ILurfSmurf
23rd Aug 2009, 08:36 PM
Murphy did his first ODE today, his first 'proper' eventing debut :D
Went to a ODE at the south of england showground....and its was PACKED!
all the classes were full and all the classes were split up...and there was still 25 in each of the 3 sections :eek:
Not going to ramble on as i'm sure you'd rather see the pictures and videos :p
Dressage went quite well, considering he barely got any warm up at all, it was boiling hot and its only his 2nd test on grass :)
Showjumping he had 1 pole down, which i was pleased with as the ring was quite small, and had a giant tree in the middle :confused: :rolleyes: pleased he got through all the combinations fine, and didnt get put off when he tripped half way round.
Cross Country i was most nervous about, as neither of us have gone round a whole 'proper' XC course, but he was a star! :-) We had an issue at a jump shaped like a giant wooden boat :rolleyes: and ran out at it twice. I had to make a decision between trying again and with the fuss murph was making he wasnt going to jump a 3rd time - meant that i'd have to leave the course at a walk, alternatively forget about it, move on and jump the rest of the course... although i'd have been eliminated.
I decided to make it a schooling round, and we cantered off to jump the rest of the course :) he stopped at a small skinny of tyres (the first skinny he's seen) but he jumped it 2nd time round, and he jumped another 3 skinnies on the course, and he stopped at a small jump on a really steep hill - as i was trying to find a line between rushing him down the hill and not going forwards, but again he jumped that 2nd time round...apart from that he flew everything - steps, ditches, water, and some really weird ones that i thought would've caused problems but didnt :) its a shame the boat wasnt further into the course, as i think he'd have jumped it if he'd gotten into the swing of XC.
Didnt stay for results as we were eliminated anyway, and i didnt really care cause my boy was such a star anyway :)
pics/vids to follow
Went to a ODE at the south of england showground....and its was PACKED!
all the classes were full and all the classes were split up...and there was still 25 in each of the 3 sections :eek:
Not going to ramble on as i'm sure you'd rather see the pictures and videos :p
Dressage went quite well, considering he barely got any warm up at all, it was boiling hot and its only his 2nd test on grass :)
Showjumping he had 1 pole down, which i was pleased with as the ring was quite small, and had a giant tree in the middle :confused: :rolleyes: pleased he got through all the combinations fine, and didnt get put off when he tripped half way round.
Cross Country i was most nervous about, as neither of us have gone round a whole 'proper' XC course, but he was a star! :-) We had an issue at a jump shaped like a giant wooden boat :rolleyes: and ran out at it twice. I had to make a decision between trying again and with the fuss murph was making he wasnt going to jump a 3rd time - meant that i'd have to leave the course at a walk, alternatively forget about it, move on and jump the rest of the course... although i'd have been eliminated.
I decided to make it a schooling round, and we cantered off to jump the rest of the course :) he stopped at a small skinny of tyres (the first skinny he's seen) but he jumped it 2nd time round, and he jumped another 3 skinnies on the course, and he stopped at a small jump on a really steep hill - as i was trying to find a line between rushing him down the hill and not going forwards, but again he jumped that 2nd time round...apart from that he flew everything - steps, ditches, water, and some really weird ones that i thought would've caused problems but didnt :) its a shame the boat wasnt further into the course, as i think he'd have jumped it if he'd gotten into the swing of XC.
Didnt stay for results as we were eliminated anyway, and i didnt really care cause my boy was such a star anyway :)
pics/vids to follow