RIP Cobs

On the 8th September Cobs was PTS.  He was sore more often than he was not so it was decided that the right thing would be done by him & make him pain free.

It has taken me this long to get the courage to write this update but I am still finding it incredibly hard.

I miss him more than I ever thought I would.

RIP buddy - it actually sucks without you :(

Lesson with Kirstin 25th June

Despite still being in pain I want to try & keep going as normal so booked a lesson with Kirstin while she was coming up too Woodhill.

We only did walk/trot as I still can't canter yet and wow I got so much out of the lesson!

As you will be aware if I have always had issues with lateral movements on this horse & have spent a considerable amount of time beating myself up about it...well it would appear that my horse actually can't go laterally when he isn't straight....so all these years of frustration were fixed in half an hour!!! 

Cobs unfortunately was a bit of a tool to start off with but worked through it okay.  Only thing on my mind was too not fall off again!  Kirstin had me taking a far more firm hold of the reins that I normally do so when he started to go crooked I could feel it faster.  He is worse on the right rein so we did a lot of work on this rein - did a lot of leg yielding on the circle & every time he bulged the shoulder I lifted my outside rein as a half halt & that brought the shoulder back into line.  By the end of the lesson I had even contact in both reins...something I have not had with Cobs for a long time.

We then did some shoulder in & leg yielding off the 3/4 line and although it was rusty we could actually do it so was super stoked with that.

Now I just have to try & remember what we went through & practice it!  I hope to have two lessons with her next week as she is going away for a while.  Not sure if I will be up to jumping by then but more than happy to stay doing flat work.

Winter Schooling

Have been out & about doing schooling every weekend I can - our jumping has gone completely with Cobs deciding he no longer knows how to canter nicely away from the fences....sigh...

He was jumping super at Raider Lodge (19th June) and we seemed to have got some brains back when I pushed for an insanely long stride, we landed & the next minute I know I am flat on my back in the sand/soup mix.  Feck it hurt.  Not sure what happened - I think it hurts him to land that heavy so can only guess he bucked or something.

Not ideal & over a week later I am still in a lot of pain with brusied ribs & a sore back.

Grr. Not the start to the season I wanted.

Kind of back on track....

After Rosedale Cobs never really came right & it become apparent that he was still fighting the damn virus that had been lurking round for a few months.  He went onto some cough medicine but was no better within a week so had the vet out.  

By then he had dropped a ton of weight & lost a lot of topline :(  The vet said there was nothing we could give him to make him better to just give him time off.  By this time it had been a few weeks so decided to give him another few light weeks & see how he felt.

Unfortunately Cobs is not the sort of horse you can just turn out so I was road riding him every three/four days trying to keep his sanity.  First few rides he struggled but by the end of the second week he felt a lot better.  I went down to the showgrounds for a walk out and he felt good down there too.

On the 24th took him down to my friends arena and he was a little snot - typical winter Cobs crap but at least he had the energy to be naughty so that was good.  Went back down there yesterday & he worked SUPER - was so lovely & soft.  Felt amazing.

So plan is now to try and bring him back into work as much as I can by only riding on the weekends.  Would like to think we could do some winter jumping end of July but will just see how he is feeling. 

Rosedale Training ODE

Off we went to Rosedale for their Training ODE.  I walked the course the night before & it was quite a hard training course I felt.  There was one jump in particular that I emailed them about that night to be told to suck it up basically.

Cobs warmed up nicely for the dressage & then got told that they had changed our dressage times....awesome.  So hopped off him and stood round for almost an hour.  I hopped on again as the judge came and he went all tense & stupid.  Tried to warm up but he just got worse.  Because they had mucked us round there was no-one to do the dressage so I offered to go in.  Thinking they would at least give me one trot round the arena but NO.  Soon as I left the judges car she rang the bell.  Went to go in the ring & he just went dog and was all tense & sideways.  Got a growling in the corner and after about three movements finally relaxed & did some okay work.  Was pretty disappointed as he had warmed up so nicely & if we had done our test at the time we should have it would have been a nice test.

Anyway...walked the xc course again and the jump I was most scared of didn't look as horrendous so figured I would give it a go if things felt okay.  He was an absolute idiot in the warm up ring which was....exciting I guess?  Maybe it means he finally has the idea of xc??

So the first jump was a nice jump up a hill, he stood off that and pinged off.  Next the dreaded #2 - it was a hedge that had been grown over a normal fence - was max brush height etc.  Came into it and the take off was all fugged up from others stopping so I stopped riding into it.  I could NOT get my head around doing that jump - I was most scared about him dragging a leg through it and getting caught in the wire.  So I made the decision to just flag it & went and did the intro one instead.  MUCH nicer.  Third was a big roll top which he did okay, fourth log which he jumped nicely.  Fifth was the water complex - had to drop in, canter through (long water jump!) and then jump out and then a stride to a skinny.  He jumped in really well and cantered through but half way through just died so we jumped out & missed out the skinny, I came round to do it but there was no way there was enough room so just cantered round it.  Next was quite a big table top but that jumped okay.  The the sunken road - big vertical, one stride to ditch then one stride out over another vertical.  I just jumped the ditch & last vertical.  Then was probably the coolest jump on the course - skinny in between two Jeeps.  That was wicked & he jumped that really nicely.  Next up was a palisade, then tyres then out the back to a big corner.  Did all three really nicely.  Then a nice big long gallop round to a max height oxer with flax bushes - got a hugely long stride off that one but was cool.  Next up was an big upright with hay bales stuck down the middle of it - was worried about this one with it being so upright but he flew over it.  Next was another ramp thing - easy.  Then there was a very gappy oxer with a ditch under it.  Wasn't worried about this one but as we came up to it he was all disunited - I half halted a bit too harshly so he went down to trot & then just died in front of the jump.  Came round & did it again & again he trotted into it but had enough bounce in his step to launch over it.  Then the last was a ramp which we absolutely flew over.

Was SO super happy with him.  Yeah sure we got eliminated but I don't want to push him and if I am not riding confidently then there is the potential for things to go wrong.  On the upside though from about number 8 through to 14 he really took me to the jumps & felt super confident.  Of course there are no photos from that side of the course damn it!

I didn't do the SJ as there wasn't much point.  Save his legs for another day.

Some XC Footage

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

Woodhill SJ 3rd April

Back down to Woodhill for the first day of their winter SJ series. I know I need to work on our SJ so its my aim to go down there as often as I can & just PRACTICE!!!

Again did the 80 as our first round. The course was lovely & the double was a two stride so that was good. Cobs got faster & faster as the round went on - wasn't really listening to me so had a few good half halts to be reminded what manners are. He did a super round - backed off the double so he got growled into that (more for me I suspect LOL!). Got into the jump off & we went as fast as I am comfortable with. He was great - they had a fake liverpool etc and he didn't even look at it so that was awesome. The double was in it as well so even more practice! We got a 5th for our effort so that was great!!! I then proceeded to fall off after we had finished our round :( He got a fright from something & unfortunately the person making him spook didn't stop doing what they were doing so he kept leaping sideways. I stayed on for two spooks but the third unseated me & I landed on my bum. OUCH. That actually hurts.....a lot.

I was worried that the fall would affect my confidence so went into the 90 as quickly as I could to get over it. Cobs was SUPER in this round. Had one rail as he came off the corner on the wrong lead but other than that was absolutely thrilled with it. He was listening a lot more & we got the right spots etc. Just felt great. I came out the ring & my friend told me I was doing the metre round.....hmm.....this is a bit of a mind block for me with it being in the 100's rather than the 90's LOL! I told her that I would start but if I felt it was too big then I would retire.

WELL shouldn't have worried about that. SUPER STAR OF THE DAY!!! One rail (same jump as the 90 for the same reason) - thats it!!!! The round was AWESOME. I felt like I rode it really well & Cobs was wicked. Came out with the hugest smile on my face so thanks Michelle H for your support & encouragement. Would not have done it without your help!!! So all in all a fantastic day. Super proud of the both of us :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNg3cMqysoI

90 round (with a sandy bum!)

Metre round

Twilight SJ 31st March

Took Cobs down to Woodhill for their last twilight SJ just to get back into the groove of things after not having done much since Puhinui.

I just entered the 80 round. He was pretty good. Got all the right leads etc. I rode like a nana coming into the double so he stopped at the first one, spun him round & growled him into it the next time & he flew it.

Was pleased with the night - good to be out there jumping again & he wasn't too crazy LOL!

Puhinui Horse Trial :)

Riding at Puhinui has always been a dream of mine so I thought stuff it, strike while the iron is hot & away we went!

The weather was shite Friday night/Saturday morning but I was determined to just get out there & make the call. No point flagging it and then find the weather fining up when I am stuck at home!

Got there pretty early as they had decided to run the Training classes all one the one day which meant it was pretty full on.

Our dressage test was actually pretty nice but we got slammed for it & had some very interesting comments.....in the test you had to trot/walk/trot over the short diagonal and in both movements had "halted before walk" which didn't happen. And then in the canter you had to give over the marker on the long side away from the judge - did these movements & got the remark "give not shown". Whatever. LOL! So we were 17th which was disappointing.

We rushed over to do the SJ as the rain had started & I wanted to give him as much rest before the XC as I could. I didn't get a chance to walk it which put me off as I like to walk things so they are sorted in my head.

Our SJ round was one to be forgotten....yet again....I HATE SJ. He took four rails which is unusual for him but the ground was so wet & deep in front of the fences that I think he just struggled. We did the double (YAY) however he took the back rail on the 2nd part so I loosened my reins and then didn't get my shit sorted out before the next jump so I circled & regrouped. I know people will roll their eyes when they read that but I did what I thought was right at the time and we then got a lovely jump over the fence so my point was proven. The last fence was just yuck & he got stuck on take off so just took out the fence.....poor Cobs. Not ideal at all. I want to go to some more SJ shows soon and just give him a nice run....famous last words.

I went & walked the xc course again & it looked just as big the first time I walked it....the first jump was a big box thing and was definitely max height. The next few were also quite big but then the fourth was tiny - go figure! Six a&b then jump a white ramp into the main arena, through the water & out and over a ramp then came the first fence I really didn't like. It was a brush jump on a fenceline with the take off sloping down the hill. Cobs doesn't brush those fences so knew he would be making a huge leap over that! Then onto 11 a&b, 12 was a nice house thing and then came a HUGE corner. It had a black flag option which was a skinny but was a fair distance off course, then off a drop and down the back to 15 a/b/c. A was offset to B and they had strange distances between all three of them. Then the last two jumps were nice.

Soooo got on to warm up for the XC & found the warm up fences were pre-novice height so had no interest in jumping them. A lot of people were stopping at them, even had a few falls which made me dislike the look of them even more!!! So just decided that we would have to warm up out on the course which was not ideal considering how slippery the ground was & how big the jumps were!!!

He jumped number one, two & three great but was getting a bit behind my leg & started to trot into them from number four on which was not the brightest idea he has ever had. I was too worried about the ground to really push him on out of this so I am lucky that he is clever enough to get out of shit spots. He jumped 6b awful - blurgh. Jumped nicely into the arena and then we found ourselves literally knee deep in mud. I hadn't walked this part of the course as people were doing dressage so didn't know how bad that was. Trotted into the water fine & cantered out over the ramp. Then came number 10.....he trotted into it & did a huge jump LOL! So by now I was getting a bit worried about the whole trotting thing but still not confident enough in myself or him to just get going. 11 a&b were good and then 12 we almost flipped over as he was gawking at something else. I was thrown over his shoulder but managed to carry on. There was no way I was going to try the corner after that so did the long option. Jumped off the bank sweet as - in fact that was probably our best jump LOL! Then coming into 15 I decided I would do a straight on & circle to b&c. I knew this would give me a 20 point penalty as I crossed my tracks but to be honest he didn't feel that confident and would rather have 20 than a crash. Glad I made that decision as he did them nicely. Last two were fine and then we had finished!

YAY!!! Not only had we done my dream but we did pretty damn well too. Again the scoreboard looks like utter shite but I don't care. He went clear in the XC - the rider deserves the 20!

So super, super happy with him. It was so good to go out there & give it a go. I would love to go back out there next season if he is still going & really go for it.

Not sure what is next for us - he is going to have some time off to let his leg that he has cut in three different places (playing in the paddock) heal properly & then go from there :)