Tia's first show & The smallest SJ course I think I have ever jumped...

RachelEvent

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Apr 12, 2004
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Tia has continued to be a little star - she is still hacking out beautifully, and her flatwork is coming on leaps and bounds. Plenty of lungeing in the chambon is starting to build up her topline, and the huge amounts of grass in the field are building up her waistline!

Today was the first show she has been to - aside from point-to-pointing .. so quite an exciting occasion for her. It's about 40 minutes hack from my yard, so we headed over quietly and got there right at opening time so that it wouldn't be too hectic to start with. She knew something was going on right away from the loudspeakers though! Aside from being unable to stand still for more than half a mili-second, she did actually behave very well - so long as we kept walking, she generally had the correct amount of legs attached to the floor at the right time! Snuck into the warm-up ring while no-one else was in there, popped a couple of crosspoles, then headed out again to walk around and around and around.

My main intention was to go for a look around and see how she reacted - but I had a look at the courses, and decided we would actually have a go at the 1'6" - the first time I have done a 1'6" in about, oooh, 12 years or so! However, she has probably only seen showjumps two or three times in her life, and has never attempted a course, so I think quite sensible to attempt a tiny height to start with.

I was very impressed! She had no qualms about leaving other horses to go into the ring, and then happily popped around the course, wasn't worried by little fillers, was very forwards but not strong... stayed straight through the doubles, no problem with the one-stride double even though we haven't done one before. She jumped clear in the first phase, and then just tapped a pole in the jump-off phase.

Since that was so tiny and easy, we entered the next class - a whopping 2' :)D) and managed an identical performance of just rolling one pole in the jump off.

Next time we will probably go straight in at 2'3" after a bit more SJ practice at home, as she was obviously completely unconcerned at this height, and needs a bit more fence to put in a nicer jump. Hopefully we will manage to stand still for a few more seconds at a time next time around too :eek:

So some photos...

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She looks fab!!
First photo shows how much scope she has and the fact that she took everything in stride when going around is really poisitive too.
Well done you!
 
aw, she's really pretty, looks like she's finding them easy! I like those sort of jumps lol! less chance of going splat usually :p
 
Just got in and seen this thread! (After a heads up from Miss Maximo... who is my friend Lucie who was here when you came and tried Tia btw! :p).

She looks fantastic hun! :eek:

I'm so pleased she took it all in her stride, she really looks like she's enjoying herself too. I'm so excited for her future prospects with you, you look lovely together! :)

Shorty is quite the same as Tia on the "crazy-feet" front. :rolleyes: It's an ex racer thing where they constantly have to be on the move, you'll have her settled in no time though i'm sure. :)

Well done again you pair... bloody good form! :D
 
She looks great, well done. those jumps are about my size too, I might just be brave enough to try something that big in the not too distant future! Have to agree about the ex racer and not standing still thing, Spike can't either!
 
Thanks everyone - I think she was very pleased with herself. I went to give her her food this morning and she was fast asleep flat out, so obviously a very tired pony after her exertions!

I think the crazy feet will calm down eventually - this is the first time she has been out since racing after all. Planning to take her out most weeks - although often it will be very calm dressage training sessions, so hopefully that will bore her into standing still!

ps hows ferdie doing....... miss posts on the grey man!! hope hes still doing fab with his loaner mummy!

Ferd's is doing well - he hasn't had the best results BE this year - not terribly but not brilliant, and we have finally got to the bottom of the problem, which is that somehow (not sure exactly how) he had some gut damage - explains why he wasn't putting on weight, or quite as exuberant as usual - now that's able to get better, he'll be back on form hopefully! I actually showjumped him the other day around a 2'9 clear round, and it was great fun - he thought it was insultingly tiny!
 
Oh I don't know, think you might be rushing things a bit with her - look at that first pic, poor thing barely got over it! ;):D

Had to laugh at 4th pic - I've got some like that from when I was just starting to jump on my 17hh, with his front and back feet practically all on the floor at either side of the fence all at at the same time :rolleyes: That's when you think 'hmm, maybe these are just too small for a big horse' :D But at the time I thought they were just hhhuuuge!

She's looking great, do you plan to event her eventually?
 
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