Riding round Home

Not much news - just been riding at home & the forest recently. No competitions for us until next year so just taken a back step to schooling & not going as hard out as we were.

Had an awesome ride in the forest with Chrissy on Sunday - lots of nice long trots & we jumped the logs etc. Cobs had a great time & even out-walked Blarney who has the longest stride ever!

Photos from round home:

Lesson with Hayden 10th December

Have only ridden twice since our last lesson so was expecting Cobs to be a little fresh but surprisingly he wasn't...in fact he was so dead that we had to work on him going more forward....who would have thought LOL!

We are trying a different way of me riding him & that seems to be working really well. Have got some more lessons booked early January so at least that gives me a chance to practice what we have been doing & hopefully we will be improving by the time Hayden sees us again.

The lesson was videoed so the photos are crap quality:

Cobs has a new rider...

Here is my friends daughter Bella "riding" Cobs LOL! She thought it was great & squealed with delight the whole time she was on him..appears Cobs doesn't mind kids!

Lesson with Hayden 3rd December

Had a lesson with Hayden tonight which was great timing after my riding on the weekend.

Things felt a lot better today so hopefully we are both back on track. Cobs tried really hard again so was stoked with him.

My ODE this weekend has been cancelled so not sure what we will do now!!

Kumeu 2-Day Event 29-30th November

Our first ODE loomed up very quickly (a bit too quickly for my liking) and just to set the mood for the weekend I was number one on....so Saturday morning started at 4.30. Yuck. However we got an awesome park under the tree and Jo came & parked next to us which was awesome.

Cobs warmed up really well - I hopped on at 7.30 and just walked him round for a while then went back to the float & got changed etc. This seems to work well with him.

Our test was quite nice - even got two 8's for our canters which in itself is an achievement as this is our worst pace. Was stoked that he produced a nice sane test. We were rewarded with a nice green rosette for our trouble so that made getting up early worthwhile LOL!

Entering the Arena:



Canter Left:



Canter Right:



Halt:




Then we went to do our SJ. I just couldn't ride to freakin save myself. Poor Cobs. He tried so hard to help me out. He should have stopped at least three times due to my lack of riding but he kept on going for me. Such a sweet boy. We got 7 time faults due to me having to trot to gather my thoughts a few times - so pissed at myself but whats done is done & I will make sure that I don't let him down next time.

Fence 3:



Part A:



Finally get it together for the last fence:




Sunday we got there early again to get a park under the trees (and next to Jo again, thanks Jo :)). By the time I hopped on to warm up for the XC I was close to passing out due to the heat. I have never felt so sick before from just being so hot.


We did not have a good round at all. Not sure if it was my lack of concentration due to the heat or me giving him a fright from the day before but he wasn't his normal bowling self which was a real shame. We ended up having three stops round the course which in Pony Club means elimination...shame as its not really a true reflection but never mind. We did the sunken road awesome this year round so was pleased with that. When we came round to do the water he completely lost his back end so I am sure he will be feeling that today.


We have another ODE this weekend so I will be interested to see how he goes confidence wise. I know that I have to ride him a bit more forward than what we did on Sunday so I am sure we will more fun this weekend....fingers crossed :)

Corner:



Ramp:



Hill Jump:



Dropping into water:

Lesson with Karley 27th November

I was very lucky that Karley was coming down to Auckland during the week so booked a dressage lesson with her to go through the test for the 2-day event on the weekend.

Cobs worked really nicely & was very happy with him. We had a few movements to work on that I wasn't doing correctly so it worked in great that Karley was there to point them out.

Not many photos as the batteries were flat:

Think I need to pull his mane...

Cobs poking his tongue out in disgust :)