Waitemata SJ

Waitemata had one of their mini circuits on down at Woodhill so thought it would be a good idea to get down there & get over this SJ block I have! Was a bit indimated as some big SJ'ers come to these days but I only did the baby classes LOL!

Cobs warmed up nicely & I only did three practice jumps before I went in. I was super happy with his 80cm round - the course was nice & rode well. I conquered my double fear and we did it really nicely & even got just one stride in LOL! We got into the jump off & did that clear as well but we were way too slow.

Decided to do the 90 while things were going well - by the time it came to do that the sand had completely dried and Cobs was finding it quite hard going unfortunately. However we did an awesome round - I circled once so that was counted as a stop but the rest of it was awesome.

Super proud of him and myself for going out there & doing it. I actually feel confident now and just happy that I have proven to myself that we CAN do it.

Link to our 90 round:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2Y_cUBI8D4

80 cm round


90cm round

Massey 2 Day Event

Unfortunately I have been having some issues with Cobs soundness but this week he seemed to be okay so put in a really late entry for Massey 2 Day.

Cobs warmed up really nicely for his dressage test but unfortunately he got overcooked a bit as the judge was taking a while between tests. By the time I came to do the test he was a bit over it so wasn't as relaxed and flowing as he can be. It was still an okay test though & we got 30 for it and was in 5th place.

The SJ course was nice - one silly line down a hill to a right angle so just trotted that bit. Cobs warmed up really well - I only jumped the practice fence twice as the ground is too damn hard to do heaps of jumps!!! In the SJ he did the first three fences really nicely and then came the silly corner which just didn't flow so jump 4 was a bit messy. The next line was a vertical, five strides to a one stride double. Part B caused a fair few problems and sure enough Cobs backed off it too. As he was too busy gawking at part B he took a rail at A but still jumped B so that was good. The rest of the course felt nice & I was wrapped with it. As normal we got time faults LOL! Whatever.....doesn't bother me!!

Only eight of us went through to the XC. I felt it was a good course - some jumps looked on the higher side of PT but as a whole it was nice.

Cobs stormed around it - had such a great ride. We ended up with .8 time faults - we did go a lot faster than we usually do between jumps so we are getting there!!!

In the end we ended up 1st overall which was a HUGE shock! So proud of my boy :)

Unfortunately the girl that was placed first was eliminated as it appeared she had got lost on her XC and her friends were yelling at her about missing some jumps so she was eliminated for outside assistance. We did not put a protest in as obviously I was super happy with coming second but we asked the TD if outside assistance was allowed - he knew about it already by his reaction so unfortunately she had to be eliminted. How gutting for her! Bet her friends don't ever do that again :)

Mangere Pre-Training ODE

Yay our first ODE of the season! Was so looking forward to it - until I got up to go LOL! Then the nerves kicked in.

We got there quite early as I was ready early and it was a good thing I did - Cobs took a while to settle in. Was okay when we got there but they had a loud speaker so it took him a while to get used to that. After an hour he was okay with the whole thing.

I decided to do what I did last season and rode him round for a while before going back to the float to get ready. He was okay to ride round - had a few spooks but on a whole was pretty good. By the time I got back over there to do my test the other rings had finished so I warmed up round one of the arenas - seemed to work! He warmed up beautifully & I even asked Mum if he looked as nice as he felt - she agreed with me so all we had to do was get it nice in the test!

I was REALLY happy with the test - I came out and said it was the best HE had done so was super stoked with him. Well I never expected the result to be quite as good.....we ended up on 16.3 and won by 7 points!!! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT!!! SO proud of him!! I knew it felt nice but definitely wasn't expecting that kind of mark!

The SJ was done on the sand arena & the course was quite twisty but nice. Cobs warmed up okay - the warm up area left a lot to be desired but you were allowed to warm up in the arena when the horse before you was jumping so that was good. I wanted a chance to trot Cobs past the crowd & mirror but they rang the bell as soon as I went in so that didn't go quite to plan.

First four jumps were pretty good then came the double. Not to make an excuse for him as he should have jumped it but on the video it looked like he just didn't see it as he was looking at the people/club room that suddenly appeared on his right side LOL! So he got a smack for that stop and then my counting went out the window so we took a rail on number 7. Was happy with him though - if I had ridden a bit more postively it wouldn't have happened. The counting definitely worked - just have to keep it up next time & not get distracted!!!

We had to wait a while for the XC so went & walked it again. I felt there were a few bogey jumps on the course - unfortunately I should have made more use of doing their practice day but too late for that now! The first question was jump 5 which was a bank two stride to a small oxer. They actually changed it so you didn't have to jump up the bank which was nice as it was a big ask for PT. Then the next jump was a pallisade - tiny but we still hadn't done one before. The next ask was the ditch combo I had the meltdown about a few weeks back. They had flagged it so you could do the small log, ditch & then the upright but on a slight left angle. Right round to jump 15 which was a corner or A/B which we did at the practice day. I decided to see how he was going and make my mind up on the course. Then the water was just jump in/out.

So I got a tad nervous before the XC....Cobs was a fruit to warm up with all the horses galloping round him! The first jump was offset from the start flags & to be honest I just sat there like a dick and what do you know - he went past it. UM thats what happens when you don't commit!!!! So I got angry with myself and off we went!!!!

He did everything so nicely! I trotted into a few of them to give him a look etc but on a whole was absolutely stoked with our round. We are never going to be fast so we got some time faults - more important to me is that we did all "my" hard stuff perfectly. We did the corner rather than A/B and he flew it.

So yeah - we didn't get a place overall. I never thought I would be able to do an ODE on him again let alone EVER win the dressage so overall it was a brilliant day :)

The dressage sheet:

Lesson with Kirstin Kelly 28th October

After Woodhill I knew I needed help with our jumping before Mangere ODE - if I had gone there without a lesson I think we probably would have been eliminated fairly quickly as I was beginning to wonder if I should just become a DQ.....nah LOL!

So I took the day off work and went out to Kirstin Kelly in Pukekohe. Man what a trip!! I went in convoy with another friend of mine and it seemed to take AGES to get there! My friend had two horses so she had the first & last lesson.

Kirstin warmed us up and first thing she did was put my stirrups up a hole. Felt extremely short to begin with! She liked Cobs rhythmical paces so that was nice feedback.

Then we went onto the jumping - first jump same thing happened as it did at Woodhill - I got left behind. Kirstin asked where I was looking & I said up and she said how are you going to know where the jump is if you aren't looking?? True!

She suggests that you look at the ground rail coming into the jump & count out your strides. As I can normally only see my strides about three out I started really early until I become comfortable with the whole thing.

WOW what a difference! I can honestly say that we didn't stuff up the strides once. It felt SO good - I was absolutely beaming!

After doing some related lines & roll backs we moved onto the double knowing that this was our sticky point on Monday. Came into it & I had the perfect stride & Cobs stopped dead at it. Kirstin said I did everything right so he got a whack for that. After that he didn't even think about stopping - it was a long stride double and he got it right every time.

Well by then I was so stoked with how things were going! It made such a HUGE difference - now I just need to pratice heaps so it becomes second nature for me to count the strides out and actually look at what I am doing.

Well worth the day off :)

Woodhill Sands Mini ODE 25th October

Woodhil had a Mini ODE on the Monday of Labour Weekend - nice low key day!

Cobs did a nice test - nothing flash but was consistent. We got a mark of 28 which left us in about 6th place.

Went to warm up for the jumping & I couldn't jump to save myself - kept getting left behind etc. Just could not get it sorted out at all.

I probably should have gone away for a while & come back to it to see if it got better but instead I went into the ring to do my round.....first fence was nice however a kid yelled out WHHEEE when we went over it so Cobs took off and we almost missed fence two! Next few were okay but I was still not totally with him and he kept tanking off as I was mucking things up. Came into the double & I just froze so Cobs dribbled down to a halt in front of the jump.....kinda happens when you don't ride into it! By then I was rattled so he stopped a second time but the third time he did it nicely. Then he jumped HUGE over number 7 and the last was hideous too.

Went out on the xc and its fair to say that didn't get much better. He felt SO heavy & awful. I stopped him before the last jump just so I felt like I had some control!

When I watched it on video it looked better than it felt but I really feel like I let the side down - just couldn't get anything right.

Never mind - despite our two stops we still ended up 4th so that was a nice surprise!