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 :)

Lesson with Liz Feb 2011

Had a great lesson with Liz - its been so long since we had one so we worked through the movements in the test for Puhinui which was great as it was quite fiddly.

Cobs was good - worked really hard and was generally in a good mood!

Lesson with Kirstin 2nd March

I thought it best to try and get a lesson in with Kirstin before Puhinui so went out to Massey PC.

Just when I left work the rain started & pretty much didn't stop the whole way to the PC. Luckily during our lesson it stopped so that was good.

It was really good to jump on a slippery surface - I don't ride in the rain and normally ride on arenas in winter so haven't really had the chance to see how Cobs feels in the wet conditions. Kirstin showed me so handy tips to really get him straight on the corners etc and he didn't feel like he was going to slip once so that was good to know.

He warmed up really nicely and was jumping well. Then we went over to the double and thats where the fun began....I honestly feel its me that puts him off so now he just starts backing off them straight away. Anyway he stopped a few times and Mr Whippy came out and he didn't think of stopping again LOL! In the end he was doing it really nicely.

We then did some lines getting the right amount of strides in etc so that was great practice. Cobs was jumping out of his skin so we had a fantastic time.

The last round of jumps we did were about 1.05-1.10 so that was wicked! They felt huge coming into them so am no-where near comfortable at that height but it was a great confidence boost and with another show in a few days was exactly what we needed.

Woodhill Sands Horse Trial

So I finally made the decision to go out & try Training. Thought Woodhill would be the perfect place for our first one as we know the grounds etc.

Cobs warmed up nicely for his dressage. The arena was over the other side so luckily we didn't have too many horses warming up round us. We went to go into the arena & he got very tense but then settled down again. The test was okay - could have been more forward however I wanted to keep in sane so didn't push it. He went above the bit a few times which is unusual so I must put some extra work into our flatwork as I haven't really done much of late.

The night before the Dressage/SJ it had rained A LOT and the SJ was on the grass so I was a little nervous at doing our first 95cm round on the grass. Although it has sand underneath it was still a little slippery in some places.

Fair to say that I well & truly stuffed up the SJ......the course was actually really nice & I wasn't worried about anything...First jump was awesome then I started to crush the canter a bit so he trotted into the second. He then went on the wrong leg coming out of that jump so I brought him back to a trot to change leads, he did a funny leap thing and I lost total concentration for the third jump and just sat there. Cobs bless his heart jumped it from a stand still but it was an oxer so he took the jump with him. Poor boy. Then the double was next & I got rattled so he jumped huge over the first and then ducked out at part B. Came round & did it again and we did not but not nicely....rest of the course was okay but my riding had gone to defensive mode so it wasn't pretty. Then the last jump was an oxer and I saw a long stride so pushed him for that and he took the back rail.

So very disappointed in myself for being a dick and losing it. The height of the jumps didn't scare me though so that is good I guess.

Went and walked the xc course & for our first training I thought it was a good course with different things we hadn't seen before.

The first question (for me) was number 5 which was a ramp back into the main arenas. That is where most people stand so the horses tend to get a bit distracted so knew that would be a challenge. Also the landing was quite a drop too and as Cobs bucks on landing sometimes I was wary of that! Coming into it I rode him into it from a fair distance away & he jumped it really nicely. He did however buck about 20 metres after it & scooted away LOL!

The first combination was a ramp, corner onto an oxer jump made of broken trot poles. I trotted into the ramp so he could have a look at the corner - I know he can do this sort of thing from a trot so it didn't bother me. He did it really nicely & cantered away to the oxer. Did another nice log jump & then had to jump a ditch. Like normal he leapt over it but did it nicely. The next fence was a wide quite flat jump - we have done it before but for whatever reason he decided he didn't really like it this time so stopped at it. I think I had probably stopped riding him as we had just done the combination!!

Then up over a few more jumps and onto the hill. Jump 18 was a narrow horseshoe type jump with a ground rail which was a fair way out. I hated it on sight & had already decided to go round it. As I jumped 17 all I could hear was my friends/parents yelling JUST GO FOR IT so tried to do it. Amazingly we got over it from a trot!!! It was by far the ugliest jump we have ever jumped so pretty proud of him. I was also worried about the last jump but we completely nailed it and no-one got a photo LOL!!

So all in all I am absolutely over the moon about our first attempt at this level. SJ is always going to be my weakest point & I am going to go out & try & do some SJ shows to get lots of practice in. Cobs was freakin awesome over the XC and tried his heart out.

I have been told by a few people that I should have pushed for time, done this & that but to be honest I am STOKED with how we went. I am not competitive - this is just fun. Five months ago I didn't think I would be riding this horse again let alone attempting our first Training run! At the end of the day as long as I am happy that should be enough for anyone who has an opinion. Although I shouldn't have to explain myself the weekend was a huge one of "firsts" for us - first round of 95cm, first time we have done round that height without doing a smaller round first & definitely the first time we have done XC jumps like this!!!!

I adore my pony & it makes me a little upset that some people just can't accept that I had an awesome time even though the scoreboard doesn't reflect it! Hey we didn't get eliminated!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtlMbk_g5H8

Lesson with Kirstin 25th January

Kirstin had a clinic at Woodhill this week which was AWESOME timing as we have entered Woodhill HT in the Training class....eeekkkkkkkkk.

Lesson was fabulous. Started off doing some flat work getting him to move off my leg more etc. He was absolutely lazy and then suddenly he went freakin mad & started hooning off everywhere! Dick.

Warmed up doing a vertical then halting, turning back around, jumping then halting etc until he started to listen to me a little more. I will try to do this at the practice fence at competitions but think it will be a bit hard with lots of others around.

We did heaps of related lines & courses which was exactly what I needed to do. I can't believe the difference that counting out loud makes - between that and looking at the ground line its pretty hard to stuff it up. Although I still manage too its no where near as often as before.

We then worked on some doubles - two strides this time. We actually nailed these pretty quickly so was super happy with that.

The last course we did was probably round training height with one red oxer at least 1.05. I thought I would ride it like a nana but it came up really nicely and Cobs did a great jump over it (photo below).

On the last round I could really feel he was struggling as the sand was quite deep so glad we did a good round and we left it at that.

I really feel that we are the most prepared we have been to give Training a good go. I have no other goal but to finish on a happy, sound horse. If we stuff up we stuff up but I feel we need to at least give it a try. We can always go back to pre-training if its too daunting anyway :)

Wish us luck for the weekend!

Updates

Holy its been a while! Xmas Holidays seemed to fly by very fast!!

I haven't really got much to update hence the non-blogging. Cobs has had some down time with the ground being so hard. I am very aware of his issues so trying very hard to not hammer him. Problem being is that now I can't keep him as fit as I would like so he is breathing VERY hard but seems to come back very quickly. So he is obviously fit enough - but I hate him sounding like a steam train.

Went to Raider & Limbury park a few times over the holidays. Cobs was just SUPER one day but I had a few thoughts reappear so got in touch with Kirstin again to help me out. Had a dressage lesson which went well - Cobs was a little flat so was quite hard work but he did everything that was asked of him.

So yeah - nothing of any imporatance to say really!!!!

Schooling Limbury Park

Hill work at home

Schooling at Raider Lodge