Mangere Practice XC

As I still can't find anything to do over this side Mum & I made the journey over to Mangere PC for a practice XC Day. The trip was actually quite fast - however we did take the wrong exit as stupid google didn't name the offramp correctly but we found it.

Cobs was relaxed from the second he hopped off the float so that was awesome for our first trip out for the season. After taking our time to get ready we went over to warm up and found Jannine & Dana over there so stopped to talk to them for a while which was cool. Cobs warmed up quite well but was a bit behind the leg so took him for a fast canter round which he seemed to enjoy.

We started off by doing a few little jumps & he was jumping quite nicely. We made our way up the big hill and was surprised to find Cobs isn't as fit as I thought so I just walked him round for a while. Did a few jumps in that paddock and then went into the main jumping paddock.

To get into that paddock we had to do a jump in the fence line - which to my horror looked pretty damn huge when I came up to it! But we did it and Cobs jumped it really nicely so that was good.

Next up was a vertical/ditch/vertical combination. I did the ditch a few times & he was pretty good. However I went into total meltdown mode when it came to putting all three together - just couldn't make myself do it despite three people telling me it was fine! Poor Cobs - he must have wondered what the hell was going on as I just stopped riding him into them about three strides out.

We then went over another ditch then practiced doing some banks which was fun as I haven't done banks with him before.

Then we went & played in the water jump. He was such a good boy. Jumped in over logs, jumped out onto a bank, we ended up doing the training option which was a chicken coop, two strides over a log into the bank and out. Was STOKED with him and was my total highlight of the day.

We then finished on a tricky combination which the more we did the worse it got LOL!

So all in all a great day. Was so good to go out and try a challenging course. Really shows how easy the courses over this side are compared to South Auckland ones.

Thanks to Sarah & Kristal for meeting me there & yelling at me to do things :)

Video of some of the round:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4QHHS6whCo

Another Weekend Update

Yet another fine weekend in Auckland.....two in a row is a bit of a miracle!!

Had a great horsie weekend - took Cobs down to Woodhill Sands on Saturday morning for a ride. Unfortunately they hadn't harrowed/wet the grounds down since the SJ show last weekend so the going was quite hard.

Cobs just didn't feel right at all - he was really mincing and just wouldn't go forward. I know him well enough to know when he is just being naughty but it didn't feel like that at all. I didn't ride him for long as there was no point pushing it.

Today I met Michelle up at Limbury Park for a jump session. Cobs was actually wicked - I sucked LOL! Michelle got us to do bounce to a one stride....she thinks I don't see her put the jumps up but I do :)

He actually went really well and didn't feel sore/short or anything so that was great after yesterdays ride.

Michelle ended up putting the jump up huge and that scared the crap outta me so I rode like a moron (see below photo) but he was cool! So she took it back down for me & we jumped it nicely again.

Very pleased with the boy today :)

Woodhill Saturday

Limbury Today

Henious huge jump LOL!

Weekend of Sunshine...at last

And we definitely made the most of it!

Had a dressage lesson on Saturday with Liz. Cobs was rather full of himself & actually being a bit of a brat. When he did stop mucking around he actually worked really nicely. Nailed our walk to canters on both reins which is good as we tend to get them a bit mucky on the left rein.

His canter was actually okay considering its been two months since our last lesson. If he had the other half of his brain on he would have been great!

Today I met up with my friend Rach & went jump schooling. I was THRILLED with how he went today. We got the right canter and everything came up really nicely. He was being an egg after the jumps though...typical him but it was fun! We didn't jump high but for the first time jumping for a while it was great.