On Saturday evening my boss and I met up with Cindy, one of her students (yup that's her real name and no it's not common in France :giggle
, to compete in a novelty team showjumping class in fancy-dress. Cindy had lost her nerve jumping with her old instructor and started taking lessons with my boss because she'd heard on the grapevine that Izzy is good with sorting out confidence issues. She's got a lot of confidence back and has started to enjoy her showjumping again, so when she said she wanted to do this novelty event "just for fun" and needed team members we were happy to join her. We asked what she wanted to dress up as and she said fairies ((she's that sort of person :happy) so Izzy's mum played costume department and came up with outfits for us and decoration for the horses.
The class was the last of the day and not scheduled to start until 7pm, but there were only 9 teams entered (3 in a team) so we thought it should be okay time-wise. Unfortunately they ended up behind schedule and were only just putting our course up at 8pm - and they had also taken extra entries throughout the afternoon and ended up with 15 teams entered. Not great news, the jumping arena only had one floodlight and the warmup had none, Cindy's horse Taly is completely blind in her right eye and Picasso, who Izzy was riding, only sees shadows with his left. So we put our names down in the warmup as soon as possible, so that we knew we'd have enough light.
The class was meant to be 1m, but the jumps were more like 80-90cm and it was a nice inviting, straightforward course. The judge explained the system over the microphone while the riders were walking it. All 3 team members go into the start box together, first rider canters out of the start box and jumps the course (7 fences) against the clock, then halts between two jump wings, dismounts and gives horse to a helper, runs to a paddling pool and gets in with both feet, finds a keyring in the murky water, runs to the start box and hands the keyring to second rider, who sets off. ((Rider then recuperates horse from helper before next rider appears!))
We headed off to get ready. Didn't take too long, luckily the only problems were spray-painting Jam and Taly's manes and tails because they both hate sprays, Picasso couldn't have cared less and even let us spray a heart on his forehead :giggle: I gave boss's mum a crash course in using my camera and then handed over photography duties. ((The forum software always stops me putting photos in threads and sends it to moderator approval, so sorry for linking pics individually.))
Boss and her magic wands
http://i1336.photobucket.com/albums.../August month/DSC01693800x800_zps6f826390.jpg
Team Fairy (trust me to look as unelegant and unfairylike as possible...!)
http://i1336.photobucket.com/albums.../August month/DSC01694693x800_zps1e0c52b8.jpg
Quite clearly employee abuse
http://i1336.photobucket.com/albums.../August month/DSC01700800x702_zps61ed7c4a.jpg
http://i1336.photobucket.com/albums.../August month/DSC01704800x581_zpsbcc24bde.jpg
http://i1336.photobucket.com/albums.../August month/DSC01706782x800_zpsd13a2564.jpg
me & Jam
http://i1336.photobucket.com/albums.../August month/DSC01713800x724_zps4f2cb187.jpg
Cindy & Taly... we were all amused by how completely normal she looked in fluffy pink wings... some people are just born to dress up!
http://i1336.photobucket.com/albums.../August month/DSC01715800x744_zps7398aafe.jpg
Izzy & Picasso
http://i1336.photobucket.com/albums.../August month/DSC01719800x611_zpsd0043948.jpg
Jam & Picasso having a smooch in public (as per usual)
http://i1336.photobucket.com/albums...csnap-2013-08-25-21h35m08s492_zpsed7ff6d3.jpg
We watched a couple of teams go and then did a nice quick warmup - brief trot and canter on both reins, extended canter up a long side, 2 uprights and 2 spreads. The light was already getting poor by the time it was our turn to jump, so we were glad we'd put our names down quickly. We had a quick team pep talk - which basically involved Izzy telling the two of us to forget about riding "correctly" and just have fun - and then went in.
All three horses were well up for it and jumped clear with no trouble. We had a near mishap when Cindy went fishing for the keyring without actually stepping into the paddling pool, she was clearly in a world of her own and didn't hear us shouting or the judge saying she'd be disqualified if she didn't get in. Luckily her dad stepped under the fence and told her and then she got in and found a keyring straight away. She rode more confidently than I've ever seen her and did the whole thing with a massive grin plastered on her face - mission accomplished!
Here's the video - the deep voice you can hear cheering for us didn't even know who we were, but she obviously noticed our support team was tiny and decided to encourage us! (change quality to 480p)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oui0OlszGFI
We then waited around watching the other teams as it got darker and darker - as the last teams went the judges actually needed people on the course to tell them if poles had fallen down! It was such a shame because people's costumes were barely visible and their efforts could be properly appreciated. It really needed to be scheduled in the middle of the day where there would be plenty of spectators and it would be much more exciting to watch - not crammed in at the end of the schedule, especially without proper lighting in the arena! But hey that's the French for you... they're not great at the whole "fun" thing...!
Turned out only 2 teams went triple clear including us. Unfortunately for us the other team was fearless teenagers on very whizzy ponies and they easily beat us for time. But we finished a very respectable 2nd! The prizegiving was in the dark, so no decent photos and no lap of honour but there was a pro photographer there so hopefully he got some good shots, pics won't be up til the end of the week though.
ETA - me & Jam in action :giggle:
http://i1336.photobucket.com/albums...snap-2013-08-25-21h43m48s1432_zpsca7a2670.jpg
, to compete in a novelty team showjumping class in fancy-dress. Cindy had lost her nerve jumping with her old instructor and started taking lessons with my boss because she'd heard on the grapevine that Izzy is good with sorting out confidence issues. She's got a lot of confidence back and has started to enjoy her showjumping again, so when she said she wanted to do this novelty event "just for fun" and needed team members we were happy to join her. We asked what she wanted to dress up as and she said fairies ((she's that sort of person :happy) so Izzy's mum played costume department and came up with outfits for us and decoration for the horses. The class was the last of the day and not scheduled to start until 7pm, but there were only 9 teams entered (3 in a team) so we thought it should be okay time-wise. Unfortunately they ended up behind schedule and were only just putting our course up at 8pm - and they had also taken extra entries throughout the afternoon and ended up with 15 teams entered. Not great news, the jumping arena only had one floodlight and the warmup had none, Cindy's horse Taly is completely blind in her right eye and Picasso, who Izzy was riding, only sees shadows with his left. So we put our names down in the warmup as soon as possible, so that we knew we'd have enough light.
The class was meant to be 1m, but the jumps were more like 80-90cm and it was a nice inviting, straightforward course. The judge explained the system over the microphone while the riders were walking it. All 3 team members go into the start box together, first rider canters out of the start box and jumps the course (7 fences) against the clock, then halts between two jump wings, dismounts and gives horse to a helper, runs to a paddling pool and gets in with both feet, finds a keyring in the murky water, runs to the start box and hands the keyring to second rider, who sets off. ((Rider then recuperates horse from helper before next rider appears!))
We headed off to get ready. Didn't take too long, luckily the only problems were spray-painting Jam and Taly's manes and tails because they both hate sprays, Picasso couldn't have cared less and even let us spray a heart on his forehead :giggle: I gave boss's mum a crash course in using my camera and then handed over photography duties. ((The forum software always stops me putting photos in threads and sends it to moderator approval, so sorry for linking pics individually.))
Boss and her magic wands
http://i1336.photobucket.com/albums.../August month/DSC01693800x800_zps6f826390.jpg
Team Fairy (trust me to look as unelegant and unfairylike as possible...!)
http://i1336.photobucket.com/albums.../August month/DSC01694693x800_zps1e0c52b8.jpg
Quite clearly employee abuse
http://i1336.photobucket.com/albums.../August month/DSC01700800x702_zps61ed7c4a.jpg
http://i1336.photobucket.com/albums.../August month/DSC01704800x581_zpsbcc24bde.jpg
http://i1336.photobucket.com/albums.../August month/DSC01706782x800_zpsd13a2564.jpg
me & Jam
http://i1336.photobucket.com/albums.../August month/DSC01713800x724_zps4f2cb187.jpg
Cindy & Taly... we were all amused by how completely normal she looked in fluffy pink wings... some people are just born to dress up!
http://i1336.photobucket.com/albums.../August month/DSC01715800x744_zps7398aafe.jpg
Izzy & Picasso
http://i1336.photobucket.com/albums.../August month/DSC01719800x611_zpsd0043948.jpg
Jam & Picasso having a smooch in public (as per usual)
http://i1336.photobucket.com/albums...csnap-2013-08-25-21h35m08s492_zpsed7ff6d3.jpg
We watched a couple of teams go and then did a nice quick warmup - brief trot and canter on both reins, extended canter up a long side, 2 uprights and 2 spreads. The light was already getting poor by the time it was our turn to jump, so we were glad we'd put our names down quickly. We had a quick team pep talk - which basically involved Izzy telling the two of us to forget about riding "correctly" and just have fun - and then went in.
All three horses were well up for it and jumped clear with no trouble. We had a near mishap when Cindy went fishing for the keyring without actually stepping into the paddling pool, she was clearly in a world of her own and didn't hear us shouting or the judge saying she'd be disqualified if she didn't get in. Luckily her dad stepped under the fence and told her and then she got in and found a keyring straight away. She rode more confidently than I've ever seen her and did the whole thing with a massive grin plastered on her face - mission accomplished!
Here's the video - the deep voice you can hear cheering for us didn't even know who we were, but she obviously noticed our support team was tiny and decided to encourage us! (change quality to 480p)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oui0OlszGFI
We then waited around watching the other teams as it got darker and darker - as the last teams went the judges actually needed people on the course to tell them if poles had fallen down! It was such a shame because people's costumes were barely visible and their efforts could be properly appreciated. It really needed to be scheduled in the middle of the day where there would be plenty of spectators and it would be much more exciting to watch - not crammed in at the end of the schedule, especially without proper lighting in the arena! But hey that's the French for you... they're not great at the whole "fun" thing...!
Turned out only 2 teams went triple clear including us. Unfortunately for us the other team was fearless teenagers on very whizzy ponies and they easily beat us for time. But we finished a very respectable 2nd! The prizegiving was in the dark, so no decent photos and no lap of honour
but there was a pro photographer there so hopefully he got some good shots, pics won't be up til the end of the week though. ETA - me & Jam in action :giggle:
http://i1336.photobucket.com/albums...snap-2013-08-25-21h43m48s1432_zpsca7a2670.jpg
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