Sorry for the silence. All activity ground to a halt here when I rode Squirrel a week ago on Wednesday and he felt very odd, almost lame.
I jumped off, trotted him up, lunged on the hard ect and saw nothing. No heat, no swelling, no digital pulse. Being the paranoid mum I am, I wept and phoned the vet, diagnosing him with arthritus and navicular in my head.
Th vet couldn't find anything wrong. He passed the flexion tests with no concerns, but when we poked around at him, I realised his back and withers were VERY sore.
The next day the saddle fitter was due as he's developed a little rub on his back. Its turned out the flocking in my new in January albion close contact jump saddle had compacted very solidly and they needed to redo it.
So Squirrel had a lovely relaxing week until Tuesday when he had the dentist AND physio! Teeth were fine although he found it all a little worrying...Then Ruth, my sponsor and very trusted equine body worker came. He was VERY sore on a muscle which is classically the sign of poor saddle fit :( Poor boy! She ordered another 3 days off to let the muscles settle so its back to business tomorrow!
It did mean a cancelled lesson on Friday, my week off had NO riding (typical...his first week off due to injury and its my week off too!) and we were about to withdraw from Munstead...when we saw the very bad forecast. So we sat tight and luckily it cancelled, so we still get our refund.
So nothing exciting is happening at all, apart from me getting obese on easter eggs and no riding!
Friday, 29 March 2013
Saturday, 16 March 2013
Jumping lesson and a busy week!
This week has had far too many 4.30am starts! Surely that shouldn't be legal?? I've taken to riding Squirrel before work. Although it is horrendous when the alarm clock goes, I'm fresh when I ride him. I also seem to be in a better mood and he gets the best of me opposed to me riding him when I'm tired and fed up having ridden 8 horses already!
So I was very pleased when the weekend rolled by. Jason turned Squirrel out for me this morning so I had a lovely lie in. I woke up, feeling refreshed and wide away at...6.15am!! That is stupid.
Anyway, I peeked out the window and seeing the gale and torrential rain I thanked my lucky starts its not a competition weekend. Then I made coffee and curled up in bed and watched telly for a couple of hours. Luxury!
A bit later on I dragged a highly unenthusiastic Squirrel in from the field to go for a lesson. I decided given flatwork seems pretty good at the moment, we ought to have a jump. I feel a bit...meh after my lesson. I didn't ride very well although Warren tried to make me feel better by saying the exercises he did with me were to highlight problems so it was bound to be a "bad" day.
Basically Squirrel and I use speed not power over fences. Which is all good and well but it leads to a weak jump and when the fences get bigger, we'll start having problems. Apparantly it will be a work in progress, and aside using placing poles when I'm at home (he takes off too far infront of the fence but lands short on the other side, we need to work on making it equal), its something to work on mainly in lessons as he doesn't want me to upset the balance in competition.
Basically, and he did say several times, the way we do it is fine. HOWEVER - as always - it can be better. But I havn't quite got to grips with it enough to be able to judge when I'm doing it well myself in order to do it at home.
I also need to concentrate on keeping the power round the turn so I don't end up chasing him into a fence, as well as keeping him straight as he drifts to the left.
So lots to work on and another lesson booked for Friday. Thats the last time I ride before Munstead so I hope it leaves me feeling a bit better about it! I'm just a bit miffed as I didn't ride wonderfully. That's all. I'm highly critical!
I'm hoping it'll be relatively dry tomorrow so I can take Squirrel for a long rambling ride with some good hills and canter work, but can't say I'm feeling too hopeful!
So I was very pleased when the weekend rolled by. Jason turned Squirrel out for me this morning so I had a lovely lie in. I woke up, feeling refreshed and wide away at...6.15am!! That is stupid.
Anyway, I peeked out the window and seeing the gale and torrential rain I thanked my lucky starts its not a competition weekend. Then I made coffee and curled up in bed and watched telly for a couple of hours. Luxury!
A bit later on I dragged a highly unenthusiastic Squirrel in from the field to go for a lesson. I decided given flatwork seems pretty good at the moment, we ought to have a jump. I feel a bit...meh after my lesson. I didn't ride very well although Warren tried to make me feel better by saying the exercises he did with me were to highlight problems so it was bound to be a "bad" day.
Basically Squirrel and I use speed not power over fences. Which is all good and well but it leads to a weak jump and when the fences get bigger, we'll start having problems. Apparantly it will be a work in progress, and aside using placing poles when I'm at home (he takes off too far infront of the fence but lands short on the other side, we need to work on making it equal), its something to work on mainly in lessons as he doesn't want me to upset the balance in competition.
Basically, and he did say several times, the way we do it is fine. HOWEVER - as always - it can be better. But I havn't quite got to grips with it enough to be able to judge when I'm doing it well myself in order to do it at home.
I also need to concentrate on keeping the power round the turn so I don't end up chasing him into a fence, as well as keeping him straight as he drifts to the left.
So lots to work on and another lesson booked for Friday. Thats the last time I ride before Munstead so I hope it leaves me feeling a bit better about it! I'm just a bit miffed as I didn't ride wonderfully. That's all. I'm highly critical!
I'm hoping it'll be relatively dry tomorrow so I can take Squirrel for a long rambling ride with some good hills and canter work, but can't say I'm feeling too hopeful!
Monday, 11 March 2013
Our first sponsor!
Today, team One Eye aquired our first sponsor!
Ruth Mawer from Equigility is a qualified Equine Body Worker who specialises in in Myofascial Release (MFR), Equine Sports Massage and Trigger Point Therapy. She has been working with my horses for the last few years and I simply cannot recomend her highly enough.
She has a superb feel and way with the horses, and was also Lacey's last "port of call" as it were. Many, many specialists looked at her and Ruth was the only one not only to discover, but CURE the problem. Despite Lacey's numerous attempts to kill her, Ruth stayed calm and was able to treat her.
I would recomend her to anyone anyway as she pretty much saved Lacey's life and has also worked wonders keeping Squirrel in top form.
She travels up to an hour from Winchester and charges very reasonable prices.
Vist her website now!
Ruth Mawer from Equigility is a qualified Equine Body Worker who specialises in in Myofascial Release (MFR), Equine Sports Massage and Trigger Point Therapy. She has been working with my horses for the last few years and I simply cannot recomend her highly enough.
She has a superb feel and way with the horses, and was also Lacey's last "port of call" as it were. Many, many specialists looked at her and Ruth was the only one not only to discover, but CURE the problem. Despite Lacey's numerous attempts to kill her, Ruth stayed calm and was able to treat her.
I would recomend her to anyone anyway as she pretty much saved Lacey's life and has also worked wonders keeping Squirrel in top form.
She travels up to an hour from Winchester and charges very reasonable prices.
Vist her website now!
Tweseldown 10/03/1013
I've spent about 6 weeks looking forward to Tweseldown. Thinking oh the going is always good there. Then I got in so I was looking forward to it, Squirrel seems to like the dressage there and we always have a nice day. Then on Friday the rain came. And came. And came. I saw horrendous photos of the warm ups and the show jumping in standing water. Half the entries withdrew. They moved the SJ warm up on Saturday and the SJ. I spent a LOT of time considering and talking to my trainer. We decided to go. I spent half of saturday night feeling sick with worry about the ground, but knew I could, and would, withdraw if I felt it was unsafe.
We arrived in good time (getting to the yard at 5am zzzz) and I walked the course. I was pleasantly surprised by the going and was looking forward to it, I wasn't worried about anything and infact was looking forward to the bank complex.
I tacked up and had a very very minimal warmup. I orginally intended to potter about in the woods but after spotting some army vehicles I thought perhaps not. I found a corner in the dressage warm up that wasn't too bad (as in you could see some green!). People had obviously been avoiding it as it was a bit undulating and there was a drain cover. I prefered this to the ploughed field so had a cautious trot and canter round.
Fortunately and unfortunately my dressage ring was one of the far ones. Nicely far away so I went the long way round so I could fit in a couple of transitions and get a more forward trot, BUT it was also the arena I had hoped I wouldn't be in as it seemed to have the worst ground.
Squirrel was surprisingly soft and supple given the lack of warm up, and performed a nice quiet test. A couple of my transitions were a bit stiff, and in 1 trot circle he tried to break into canter a few times when I asked for more trot. Overall I felt it was accurate but lacking - I simply wasn't happy to be pushing for "more" in his paces on that going. He tried though and that was enough for me.
The SJ warm up was okay when I got there (I was on early mind!) although the approach to the oxer was hard. I was able to warm him up a bit better and get him travelling and off my leg. I only popped a couple then headed over. I watched two go who both accumilated a lot of faults so I was hoping not to disgrace ourselves.
I set off at a fairly forwards rhythm given both before me had time faults and had a good shot to number one. Good to number 2 and managed to hold for 6 strides instead of the 5 I walked so a bit close but clear. The rest went smoothly until we turned up the last line, for some reason we turned the corner, he saw the jumps and just hooned off! Like..flat out gallop so it was lucky the jumps stayed up, but they did and we were clear.
I got changed by the SJ as decided it was far too far to go back to the lorry and we set off cross country shortly. Also meant I could get away without jumping in the warm up as it was horrendous.
Soon enough we set off. Hit a long one for fence one and I kicked as didn't want to chip in. It was tiny but Squirrel managed to wack it pretty hard and we were lucky to land on our feet. He was great though, jumped the next few out his stride, bounded up and down and up the bank complex with delight, had a silly spooky chip in at 2 tiny logs with trees underneath, happily cantered through the water, bounded over the next few fences. He jumped great over the slightly bigger fences on the course, got a bit close to the corner which was quite small but he was never going to stop and we were home.
I went slower than at Aston, partly the going and partly that going 30 seconds too fast is a little frowned upon. Squirrel was barely out of breath and didn't even break sweat (it was freezing though!) but I felt quite confident we had made the time.
We sorted him out when we got to the lorry, gladly his legs all felt great. He still needed a pretty full bath with all the tweseldown sand despite not sweating but hey ho! We wandered down to the tradestands to check the scores and get some food and coffee....Only to discover I had a 29 dressage and was comfortably inside the time by 7 seconds! Never had a dressage in the 20s before affiliated so was thrilled, especially as our test could of been better. There were plenty of scores in the 40s so it wasn't a particularly kind judge, although the stewards did say they took ground into account.
So it was a long, long LONG wait for the results (I kind of feel if you're looking to be in the top 3 its rude not to stay after all the effort they put in), and luckily it was worth it as we won! Again! Two wins in a row :D :D
We've got next weekend off then at Munstead for the BE100. And buy a copy of this weeks horse and hound, we're in it!
We arrived in good time (getting to the yard at 5am zzzz) and I walked the course. I was pleasantly surprised by the going and was looking forward to it, I wasn't worried about anything and infact was looking forward to the bank complex.
I tacked up and had a very very minimal warmup. I orginally intended to potter about in the woods but after spotting some army vehicles I thought perhaps not. I found a corner in the dressage warm up that wasn't too bad (as in you could see some green!). People had obviously been avoiding it as it was a bit undulating and there was a drain cover. I prefered this to the ploughed field so had a cautious trot and canter round.
Fortunately and unfortunately my dressage ring was one of the far ones. Nicely far away so I went the long way round so I could fit in a couple of transitions and get a more forward trot, BUT it was also the arena I had hoped I wouldn't be in as it seemed to have the worst ground.
Squirrel was surprisingly soft and supple given the lack of warm up, and performed a nice quiet test. A couple of my transitions were a bit stiff, and in 1 trot circle he tried to break into canter a few times when I asked for more trot. Overall I felt it was accurate but lacking - I simply wasn't happy to be pushing for "more" in his paces on that going. He tried though and that was enough for me.
The SJ warm up was okay when I got there (I was on early mind!) although the approach to the oxer was hard. I was able to warm him up a bit better and get him travelling and off my leg. I only popped a couple then headed over. I watched two go who both accumilated a lot of faults so I was hoping not to disgrace ourselves.
I set off at a fairly forwards rhythm given both before me had time faults and had a good shot to number one. Good to number 2 and managed to hold for 6 strides instead of the 5 I walked so a bit close but clear. The rest went smoothly until we turned up the last line, for some reason we turned the corner, he saw the jumps and just hooned off! Like..flat out gallop so it was lucky the jumps stayed up, but they did and we were clear.
I got changed by the SJ as decided it was far too far to go back to the lorry and we set off cross country shortly. Also meant I could get away without jumping in the warm up as it was horrendous.
Soon enough we set off. Hit a long one for fence one and I kicked as didn't want to chip in. It was tiny but Squirrel managed to wack it pretty hard and we were lucky to land on our feet. He was great though, jumped the next few out his stride, bounded up and down and up the bank complex with delight, had a silly spooky chip in at 2 tiny logs with trees underneath, happily cantered through the water, bounded over the next few fences. He jumped great over the slightly bigger fences on the course, got a bit close to the corner which was quite small but he was never going to stop and we were home.
I went slower than at Aston, partly the going and partly that going 30 seconds too fast is a little frowned upon. Squirrel was barely out of breath and didn't even break sweat (it was freezing though!) but I felt quite confident we had made the time.
We sorted him out when we got to the lorry, gladly his legs all felt great. He still needed a pretty full bath with all the tweseldown sand despite not sweating but hey ho! We wandered down to the tradestands to check the scores and get some food and coffee....Only to discover I had a 29 dressage and was comfortably inside the time by 7 seconds! Never had a dressage in the 20s before affiliated so was thrilled, especially as our test could of been better. There were plenty of scores in the 40s so it wasn't a particularly kind judge, although the stewards did say they took ground into account.
So it was a long, long LONG wait for the results (I kind of feel if you're looking to be in the top 3 its rude not to stay after all the effort they put in), and luckily it was worth it as we won! Again! Two wins in a row :D :D
We've got next weekend off then at Munstead for the BE100. And buy a copy of this weeks horse and hound, we're in it!
Monday, 4 March 2013
Aston le Walls 03/03/2013
So the week leading up to Aston involved a massive panic. We went to a
lesson last Sunday which was great, apart from on the way back the
steering wheel in the lorry started to get really stiff. We called our
lorry man who said it probably just needed more fluid and would pop
along on Wed to check it.
Well turned out the pipe needed replacing instead. So it was going to have to go to the garage...but then he decided it was too dangerous to drive so was going to get it towed...but in the end they managed to fix it on the yard on Friday.
Then as I had a 9am dressage and a 2 hour drive I proposed to leave the yard at 4.30am in order to have plenty of time for hat tagging and first-event-of-season-panics. My mum was not impressed and organised stabling so I was not impressed
given the weather.
All turned out okay, we probably annoyed the hell out of everyone else staying there with the generator but it meant we had an electric heater going full blast so we were quite toasty. Getting up was hurrendious but anyway.
We stopped off the night before to walk the course. In a moment of panic, I entered the BE90 and instantly regretted it 2 days later when we went xc schooling. We had a stab at novice last year and it went very t*ts up for several reasons; Squirrel needed his hocks medicating with a touch of arthritus so he threw in a few stops, I lost confidence, he lost confidence and I managed to get around 100 faults in the xc phase at the BE1003DE at the end of last season so...
XC course seemed easy. Pretty small, a water early on but nothing at all I was worried about. Walked the SJ and was a little concerned as it seemed quite underheight and wasn't convinced Squirrel would respect it.
Got there for plenty of time and had a lovely warm up for the dressage. Squirrel was on his toes but worked in well in my little corner which for some reason no one else used..About 10 minutes before my test I took him nearer the rings with the other horses and he got rather distracted.
Managed to get his attention back and went to do our test. I was pleased with it, it felt accurate and obedient, no obvious mistakes. I felt he was a little on the forehand in the second canter but besides that I was pretty pleased.
Please note - these pictures are a terrible reflection on his way of going, Jason is notoriously bad at flatwork pictures lol!
I estimated 33 so was pleased with 31. Especially as it left us third in the section! Typically when we do a good test we have a harsh judge, I'm still waiting for my first score in the 20s affiliated! However his walk has clearly improved as we had a 7 for the walk and 8 for the free walk with the comments including active! Which was very pleasing.
I have to admit I didn't rush to my SJ, as warm up looked busy and I've always found they just take numbers rather than sticking to times...Typically they ran to times on Sunday so I got there with 3 before me. So I had to crack on which meant Squirrel was rather fast and enthusiastic in the round. But we went clear, only one photo as he looks dreadful in the others, legs dangling all over the place..
Then rushed to get ready for the XC as didn't want to be late. Got there with plenty of time and had a nice chilled walk. Once we headed to the start box, Squirrel realised what was happening and actually pranced and jogged for like..the second time in his life.
And then he just flew. Normally I have to ride fairly strongly the first few fences as he tends to look a little but not at all today. He didn't hesitate once, didn't falter once, jumped and landed from a lovely quick rhythm.
straight through the water which caused a lot of problems...I then had a moment of panic as saw fence 6 looming and had it in my head that the water was fence 4...but apparantly it was fence 5 so all was fine and I didn't go wrong.
corner
The last few fences we were catching up with the horse in front (they had a stop) so took a bit of a check as didn't want to overtake, which was lucky as we were already 30 seconds over the optimum time so might of had too fast penalties! Not sure how we went that fast as I hardly kicked on between fences which I normally do in order to make the time BE100, but he seems to have come back incredibly bold! He also only sweated under his girth so apparantly pretty fit too
At 15 he's finally got his head round this xc malarky! (He did only SJ until 2 years ago though).
Anyway...By the time I had sorted him after xc and checked the scores we were in the lead with most of the dressage up (and no scores that could beat us), so thought we better wait.
And good thing we did as we won! My first BE win! I'm so proud of him, he has come back so well and so confident.
Good one eyed pony!
We have another BE90 run at tweseldown next weekend then will come back to our BE100 debute at Munstead in a few weeks. Definately confident we will get established at novice later this season
Well turned out the pipe needed replacing instead. So it was going to have to go to the garage...but then he decided it was too dangerous to drive so was going to get it towed...but in the end they managed to fix it on the yard on Friday.
Then as I had a 9am dressage and a 2 hour drive I proposed to leave the yard at 4.30am in order to have plenty of time for hat tagging and first-event-of-season-panics. My mum was not impressed and organised stabling so I was not impressed
given the weather.All turned out okay, we probably annoyed the hell out of everyone else staying there with the generator but it meant we had an electric heater going full blast so we were quite toasty. Getting up was hurrendious but anyway.
We stopped off the night before to walk the course. In a moment of panic, I entered the BE90 and instantly regretted it 2 days later when we went xc schooling. We had a stab at novice last year and it went very t*ts up for several reasons; Squirrel needed his hocks medicating with a touch of arthritus so he threw in a few stops, I lost confidence, he lost confidence and I managed to get around 100 faults in the xc phase at the BE1003DE at the end of last season so...
XC course seemed easy. Pretty small, a water early on but nothing at all I was worried about. Walked the SJ and was a little concerned as it seemed quite underheight and wasn't convinced Squirrel would respect it.
Got there for plenty of time and had a lovely warm up for the dressage. Squirrel was on his toes but worked in well in my little corner which for some reason no one else used..About 10 minutes before my test I took him nearer the rings with the other horses and he got rather distracted.
Managed to get his attention back and went to do our test. I was pleased with it, it felt accurate and obedient, no obvious mistakes. I felt he was a little on the forehand in the second canter but besides that I was pretty pleased.
Please note - these pictures are a terrible reflection on his way of going, Jason is notoriously bad at flatwork pictures lol!
I estimated 33 so was pleased with 31. Especially as it left us third in the section! Typically when we do a good test we have a harsh judge, I'm still waiting for my first score in the 20s affiliated! However his walk has clearly improved as we had a 7 for the walk and 8 for the free walk with the comments including active! Which was very pleasing.
I have to admit I didn't rush to my SJ, as warm up looked busy and I've always found they just take numbers rather than sticking to times...Typically they ran to times on Sunday so I got there with 3 before me. So I had to crack on which meant Squirrel was rather fast and enthusiastic in the round. But we went clear, only one photo as he looks dreadful in the others, legs dangling all over the place..
Then rushed to get ready for the XC as didn't want to be late. Got there with plenty of time and had a nice chilled walk. Once we headed to the start box, Squirrel realised what was happening and actually pranced and jogged for like..the second time in his life.
And then he just flew. Normally I have to ride fairly strongly the first few fences as he tends to look a little but not at all today. He didn't hesitate once, didn't falter once, jumped and landed from a lovely quick rhythm.
straight through the water which caused a lot of problems...I then had a moment of panic as saw fence 6 looming and had it in my head that the water was fence 4...but apparantly it was fence 5 so all was fine and I didn't go wrong.
corner
The last few fences we were catching up with the horse in front (they had a stop) so took a bit of a check as didn't want to overtake, which was lucky as we were already 30 seconds over the optimum time so might of had too fast penalties! Not sure how we went that fast as I hardly kicked on between fences which I normally do in order to make the time BE100, but he seems to have come back incredibly bold! He also only sweated under his girth so apparantly pretty fit too
At 15 he's finally got his head round this xc malarky! (He did only SJ until 2 years ago though).
Anyway...By the time I had sorted him after xc and checked the scores we were in the lead with most of the dressage up (and no scores that could beat us), so thought we better wait.
And good thing we did as we won! My first BE win! I'm so proud of him, he has come back so well and so confident.
Good one eyed pony!
We have another BE90 run at tweseldown next weekend then will come back to our BE100 debute at Munstead in a few weeks. Definately confident we will get established at novice later this season
Sunday, 24 February 2013
Neglecting the blog - busy busy busy
Oh dear I have NOT done a good job of keeping this blog updated. My sincere apologies, things have been very hectic of late.
Lots to catch up on though, we've been having lessons, combined training, two lots of cross country schooling...
I guess the start to update was the first cross county schooling! I was meant to be having a lesson but Warren rang me and asked if I wanted to go to Larkhill instead. This was music to my ears - was insanely trying to find time to go..So we went.
Mum managed to go to the wrong field and got stuck so we hijacked a passing tractor and I promply lost my phone..Lorry was towed out and phone was found so that was resolved but I did wonder if the third thing to go wrong would be me face planting the water...
Luckily nothing happened and Squirrel was superb. I recieved some excellent cristism (including "If you warmed up round me like that at a competition I'd have your guts for garters" -blush-) but within three jumps Warren said Squirrel would easily go intermiediate so I was ecstatic and my mum almost fainted. He was a little wobbley at some of the skinnies and I learnt that if he drifts left, instead of pulling the right rein I just need to block the left shoulder to keep him straight which results in a straighter line. He didn't run out or look at anything really.
See below the excellent example of the drifting..
The next day..combined training. Unfortunately the photographer was working so no pictures. May be a good thing as I rode like an idiot! Squirrel was superb. We went to Sparsholt and entered the BE106 and 100cm class. I asked for a late time as had a couple of horses to ride in the morning and ended up having a dressage time of 15min before the end of the SJ, so we decided to jump first.
I couldn't pull myself together, I think I was very much still in cross country mode. Squirrel saved my life and jumped a lovely clear (single handedly!) round a fairly tight course.
Again the dressage didn't go great. The first half of the test was nice and the marks reflected this, but towards the end of the first canter it went a bit downhill as I didn't balance him well round the square turn and he changed legs then almost fell on his nose in a bit of a muddle, and my final halt couldn't of been more off the centre line if I tried. We scored 66% or 34 in an eventing mindset which I thought was fair. The nice work at the beginning earnt their fair share of 7s and 8s and then a few 55s for the mistakes. We ended up 5th with joint 1st on 70% and joint 3rd on 66.5% so not miles off.
We had a nice quiet weekend last week, then decided to pop to Boomerang for another go cross country on Thursday. I decided I wanted to jump "course style" and he was SUPERB. He finished off jumping plenty of tricky fences including my nemesis - wide skinny triple brushes without batting an eyelid, and also jumping a fair sized barrel jump into the water without spooking. He was getting quite keen and a bit fast coming off drops/through sunken road.
The only fence he was a bit confused about was a hedge brush with the corner trimmed (so effectively a corner style brush). The first impression was lets drift so I tightened my arm to block the shoulder and he ended up jumping the big bit, and clearly does not approve of touching a lot of brush!
I also jumped the big trakhner so felt pretty pleased with myself!
Finally I had a flatwork lesson today. Again Warren was very complimentry of the pony and said the stuff we were working on was really just nitpicking, that we could pretty much go and be competitive at novice and really not do much wrong. We were working on maintaining a consistent contact through the transitions and moving off right into the transitions. This involved going from walk to medium trot and trot to medium canter, progressing to halt to medium trot and walk to medium canter.
We were also working on doing 10m circles in counter flexion to help encourage him to straighten and to use his hind end more. It was very refreshing. I always come back feeling I've worked very hard and have somethging to work towards for next time.
So the start of our season will be at Aston le walls next week, followed by Tweseldown. I have quite high hopes as he is going super and I was a bit of a chicke and entered BE90s! I was having a confidence crisis and hadn't been xc yet when I did my entries. A bit frustrated now as I think he'd eat up a BE100 for breakfast and be ready for our return debute to Novice by April but looks like May now...Oh well. I am certainly hoping I will have an excuse to buy a top hat and tails towards the end of the season!
I guess the start to update was the first cross county schooling! I was meant to be having a lesson but Warren rang me and asked if I wanted to go to Larkhill instead. This was music to my ears - was insanely trying to find time to go..So we went.
Mum managed to go to the wrong field and got stuck so we hijacked a passing tractor and I promply lost my phone..Lorry was towed out and phone was found so that was resolved but I did wonder if the third thing to go wrong would be me face planting the water...
Luckily nothing happened and Squirrel was superb. I recieved some excellent cristism (including "If you warmed up round me like that at a competition I'd have your guts for garters" -blush-) but within three jumps Warren said Squirrel would easily go intermiediate so I was ecstatic and my mum almost fainted. He was a little wobbley at some of the skinnies and I learnt that if he drifts left, instead of pulling the right rein I just need to block the left shoulder to keep him straight which results in a straighter line. He didn't run out or look at anything really.
See below the excellent example of the drifting..
The next day..combined training. Unfortunately the photographer was working so no pictures. May be a good thing as I rode like an idiot! Squirrel was superb. We went to Sparsholt and entered the BE106 and 100cm class. I asked for a late time as had a couple of horses to ride in the morning and ended up having a dressage time of 15min before the end of the SJ, so we decided to jump first.
I couldn't pull myself together, I think I was very much still in cross country mode. Squirrel saved my life and jumped a lovely clear (single handedly!) round a fairly tight course.
Again the dressage didn't go great. The first half of the test was nice and the marks reflected this, but towards the end of the first canter it went a bit downhill as I didn't balance him well round the square turn and he changed legs then almost fell on his nose in a bit of a muddle, and my final halt couldn't of been more off the centre line if I tried. We scored 66% or 34 in an eventing mindset which I thought was fair. The nice work at the beginning earnt their fair share of 7s and 8s and then a few 55s for the mistakes. We ended up 5th with joint 1st on 70% and joint 3rd on 66.5% so not miles off.
We had a nice quiet weekend last week, then decided to pop to Boomerang for another go cross country on Thursday. I decided I wanted to jump "course style" and he was SUPERB. He finished off jumping plenty of tricky fences including my nemesis - wide skinny triple brushes without batting an eyelid, and also jumping a fair sized barrel jump into the water without spooking. He was getting quite keen and a bit fast coming off drops/through sunken road.
The only fence he was a bit confused about was a hedge brush with the corner trimmed (so effectively a corner style brush). The first impression was lets drift so I tightened my arm to block the shoulder and he ended up jumping the big bit, and clearly does not approve of touching a lot of brush!
I also jumped the big trakhner so felt pretty pleased with myself!
Finally I had a flatwork lesson today. Again Warren was very complimentry of the pony and said the stuff we were working on was really just nitpicking, that we could pretty much go and be competitive at novice and really not do much wrong. We were working on maintaining a consistent contact through the transitions and moving off right into the transitions. This involved going from walk to medium trot and trot to medium canter, progressing to halt to medium trot and walk to medium canter.
We were also working on doing 10m circles in counter flexion to help encourage him to straighten and to use his hind end more. It was very refreshing. I always come back feeling I've worked very hard and have somethging to work towards for next time.
So the start of our season will be at Aston le walls next week, followed by Tweseldown. I have quite high hopes as he is going super and I was a bit of a chicke and entered BE90s! I was having a confidence crisis and hadn't been xc yet when I did my entries. A bit frustrated now as I think he'd eat up a BE100 for breakfast and be ready for our return debute to Novice by April but looks like May now...Oh well. I am certainly hoping I will have an excuse to buy a top hat and tails towards the end of the season!
Tuesday, 5 February 2013
Show jumping and canter work
Its been a mad few days here at Team One Eye.
On Saturday I travelled with a client to Watership down for a hack - I can't believe my job sometimes! And taught a couple of lessons. My pupils did their first spot of jumping and very nicely too!
Afterwards a friend and I took Lacey and Squirrel out for a long ride to have a look at a field that may be suitable for canter work. I've hopefully found a very local canter track, 5 minutes hack away to use but owners are away at the moment so waiting to hear back from that. We finished the day doing some loading pracise with Lacey.
She finds travelling very stressful so starts barging and trying to run back to her stable the moment she is faced with the ramps so I want to teach her travelling is not a big scary deal before we attempt to take her out. She has already improved - travel boots and a tail bandadge used to trigger trembling and bolshiness but with practise she is happy again.
Well Lacey has learnt a new trick. She went right in the first time, and stood there snorting her head off with a lot of carrots being pumped into her stomach. Second time she attempted to bolt back to her stable a couple of times, and with me feebly holding onto the lunge rope, skidding behind her, trying to get some gripe with my feet so I could stop her; Jason did an excellent superman impression and grabbed her as she cantered past to make her stop!
So she quickly learnt that didn't work. So she just decided not to go in at all. We got her in twice more and by the end of it she didn't seem stressed, just stubborn. So it's going to take a bit longer than I thought. I want EVERYTHING to be easy and calm before we take her out. It's a long long project but I have no doubt she'll get there.
Sunday dawned bright and early for me, with schooling Lacey at the crack of dawn. She was fantastic, she is getting very relaxed and calm. Her attitude is amazing me - she's gone from saying "Oh this is hard. I can't do it. I WON'T do it. Nope, can't. Won't." que rearing and spinning; to now she says "Oh this is hard. I'm not sure I can do it...but I'll try" which is WONDERFUL.
She did the most lovely canterwork, just relaxed, chilled and even around a third of the school (so a 20x40 outside track basically) without charging which is quite big for her. She was excellent again on Tuesday (hacked on Monday). She is still stiff to the right rein and finds it hard to do flexions in that direction as well as leg yielding, but we did plenty of that and some canter spirals. She's getting there!
After riding Lacey on Sunday we went to look at a potentional project. It was a little 3 year old unraced/untrained Thoroughbred. She was sweet but much smaller than I expected - all withers! Anyway, I just didn't feel 'it' really so passed. To be honest, that idea is going to take a back seat and looking at how manic the next two weeks are going to be I'm quite relieved!
Dashed back to the yard to drag Squirrel in to go show jumping! Its only
unaffiliated as didn't see the point in regestering him BS for in essence just a month. Though in hindsight after he popped 1.50m on Friday perhaps we should of!
We arrived at Crofton Manor at 2.30 just as the 85cm was finishing so beautifully in time. I walkd the 90cm and it looked like a fairly tricky course. They made full use of the arena, and the course looked like it was just dying for you to really ride lines and into corners. Watching others, it was very apparant which riders used to the space available and which didn't.
I decided if we went clear I would just have some fun in the jump off, we rarely jump against the clock so I decided to take some risks and see what we could do.
We went double clear and into the lead by 3 seconds! And we kept it!
The 1m was nice and up to height and again wanted you to really ride it. It was run with the second half timed but as it was a relatively small class they wanted everyone to ride against the clock as well. Unfortunately I held for the second jump and we had it down but still went fast against the clock. We were the fastest 4 faulter and came 7th.
Squirrel grinning his head off
He was loving it, and I am LOVING my Ablion close contact saddle.
He had Monday off and then yesterday I went on a LONG fast hack to our new 'canter' field. We only did 2 circuits of the field as the 2 hour hack involved a lot of cantering anyway. Unfortunately he pulled a shoe off on the way home and was quite sore on the stoney bits, but my farrier came out and put a shoe on.
Busy week ahead with XC schooling on Friday with Warren Lampard and a combined training on Saturday. Next Wednesday he is having his back done which may result in a couple of well earned days off!
On Saturday I travelled with a client to Watership down for a hack - I can't believe my job sometimes! And taught a couple of lessons. My pupils did their first spot of jumping and very nicely too!
Afterwards a friend and I took Lacey and Squirrel out for a long ride to have a look at a field that may be suitable for canter work. I've hopefully found a very local canter track, 5 minutes hack away to use but owners are away at the moment so waiting to hear back from that. We finished the day doing some loading pracise with Lacey.
She finds travelling very stressful so starts barging and trying to run back to her stable the moment she is faced with the ramps so I want to teach her travelling is not a big scary deal before we attempt to take her out. She has already improved - travel boots and a tail bandadge used to trigger trembling and bolshiness but with practise she is happy again.
Well Lacey has learnt a new trick. She went right in the first time, and stood there snorting her head off with a lot of carrots being pumped into her stomach. Second time she attempted to bolt back to her stable a couple of times, and with me feebly holding onto the lunge rope, skidding behind her, trying to get some gripe with my feet so I could stop her; Jason did an excellent superman impression and grabbed her as she cantered past to make her stop!
So she quickly learnt that didn't work. So she just decided not to go in at all. We got her in twice more and by the end of it she didn't seem stressed, just stubborn. So it's going to take a bit longer than I thought. I want EVERYTHING to be easy and calm before we take her out. It's a long long project but I have no doubt she'll get there.
Sunday dawned bright and early for me, with schooling Lacey at the crack of dawn. She was fantastic, she is getting very relaxed and calm. Her attitude is amazing me - she's gone from saying "Oh this is hard. I can't do it. I WON'T do it. Nope, can't. Won't." que rearing and spinning; to now she says "Oh this is hard. I'm not sure I can do it...but I'll try" which is WONDERFUL.
She did the most lovely canterwork, just relaxed, chilled and even around a third of the school (so a 20x40 outside track basically) without charging which is quite big for her. She was excellent again on Tuesday (hacked on Monday). She is still stiff to the right rein and finds it hard to do flexions in that direction as well as leg yielding, but we did plenty of that and some canter spirals. She's getting there!
After riding Lacey on Sunday we went to look at a potentional project. It was a little 3 year old unraced/untrained Thoroughbred. She was sweet but much smaller than I expected - all withers! Anyway, I just didn't feel 'it' really so passed. To be honest, that idea is going to take a back seat and looking at how manic the next two weeks are going to be I'm quite relieved!
Dashed back to the yard to drag Squirrel in to go show jumping! Its only
unaffiliated as didn't see the point in regestering him BS for in essence just a month. Though in hindsight after he popped 1.50m on Friday perhaps we should of!
We arrived at Crofton Manor at 2.30 just as the 85cm was finishing so beautifully in time. I walkd the 90cm and it looked like a fairly tricky course. They made full use of the arena, and the course looked like it was just dying for you to really ride lines and into corners. Watching others, it was very apparant which riders used to the space available and which didn't.
I decided if we went clear I would just have some fun in the jump off, we rarely jump against the clock so I decided to take some risks and see what we could do.
We went double clear and into the lead by 3 seconds! And we kept it!
The 1m was nice and up to height and again wanted you to really ride it. It was run with the second half timed but as it was a relatively small class they wanted everyone to ride against the clock as well. Unfortunately I held for the second jump and we had it down but still went fast against the clock. We were the fastest 4 faulter and came 7th.
He was loving it, and I am LOVING my Ablion close contact saddle.
He had Monday off and then yesterday I went on a LONG fast hack to our new 'canter' field. We only did 2 circuits of the field as the 2 hour hack involved a lot of cantering anyway. Unfortunately he pulled a shoe off on the way home and was quite sore on the stoney bits, but my farrier came out and put a shoe on.
Busy week ahead with XC schooling on Friday with Warren Lampard and a combined training on Saturday. Next Wednesday he is having his back done which may result in a couple of well earned days off!
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