coss
2nd Aug 2008, 09:56 PM
Managed to get a lift to my RI's competition (in aid of charity). Dawn hadn't been in a box for over a year and went straight in and ignored the young pony on the other side of the partition. unloaded fine, undid travel boots etc then tacked up for first test. we did intro A to get dawn in the school and ride her through any spooks at the judges box - she was very calm and there wasn't any need for that in the end as she just settled and accepted the fact (but i wasn't to know she'd be like that) I entered HC as i was entering a novice test later in the day (not really fair to enter intro and novice) and we got 59.13% which was 7% ahead of the winner :D
had a long time hanging around but dawn grazed and ate the bucket feeds i gave her. eventually tacked up again and warmed up for prelim 18 (ie i walk around on a long rein to keep her calm with the occasional trot) did a long reined canter to stretch her on both reins and had a calm horse (what was going on?!) rode the test, not the best but calm and that was my aim of the whole day, to have a horse that walked :p
then hung around again and rode novice 25. messed up my medium trots - didn't have enough energy and she is usually so good but she was tired by that time so i was happier for her to be rhythmic and settled. same with the medium canter - i'm usually holding her off it all the time but had to ask for it and it was a bit boggy so didn't get a good difference (did mean that my canter round the short end wasn't a battle though ;)) had good free walks for once so overall very happy with her.
had lots of admirers and they couldn't believe she was 31 (person who had given me a lift though we'd already done the multiplying thing - she's 124 in horse years if you follow the multiply by 4 rule, he must have thought she was 7 or 8 :eek: )
cookies for those that got this far!! and now the pics:
look at the clean socks before we went in the rubber school!
http://file040a.bebo.com/11/large/2008/08/02/20/1359860817a8518099957l.jpghttp://file040a.bebo.com/11/large/2008/08/02/20/1359860817a8518100035l.jpg
she was hollow a lot of the time (even though she steps under a lot!) and my mum isn't great behind the camera and missed the times where she was rounder and softer - or she's half caught me
http://file040a.bebo.com/11/large/2008/08/02/20/1359860817a8518100119l.jpghttp://file040a.bebo.com/11/large/2008/08/02/20/1359860817a8518100187l.jpg
http://file040a.bebo.com/11/large/2008/08/02/20/1359860817a8518100263l.jpghttp://file040a.bebo.com/11/large/2008/08/02/20/1359860817a8518100339l.jpg
more to come
had a long time hanging around but dawn grazed and ate the bucket feeds i gave her. eventually tacked up again and warmed up for prelim 18 (ie i walk around on a long rein to keep her calm with the occasional trot) did a long reined canter to stretch her on both reins and had a calm horse (what was going on?!) rode the test, not the best but calm and that was my aim of the whole day, to have a horse that walked :p
then hung around again and rode novice 25. messed up my medium trots - didn't have enough energy and she is usually so good but she was tired by that time so i was happier for her to be rhythmic and settled. same with the medium canter - i'm usually holding her off it all the time but had to ask for it and it was a bit boggy so didn't get a good difference (did mean that my canter round the short end wasn't a battle though ;)) had good free walks for once so overall very happy with her.
had lots of admirers and they couldn't believe she was 31 (person who had given me a lift though we'd already done the multiplying thing - she's 124 in horse years if you follow the multiply by 4 rule, he must have thought she was 7 or 8 :eek: )
cookies for those that got this far!! and now the pics:
look at the clean socks before we went in the rubber school!
http://file040a.bebo.com/11/large/2008/08/02/20/1359860817a8518099957l.jpghttp://file040a.bebo.com/11/large/2008/08/02/20/1359860817a8518100035l.jpg
she was hollow a lot of the time (even though she steps under a lot!) and my mum isn't great behind the camera and missed the times where she was rounder and softer - or she's half caught me
http://file040a.bebo.com/11/large/2008/08/02/20/1359860817a8518100119l.jpghttp://file040a.bebo.com/11/large/2008/08/02/20/1359860817a8518100187l.jpg
http://file040a.bebo.com/11/large/2008/08/02/20/1359860817a8518100263l.jpghttp://file040a.bebo.com/11/large/2008/08/02/20/1359860817a8518100339l.jpg
more to come