Pony Camp for Grown Ups!!

KP nut

KP nut

I'd rather be riding.
Dec 22, 2008
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Well the twins can't have ALL the fun.

It's been a magical few days with my AWESOME horse. I just cannot believe how brave, willing and honest she is. I have discovered that she LOVES to jump and is fabulous cross country. Just does not look at anything. Ditches, hedges, steps, coffins, drops, water, skinnies. Just flies over everything with no hesitation (but not very many brakes either..... :eek:) God I love this horse!! It was great to be able to spend 24/7 with her and sleeping in a field near her,hearing her nicker/munch was heaven on earth.

Finished the camp with a full ODE over a BE course - though non competitive of course so you could mix and match heights on the XC course depending on how you/the horse felt. She was super over excited on the dressage so that wasn't too good. Then 4 faults SJ over a 75cm course and clear cross country over a course that was 80cm the first half then 90cm the second half.

She has the heart of a lion. She's wonderful.

There was a ditch in front of the hedge. Scared me but she didn't bat an eyelid.

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Wow! I am so pleased for both of you. Lovely Amber has really landed on her feet with you and you have found your event horse. Can't wait to keep following your progress.

I am off to adult pony camp in 10 days. It is my second such camp this year and I really can't wait. I won't be going over a 90 BE xc course, but I will hopefully pop over some of the 50cm jumps and play in the water. I presume Amber had a stable at camp or was she literally sleeping right next to you?
 
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@Mary Poppins there were stables in the camping field (permanent, temporary ones if you know what I mean!) and you could choose to corral your horse or stable him/her. I had her coralled during the day when I could keep her in sight, and stabled at night. Some had theirs out all the time though.

I could see her from my tent, even when stabled. It was lovely.
 
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I like the idea of corralling as lots of people who do TREC do it instead of tying up their horses. However I fear that Ben would literally walk straight through the tape. He is not one to respect fencing unless it is wired up to mains electric! At my last camp Ben was very stressed being stabled 24/7 on a very busy yard. This camp is much quieter so I hope he settles better and I am not going to forget my dually this time so I can grass walk him without him pulling my arms out of their sockets! At the moment he is stabled between about 7am and 7pm to keep him off the grass, so hopefully staying in overnight won't be such a shock to his system.
 
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I miss going to camps...hmm maybe next year. Glad you had such a wonderful time, she looks like she is going to be the ideal horse, after all the uncertainty at the beginning you must be pinching yourself a bit now :p
 
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Jane&Ziggy said:
Fantastic, what a great post to read. She'll have you up to BE100 soon!
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HAHA well she's a BE100 horse for sure. But I don't think I am quite yet a BE100 rider!! Some of the meter fences just look mahooosive. Plus you have to show jump a metre track too..... :eek::eek:
 
Jessey said:
looks like she is going to be the ideal horse, after all the uncertainty at the beginning you must be pinching yourself a bit now :p
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I am totally pinching myself. I remember jumping 60cm clear round course on Zak and being so terrified I was literally shaking before the start. I remember my first XC log - about 45 cm. Took me weeks to summon up the courage to jump that. I'd feel sick just imagining jumping it. Both were within the last 2 years or so. If you had told me then that I would be jumping BE90 fences I'd have thought you were mad. And if you had told me in June when I jumped her over little x-poles that within a month I'd be doing this on her, I'd have thought you were COMPLETELY mad. She is just amazing. The instructors were great at camp - so positive and encouraging. Feeling very blessed!
 
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What fun! I would love to do an adult camp with Annie, it's on my bucket list. You and Amber look fab - she's going to be a cracker :D
 
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Lovely post to read, she will be a superstar. Funny how it's all worked out, do you know what she's done before?
Used to love going to camp but no horse for me to take this year :(
 
Lissie said:
Lovely post to read, she will be a superstar. Funny how it's all worked out, do you know what she's done before?
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No idea. My impression from her behaviour is that she has hunted. She is confident and fast over xc fences and she's very herd bound on hacks. Which made life interesting when we were catching up with the horse in front of us on the xc course during the ODE!!! But I don't think she had ever seem coloured poles or an arena surface. Nor ever been schooled/educated in the basics on the flat. She was clueless about aids, very crooked and very unbalanced.
 
KP nut said:
No idea. My impression from her behaviour is that she has hunted. She is confident and fast over xc fences and she's very herd bound on hacks. Which made life interesting when we were catching up with the horse in front of us on the xc course during the ODE!!! But I don't think she had ever seem coloured poles or an arena surface. Nor ever been schooled/educated in the basics on the flat. She was clueless about aids, very crooked and very unbalanced.
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I think she's a cracker and you're doing a really good and taking care of bringing her on and her education. I'd rather a bold horse jumping and improve the flatwork than the other way round.
 
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KP nut said:
Well the twins can't have ALL the fun.

It's been a magical few days with my AWESOME horse. I just cannot believe how brave, willing and honest she is. I have discovered that she LOVES to jump and is fabulous cross country. Just does not look at anything. Ditches, hedges, steps, coffins, drops, water, skinnies. Just flies over everything with no hesitation (but not very many brakes either..... :eek:) God I love this horse!! It was great to be able to spend 24/7 with her and sleeping in a field near her,hearing her nicker/munch was heaven on earth.

Finished the camp with a full ODE over a BE course - though non competitive of course so you could mix and match heights on the XC course depending on how you/the horse felt. She was super over excited on the dressage so that wasn't too good. Then 4 faults SJ over a 75cm course and clear cross country over a course that was 80cm the first half then 90cm the second half.

She has the heart of a lion. She's wonderful.

There was a ditch in front of the hedge. Scared me but she didn't bat an eyelid.

View attachment 87659 View attachment 87660
Click to expand...

Wow! She's such an amazing and brave beauty! Her jump is even in perfect form. :)
 
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