Waimauku SJ

Waimauku Pony Club had a show jumping day on today so thought we would go so we could sort our stupid canter out & also to finally have a good crack at 90cm.

Cobs is normally really unsettled at these grounds but today he just mooched round like he had been there all his life. Made my day more relaxed thats for sure!

We started on 80cm round. No idea what Cobs was thinking but the first two jumps were hideous! Was almost like jumping took him by surprise even though we had warmed up over jumps. Dick! So by the time we got to number 5 which was a fairly big oxer he really started to jump properly & just cruised round. Was so much fun. We got into the jump off as well but although we went clear we were competing against ponies which is a little unfair but thems the breaks! He still tried really hard & we did one sneaky corner to shave some time off but it wasn't enough. Was stoked with his round - don't think our canter was quite fast enough but was definitely an improvement on where it has been.
The 90 round was AWESOME!!! Cobs jumped out of his skin! Wasn't the prettiest round as I got too excited that we were actually doing it but never mind LOL!

We got through to the jump off as well but again too slow. Who cares - NOT ME!!!

Super proud of the boy - although I was a little apprehensive about doing it I am glad I did and I hope I can continue working at that height out at comps now.

Photos from 80cm round:











Warming up between classes:





90cm round:

Twilight Dressage 17th December

Went down to Woodhill Sands for day three of their summer twilight dressage series.

Cobs warmed up fantastically - was wondering what had happened to my horse as straight away he was lovely & soft, listening, not worried about the other horses. Just awesome!

However that didn't last long LOL! Went to go into my first test which was the harder of the two and then it started - shying everywhere, snorting, wouldn't listen etc. Was so freakin weird as nothing happened to set it off. I wonder if what happened is I went to the judges car & the judge is someone who ALWAYS slams us if I tensed up or something - with him thats all it takes!

We had to do the harder test first which always annoys me! Anyway we cantered down the centre line which is always a great start (not) but then did a great halt etc so we weren't marked too harshly. Next few movements were okay but then we were on a 10 metre circle and he leapt sideways & I lost my stirrup which at this point annoyed the hell out of me so he got a few pony club boots in his side which actually seemed to do the trick!

Our rein back was in front of the judge and I wasn't even sure if we were going to be able to halt let alone rein back but funnily enough we got 8's for these movements LOL! Who would have thought!

Our first counter canter was a bit hairy but maintained however in the second one he broke & went on the wrong leg so I stopped and redid the movement. Knew I would get a course error however we ended up getting a 7 for the movement and if I had carried on I would have got a 3 or something so I think we ended up getting a far better mark. I wasn't going to let him get away with being a shit so think I made the best call.

Rest of the test was okay - obviously tense but he didn't explode so that was good.

Then just to keep up with the strangeness of the night his second test was AWESOME & we got 2nd!!! Stupid horse!!! Was a lovely, calm, consistent test. When I did my final halt I turned to friends watching & said "this is why I persevere with this horse". As frustrating as the first test was he calmed down and was awesome. Freakin strange horse LOL!

We ended up third in the first test too which surprised me - the judge was more than fair with her marks and I guess she was having a good day LOL!

Lesson with Liz 15th December

Had a FANTASTIC lesson with Liz - Cobs was so nice & soft and worked his arse off basically!

We are doing a ton of work trying to get him off my leg as I have got into a VERY bad habit of my leg moving back (as I am sure you can see from all of my photos!) so we are doing heaps of lateral work and trying to get me to stop blocking him with my right rein when doing shoulder ins etc.

We ran through the tests we were doing on Thursday (twlight dressage) and I have to say we completely nailed our counter canters & rein backs. I had been working on our rein backs since our last lesson & the improvement was awesome.

Looking forward to putting some more consistent work into Cobs over the Xmas break & having more lessons with Liz before we get into competing again every weekend.

I was super proud of him today. Just wish my stupid right hand wasn't so blocked!

Lessons Update

Have had two great lessons this week.

Had a dressage one with Liz on Monday - ran through some movements in some Novice tests which was fun. It has become apparent that I have no idea how big a 10 metre circle should be so we worked on that for a while! Practiced some rein back & counter canter which we got pretty well. Both Liz & I were very happy with him as he has had some time off after Kumeu as I had an infected foot so couldn't ride. He seems really really happy in his work and tried so hard doing different movements etc. Very pleased with him :)

Yesterday I went up to have a jumping lesson with Jaime - first one in a LONG time so was good to go through things again.

The canter that I thought I had nailed was wrong so all of our lesson was working on that again. Amazing how different it felt and the jumps just came on the right stride etc. Disappointed in myself that I haven't kept up with stuff but I hope to see Jaime over Xmas and get this stupid canter cemented in us.

He went really well once I got my shit sorted out. Got a bit frazzled as we pushed him out of his comfort zone with the canter work but settled quickly & tried his heart out.

All in all two very successful lessons this week :)