Silver Hills eva80 - Show jumping

On Sunday, I had an 8.15am showjump draw and a 10.41am cross country. Plenty of time between, and we would be done by 11am. We were sitting in 12th after dressage, out of about 32. We left at 6am again for a 7am arrival. This time I had Natalie with me.

The showjumping warm up and arena was slippery. Like, really slippery, so much so that two horses fell straight over (one in the warm up, one in the ring). Of course, this made me want a calm, quiet, safe round. I think Allie was a little worried about the footing too. She was nice and balanced though, so I was confident we could get around safe.

I walked the course and it all seemed pretty straight forward except the line from fence 4 to fence 5, which was a tight corner in a slippery patch. I made a mental note to take that corner slow and wide. The rest seemed ok.

I was early to the warm up, the second one in, and the steward said I would go in after the first horse. Great! I did a careful warm up, had a couple of great jumps over the warm up oxer and then decided to wait at the gate.

It was a bit of a shambles to be honest. They decided last minute to put a few of the fences down, and they let about 4 riders walk the course late, which pushed the start time by 15 minutes. Then the bloody steward (who was a bit frazzled) forgot that I was second and then told me that I didn't present to him when I came in. I told him that I was the second rider in after that horse over there, but he still put my number last after about 5 other riders. Argh!!!

Just after this a horse and rider slipped and fell in the warm up. They were ok and ended up competing anyway, but that held us up more. THEN a pushy mother pushed in front of me to get her daughter to go do her showjumping so that she could go and get ready for her own cross country. The steward wasn't really allowing it but she just sent her daughter into the ring to the judges anyway! Unbelievable.

I had to go do a couple more warm up jumps and for some reason right before I went in the ring I tweaked my back. I've been needing to go see my body lady for ages and of course right then was when my back decided it couldn't cope anymore. Fantastic.

I did a few stretches in the saddle to help but I was still not great to jump. I just kinda crossed my fingers and hoped I would be ok.

Finally, FINALLY it was our turn to go. Here's the video:

So a few moments showing our inexperience (especially having to circle to get the line from 4-5 without falling over) and we had one rail down and a few time faults. You can also tell I didn't want to fall over from cornering too fast so that's what all the trotting was about. But she jumped much more confidently. Some showjumping lessons and some jump club days are needed of course but she was very level headed the whole time.

Photos? Of course!!

Still with the chicken arms! But...

A much nicer release a moment later! Yay me.

Also that bonnet is a bit big, but it's all matchy matchy with the saddle cloth.

She's very comfortable at this height and so am I to be honest. It's challenging enough that it shows our weaknesses but we aren't overfaced at all. I think that day was a good place to build from.

So we had an hour or so to rest before cross country. Allie was a little tired but I knew she would wake up a bit for cross country. She got a pick of green grass while we ate breakfast.

Next up, cross country! Did we go well? Did the ski jump and the giant trakhener scare the pants off us? Stay tuned to find out!

Silver Hills eva80 - Dressage

So as per my last post, on the 29th and 30th October Allie and I did our first 80cm event!

We drew an 8.50am dressage time so I ended up plaiting up the night before because I knew I wouldn't have enough time before in the morning. Andrea came to help me plait up and Allie wore a skinny hood for the first time.

She was unimpressed.

Normally Natalie plaits the tail so this is really my first go at plaiting a tail. It was... ok, if a little wonky. 

The next morning we loaded up at 6am and arrived at Silver Hills just a little after 7am. Andrea came with me to help as Natalie was busy, and I am so glad I had her there. We tacked her up and I got on just after Linda arrived. Linda helped me warm Allie up and she went awesome, considering the warm up was on a slope, after a bunch of rain, and it looked like they had run cattle in that paddock only a few days before so there was wet cow shot everywhere. You could tell it was eventing dressage and not straight dressage because no way would straight dressage ever have a warm up like that!

See that footing?

Allie had her game face on though!

Just before we were about to go in to do our test, she started to resist the bridle and then she hung her entire tongue out the side of her mouth! I stopped and Linda checked it. Allie had somehow gotten her tongue over the bit, which she has never ever done before. Right before we needed to present to the judge!!

Linda fixed it and we tried to shake it off. I presented to the judge and then we started our test.

She felt sensational! In front of the leg, forward into the bridle, so adjustable and on the job and I had a huge smile on my face by the time I was doing my second canter. I was having fun. The test was super solid.

Once we were done I jumped off and Andrea stuffed her full of carrots while I hugged her neck and gave her a big kiss. Linda was almost tearing up she was so proud!

I didn't get my paper until the next day and I'm glad because what I felt and what the judge saw were two different things. Comments like 'tense' and 'rushed'. I mean, come on, it's not like we are doing medium level dressage here, it's bloody prelim level.

There were some REALLY nice horses in my class though (a few fancy moving warmbloods too), so maybe that's why.

We got 65.21% which I think is a fair score.

We were done for the day so Andrea took Allie for a pick of green grass while I walked the cross country. After that we loaded up and went home. I was home by lunchtime! My husband was pretty happy about that,

Next up - showjumping!!

B&W

We did it! We completed our first 80!!

Camden Equestriad - Dressage!

Ok guys, spoiler alert - my mare is fantastic!


So as I've said we entered the Camden Equestriad newcomers and I got my draw early in the week. It was super civilised with dressage at 3.02pm, XC at 4.45pm on the Saturday and Showjumping at 2.20pm on the Sunday.

I pulled in at 9am on Saturday because I didn't have my sister to help me for the first time ever (she was away for the weekend). I was also worried about parking but I shouldn't have been, there was plenty.

It was a beautiful day!!

Allie seemed much more settled than she had at SIEC a couple of weekends ago, and settled in to eat some of her breakfast while I plaited up. About an hour later I saw Debbi's float pull in and about 20 minutes after that she called me to see where I was - I said I was about to go walk cross country and that I would find her float on the way up there. It was a bit funny because I walked around the float next to me and there was Debbi's float - she had parked about 15 second walk away and we had no idea haha.

Anyway, off we went to walk the course. The footing was AMAZING - we had a little light rain during the week but there was no mud - just beautiful easy footing. The only things on XC that worried me was a ditch (it was tiny, we could walk over it if we wanted) and trying to canter down hill. The course itself was awesome and I was excited to ride it! None of the jumps scared me. Good stuff!

Debbi's dressage was about an hour before mine but I tacked up and walked down there at the same time and just let Allie graze for a good hour or so. I wanted to get on her at about 2pm, but ended up getting on at 1.45 because my lower back was getting sore from standing there!

Looking cute in a borrowed bonnet. Fancy in the background scratching his face on a tree. He's very cute!

Lucky I did go down to dressage warm up so early, because on the way I asked Deb how she thought Fancy would go in the test and she started talking about a stretchy trot and I was like "what stretchy trot?". I had learned the wrong test!

Thank god for smart phones - I downloaded the correct test and spent my time watching my class and reading the test before warming up. Once I hopped on, I concentrated on getting Allie through tot he bridle and relaxed, lots of over bending and nice quiet transitions. She did really well, but I can tell she's due some body work because she is stiff in the left side of her neck and left shoulder so found it hard to over bend to the right.

My other (non-horsey) sister Erin was coming to watch with her family and Allie was feeling really good about half an hour before the test (there was so much room in the warm up that I was able to run through the whole test off to the side and she did great) so I let her walk out on the buckle to go find Erin. We came back to the warm up with 10 minutes to spare and I just tested that she still had her head screwed on before presenting to the judge.

After presenting, Allie had a bit of a spaz out - she was wearing an ear bonnet that Deb had lent to me because there were a trillion flying ants around, but I think something bit her. I did an extra circle up at A and then headed on down the centreline to halt at X.

Erin got video of the test, I'll let it speak for itself.

Here's our paper:

So we got a 66.59%!!! Very happy with my 7 for rider. Not many comments to go from but I know what we need to work on. We have spent the last few weeks getting her really through and forward into the bridle - now to refine that!

Fancy went really well in his test too for a green horse with only 2 weeks prep after a 12 month spell after retiring from racing, Deb is a great rider and really helped him through it.

Back to the float to chill out for a little while, eat some food, then get on with tacking up for cross country!!

Allie Stresses Me Out

I'm going to put pictures of Allie at comps in this post to make myself feel better worse.

Look at me. So happy. So Naive

 
Ugh. So Allie has had a snotty nose for about 4 weeks now. Started off in both nostrils (I thiught it was a cold she had picked up), then after a week it moved to just the left nostril, never been particularly bad or particularly smelly. Slight odour, sometimes stronger, sometimes not. She has been eating normally this whole time.

Because it wasn't going away, I emailed the vet and she has put her on 10 days of antibiotics. Two days in, and the discharge is getting worse.

So pretty all clipped with a false tail in.

I'm trying to save judgement until after the course finishes. But I can't help thinking that it might be those teeth causing issues.

I hope they aren't dying. Poo bum sticks.

Pro Pic

Just one pro pic - I'm going to buy it so that makes it ok that I'm posting it here right?

This Is after my prelim test on Sunday. Can you tell I was pleased?

Next Up...

I booked my next test today - Prelim 1B at Syd Int Equestrian Centre on 30th September. That gives me two months to get my shit together - doable right?

:)

Dressage

I have another couple of tests on Sunday - Prelim 1A (again) and Prelim 1C.

I saw a cool video where they put the judges marks/comments as annotations and I thought I would do it on my video of Allie's first test to remind myself what should have improved (and also because I was home sick from work today).

So, here it is:

Where Have I Been?

This afternoon, I fly out of Queenstown New Zealand back home after a 12 day road trip from the Auckland to here with my husband, best friend and her boyfriend. View from my Queenstown hotel below.

It has been awesome, but I am so ready to get home. I miss my pets like crazy - my cat, two kittens, Allie and of course Gracie.

I did something silly though. I entered a couple of tests this Sunday. I repeat, I have TWO tests this Sunday and I have done no riding or schooling to prepare. Nat has been looking after all the pets and has schooled Als a couple of times for me and apparently she has been doing well under saddle (but has been a witch to load on the float).

Wish me luck!

Test - Pics and Video!

Wild beast-pony.

Like I said, Allie went really well today. I didn't want much of a warm up and I htink I sat on her for a total of about 7 minutes today!

To be honest I have schooled her properly only once in the last 3 weeks. She is a superstar! Quiet on the float, quiet while we were there, loaded and unloaded well. Great undersaddle! No complants from me.

During the test there were a few head tossing moments, a few moments were she was slightly behind my leg, but overall she did what I told her to do at the best of her ability. Seriously, can you ask for anything more than that?

The ground was really wet and the arena had a few bad muddy spots which stuffed up our canter-trot transition to the right between the centreline and B (at 3.33 in the video) where she almost walked to keep her balance. Also, walk-trot transition (at 2.33 in the video) is not great.

BUT check out the beautiful trot-canter transition at 3.13!! Could not have asked for more!

Very very happy. Have some warm up pics:

The Test

Just a quick post to say that Allie did so well with our test! I'm super pleased and I can't wait to upload the video and pictures.

I haven't gotten my score yet so will update tomorrow when they are posted. :)