was a short course which was a shame but also a nice taster for her..

One was a pretty up to height roll top and two was something I forgot about..She was a little hesitant but I kept my leg there and she was fine. Then went down a slippy slope to a fairly decent step up which we ground to a bit of a halt infront of but I kept my leg on and she popped up, then over a log with a little drop on the landing which she jumped nicely.

After that it all clicked, she bounded over the tyres just down the slope and settled into her stride. Hanging log before the water was no problem, she LEAPT into the water which took me by surprise as so far she's always slowed down to look and I promptly lost both my stirrups. I failed to try and slow down to regain said stirrups and thought I would bounce straight off (her canter really is enormous...plus water...excellent) but managed to get them back before the fence on the way out of the water. Final two fences she jumped very boldly and forwards.

We had 3.4 time faults (I blame the water incident) and ended up 4th which was lovely, but mostly I am so pleased with how her confidence developed throughout the course. She really feels like a power rocket and I can't wait to build that confidence.

I'm fairly sure the scans are just so we can keep an eye on it - from what they said its just something that needs to be monitored and over time may cause her heart to change shape and could lead to an early retirement given she's so young. On the other hand, it may disappear. Given what I'm aiming to do with her, though, its important we monitor it carefully and know exactly what we're dealing with.

I had to try very hard not to buy a million photos, but this one sums up how she was jumping by the end.

Heart murmurs and a sad Swalcliffe

Friday I brought the horses in at lunchtime as I had the saddle fitter.

I found Lexi was shaking like a leaf. She was warm - well rugged, felt warm to touch ect ect but shaking. Also quiet...temperature was fine but I was at a loss and called the vet.

Who found she has a heart murmur...

She took bloods as suspected a virus and said a virus may be causing the virus.  The bloods came back clear and she came back today to check her again. The murmur was still there - its a grade 3 holosytolic murmur and she will be scanned sometime this week so we can see exactly whats going on. Its regular which is better than irregular and best case scenario would be that it needs monitoring and she may end up retiring fairly young if her heart changes shape due to it. Needless to say, I did not run her at Swalcliffe.

I took Squirrel and was gutted to see the 80 course would of been just perfect for Lexi - a little trickier than Aston but would of been very educational.

He warmed up beautifully and forward for his dressage, and did a decent test. It was on a slope and a bit muddy in the corners so I felt he lost a bit of power but he scored 31 so obviously didn't look bad!

Sadly in the show jumping he stopped at both max height oxers. Very much a Sorry Mum I just can't kind of way. It confirmed what I've been mulling for a while. I will no longer be eventing him. He's done, his body is finally admitting he's an older boy who's had an active life and is now just that bit too arthritic and knackered.

He can retire to doing fun stuff, maybe take my sharer round the odd BE80 or BE90 but never again will I ask him to compete at 1m or bigger. He has been the most incredible horse for me, he has taught me the world and given me so much confidence but I just know now the time is right for him to lead a quieter life.

So we'll have some fun and when that's too much we'll do the odd hack and finally he will retire to spend the rest of his days stuffing his face and I will love and cherish him every day. He's given me everything - from renewing my love for horses, changing the direction of my life, introducing me to BE...I will never forget when he ate up the XC at Borde  Hill. That ride is forever ingrained in my mind because he made it feel so easy and that day, everything went right.

He will always be my wonder horse and his goofy face will make me smile every day.

The ups and downs of being a mare owner

Mares!!

I had the most delightful schooling session yesterday. We nailed shoulder in both ways...we nailed haunches in both ways....we got some lovely walk to canter strike offs...a million square halts....She was just gorgeous, she was pumping away behind, swinging through her back, soft as butter.

Then we took Squirrel and Lexi to Boomerang for some XC practise today.

Okay to be fair I totally blame myself...mostly....The first fence I did I stupidly came through some bushes, didn't really know what I find the other day and attempted the point and kick technique. I forget although Mare has been SUPERB lately....she is infact still quite green, and especially to begin with...she needs some support.

So from the bushes emerged a decent rolltop. Mare tried...then with lack of jockey support, chickened out. Unfortunately one front leg was already over at this stage so we had a hell of a lot of fun getting back, and we were both rather shaken. Me a bit worried...her a little worried...not the best combination. Popped some easy fences and all was fine...so I tried a small but tricky corner and the same happened.

Then we had to reattempt to jump it about 50 times with me basically saying err no I don't fancy it...so she ran out...Eventually with lots of help from my lovely friend (who shares Squirrel) we got over it. We could jump this corner 3 ways on each rein....and she had a naughty (naughty at this point - she had a real mare face on) run out each way...but eventually jumped it beautifully. We had a repeat first time stop at a couple of other fences which she should of found simple and some mare beating pursued...Eventually though she went beautifully, and at the end I went back and jumped all the fences we had issues with again, and she went boldly, straight and well.

On the plus side, we did jump 2 rather large corner brush fences on a curve which I wouldn't expect to see at an event below novice level and she did really jump rather beautifully most of the time.

Lessons learnt

• Warm up better - I had a crappy canter round and called it good
• Remember her experience level...she needs riding...just because she's often as bold as brass it doesn't mean she doesn't need you there
• Don't ride like a pleb

Basically sums it up. Tomorrow is my last day of work before NINE whole days off. God I can't remember when I last did that!!

And roll on Swalcliffe on Sunday with both horses eek

Awesome Aston-Le-Walls

Well, Saturday morning dawned with me doubting a run at all, Saturday evening set with me having entries into two events running.

Better times and location made me stick with Aston since it was on.

I got everything ready the night before so it was a lovely leisurely start and we set off ahead of time at 9.30.

We arrived in good time, which was lucky as we had to be towed into the lorry park. I was glad to see the new arenas allowed much better warm up spaces, and I set about walking the course. I was quite concerned as it was pretty wet, and parts of the BE90 course were rather cut up.

I was in two minds whether to run XC or not - half of me felt well she needs to learn to go on less than ideal going, and she doesn't seem to mind mud at home, the other half of me didn't want to risk a fright.

I decided we would set off and if she felt cautious or unhappy I would pull up.

I unloaded her and she obviously realised this was a slightly more exciting party than usual as she was trembling like a hare and a f-ing nightmare to stud up (although bribery worked a treat). She bounced all the way to the warm up and I hugely regretted not putting my shit-strap on to hang on to. I was quite relieved to get inside the enclosed space of the warm up before I ended up in a puddle of slop.

I allowed 40 minutes to warm up which was about perfect. I trotted around for a while until she relaxed then worked on her transitions, bend ect until she felt nice and soft. Took her boots off and of course the first thing she did was cut herself with her studs (no studs inside behind before SJ from now on..) and then promptly lost her ear veil. Ear veil reattached and my backside heaved (so sorry to everyone who had to witness that) back onto my horse and it was our turn to go in.

She was great - bar a jog in the free walk and me doing my walk transition way too early (I forgot where I was meant to do it so figured I'd do it early to avoid being beeped at),  I was very pleased with her. She was much more relaxed than I anticipated and although there's lots to work on (straightness in particular which came up on the comments!), I felt she did pretty much as good as she could for where she is now. Later we found we had a 34.8 which seemed a little harsh, but her straightness and tension in the walk (and my mistake) proved expensive. However, 31.4 was lowest of the day so must of been a fairly harsh judge.

The  SJ looked nice, small and inviting and fairly simple bar a nasty turn back to the second to last fence down to a short two strided double. Lexi came in and popped through it like she does it every day, and didn't bat an eyelid at anything. Again LOTS to work on - namely get control back as soon as we land, as several times we bowled along for a while on the wrong leg thus losing balance and collection and basically everything. We rubbed a couple but left them all up!

Now onto the cross country. I did very little warming up as the warm up was pretty grim but she felt happy underfoot. We went into the startbox and I remembered how  I'd envisioned that moment the very first time I sat on her as a wobbly baby.

We trotted out the starbox ("Go? I'm going...oh okay you mean GO") and popped over the first couple of fences. Then we realised what we were doing and the head went down and I had to sit back and take a serious pull because we were NOT going at speed on that going. Then Lexi figured out she could avoid the mud if she just took off into orbit over the fences which was interesting...

We cantered over the big open ditch and it was just great. There was nothing too exciting on the course but she jumped it all out of her stride. We enjoyed the log to a little slope up and down to another log, then trotted cautiously through the water, easily over the corner then brushed through the brush fence which led to an enormous jump over the last and finished!

We collected 8.8 time faults which put us into 12th place, and I couldn't be more thrilled with her.

Only one photo for now as my videos are playing up...



I'm SO happy with her, she was incredible cross country and I can't wait for the next one!

 

Show jumping videos as promised...

Event prep, lessons and feeding

So last night I picked up my lorry yay (5k later, not yay..) - she was so ZOOMY!!

So today I cleaned it out (aka removed last year's mud ready for this year's mud) then took Lexi to Warren's for a lesson to polish things up for Sunday. He said as she is, if she went how she went that day then she would get a lovely mark.

I didn't want to do any major work - often in our lessons we tackle one 'big' thing and I work on that for a few weeks before returning for the next, but given we're so close to the event I wanted to work on how to get the best out of her for at the place we're at.

The main things he wants me to bear in mind is

• She naturally moves in 3 tracks at the moment, so keep a slight right rein flexion especially on centre line to straight her.
• Ride more into corners - at the moment she tends to fall in flat round them rather than really turning.
• Prepare downwards transitions more and keep right flexion through them.
• On right rein, don't let her lean on R rein and support her through left rein.
• On right rein, lateral work asking her to go into the left shoulder, on left rein asking her to bend through her ribcage more
• Lots of quarters in/leg yield on a circle rather than leg yielding across arena
• Also need to bear in mind I tend to sit a bit heavy; I need to sit closer and deeper to the front of the saddle, almost pushing my hips forwards more - use a neck strap set very loosely to 'pull' myself in
• open knee so lower leg wraps round more rather than lift my heel to put leg on.

But she is being a mule to load. Ever since I ried her in my friends trailer she has been so stupid about it. She'll load if another horse is in the lorry - trots up the ramp. If you then unload her, unload other horse and take it out of sight, she goes in.

But on the way back? Nada. In the end Warren looped a lunge rope round her bum and made it into a bit of a noose so I could tighten the pressure when she refuses to go forwards. It took that and a few swats with a lunge whip (god she kicks out, such a mare!) then she was in. Ii had a go at home, minus a lunge whip and it took 15 minutes, then we went in and out 4 times perfectly.

Little frustrating as she was so good for 2 years (she was a pain at first but 2 sessions with an IH trainer and she's been perfect) BUT I'm sure she'll get over it again.

We also discussed feed. STILL need to figure out how to get her building more muscle without fat. Warren reckons copra, I just need to feed loads more than I did before.

Finally, tomorrow's day at Aston has been abandoned, so lets cross our fingers the weather is better tomorrow so Sunday can run! At the moment it doesn't look promising...