Part 2 - Long awaited finishing...

Part 2 starts with some fun, after the horse trial while I was hanging around waiting for friends to leave, we got talking, and it was decided that we were to take the horses 15mins away and go for a swim in the lake.

I've never been "swimming" with a horse, although I have taken them in water at the beach, and further to that Pencil has only ever seen water jumps!

So much fun had in the water! And without further waiting... Pictures!!

It was absolutly beautiful to take them down to the lake for the swim! I had a absolute blast :)

Sadly, Megz went home, and I took Pencil to a friends place who backed onto Landcorp land... so that evening Pencil got to stay in a paddock instead of a yard, which I was so relieved about.

The next day, we went for a ride through the Pine Trees on the landcorp land... was a fantastic ride. I did think it was going to be a stroll in the trees, but the rider I was with had a different idea, and we blasted up a few hills giggling and whacking trees out of our face, and trying to avoid blackberry!

Come Tuesday morning, the day for the clinic with Lucinda Green (nee Palmer), I was pretty darn nervous.

There were a myrid of things at the Clinic I felt I did wrong, but better I did it wrong and got things corrected and got my moneys worth, rather than sitting there watching others being taught.

I was going to go to into details about everything, but its not that important to be honest. What is important is what I took away from the clinic.

The first day was to focus on having the horse looking for the fence, looking where they are going - getting them to search out the next fence..... Pencil and I were NOT very good at this.  I also got told off that he keeps pulling me out of the saddle (not new).  I got yelled at a bit for letting Pencil go past a skinny. If they skip off the side, I got told to not keep on riding and circling back, because you haven't made a correction of any type - even re-inforced that its ok to do that. So I had to slam on the breaks, and back the horse up. Then jump it again.  Once that was sorted out better.... it was a foward canter over a fence, a few strides over a skinny, over a side of a corner then out the back side of a double... the line was something else! We got it reasonably easy... but not by looking for the fences... so had to do it again.

Day two, was interesting - within the first 10mins I was yelled at "didn't we spend two hours teaching you this yesterday!" (blush).  If you walk down a bank, you walk up a bank. If you trot down a bank, you only trot UP the bank (or any combination) was the first words of advice, or it leads to teaching the horse to rush. So I was walking up and down and in and out for a bit... and then promptly got asked how often I fall off... shoulders back - I was going down the bank before the horse was. So that got addressed. What I liked about using the banks, was how we had to leave the horses completely alone. They had to make a mistake.. and it related straight to the water fence later on. To teach a horse to go up/down banks we were told to pretty much drop the contact and just sit. Do nothing. Let the horses figure out how to get the legs out, especially with waves in the water. Something I had been thinking I needed help with as Pencil had been leaping out into water jumps. But once he stumbled, and steped, leaped and scrambled.. (it was only 2 times up the bank really) he figured it out and was now nicely popping up and down banks, and the water jump.  Focus on where we were going was not forgotten, with the use of two drums and a narrow gap to get the horses through on the up and down side of the water.

Had a good galloping and play to finish off with, and a summary with Lucinda. We both agreed my horse is a little thick at times :) .... and that I'm a bit slow on it as well LOL... in my reactions that is. RIDE Pip RIDE.

Waitemata Horse Trial - Part 1

I'm going to break this up into two parts... the first part being the horse trial that I went to over the weekend, and Part 2 for the clinic I attended in Taupo a day after the HT.

First things first though - I have updated the Central District Horse Trial blog with photo's from the photographer there. Sometimes I thank my lucky stars my horse is athletic enough - the photo coming over the hedge he has a wicked twist going on - some of this is due to coming in crooked, and part coming from trot... least I look secure up there! Anywhoo...

Friday was the drive up, it seemed to take FOREVER!! I left plenty early enough, and had next to no traffic to deal with on the roads, but the amount of road works was phenominal! So what should have been about 4.5hr drive came to almost 5.5 hrs as I had to stop for 20mins at one stage while they were spraying tar. I was thankful that I had carried water on me as it was hot, so I got out while stopped poured Pencil a drink and had some lunch myself while I waited. I was a smidge creeped out as I was the only car waiting for the entire 20mins and the lollie-pop men weren't that enticing.. in fact down right intimidating! Behind the dark sunnies, and toothless smiles I'm sure they were nice, and seemed nice enough when I greated them.. but still I looked around several time looking for another person to come up behind me!

Arrived, and was about the 5th to arrived, so drove around until I found my yard (right next to the poo pile darn it, and halfway between the 3 water supplies - double darn it). But the yard was large, and the base good.  Unloaded, walked P-man around for a bit to stretch his legs and nibble on the non-existant grass there. Put him up with water and hay, and went for a walk to check the place out, its been a few years since I've been there. Found the SJ arena, and dressage arenas. Went back, tacked up and took P-man out to stretch his legs and have a look around the place. I wasn't intending on doing any schooling, but changed my mind last minute and decided to re-inforce the lesson from the day before. I didn't get him pinging as well as the lesson, but I didn't want to ask to much either. Hosed him off, feed and sorted out my gear/vehicle and put my bed down in the back of the car.

Friend arrived just after riding, so gave her a hand with the horse, and joined them for tea - YUM. I wasn't on until 10:14 the next morning, so I didn't need to plait, but I banded the sections as I've learnt it helps the mane lay flat for plaiting - especially after washing it day before last.(fuzzy monkey!!).

I didn't sleep to well, I had one less blanket down than the week before and my hip noticed it big time, so comes to 5:45 in the morning and I was up! I was hurting :(

Fed P-man, and took him out for a walk around to stretch legs again, put him back and plaited up. I get really antsy when I have to much time to wait before I ride... and thats what happened this morning.. mega ants in my pants!  Got on a little bit early, and just walked around for a bit longer than I normally would. Pencil warmed up ok, not stella but after the last weekend failures I was determined not to go that way again. So we put some decent effort into it, and got mouthfuls and nosefulls of dust flying off the warmup arena, and got run into a few times... and as the rider before me went I gradually made my way over and carried on riding transistion and thinking bend and flex, leg and flex - no outside rein to keep him over.  Time to go in, and as soon as I got to the arena he started to rush, whether thats my nerves notching up, or a different area to ride in, who knows, but another lap of the arena with the bend and flex mantra going, as well as "sitting on the marshmellow" to keep my rising slow we settles back into a good rhythm. Toot, and in we enter - this was a 60x20m arena an when you enter on a horse that isn't that straight - thats a hell of a long long long straight line to ride.... how to go straight - go faster! So thats what I did, I powered down that center line, and while I knew it wouldn't aid me at the far end for the turn, we only had one wobble!  Most of the test went pretty good, the first canter we had a whoops when the gravel/sand hit the plastic... I didn't think he broke then, comments said we did and only got a 4 there (bummer). I was pretty happy with it as I could tell he wasn't being fussy in the mouth this time, and he was pretty well infront of my leg and on the aids so he was pretty good. Got a few more 8's for the 15m trot circle, and the free walk, and medium walk. YAY.  13th Place out of the 30 riders, I was quite happy with that, although I was hoping for top ten.
I could have stayed on and gone straight to the SJ in ten minutes, but the ring was open for 3 hours, so I decided to get off and give him a break and it meant I could help my friend through her dressage. Helped her warm up and she did a lovely test which I'm really pleased for her. So went back, tacked up and went to warm up for SJ. I had walked the course the night before (although not 100% on it, it was the same once I had watched a couple of rider through). This time, warmup was not about going for it. I wanted round, rhythm, and attentive. Got that - Yay, and he jumped nicely and I was counting out loud (not that I realised it).  In the ring, and I knew they were ringing the bell fast - so I picked up canter quickly and put him on the cirlce straight away getting him a little deep and soft. Bell rang and off we went. I was happy with the round except for one related line he got long and strung out and left a back foot and took a rail. Doh.

Blobbed out for the rest of the day, helped Megz by holding her horse while she walked the SJ, and walked the xc.  I slept in the truck this time on the couch rather than my car again - thank goodness for that!

XC day... oh vey... I wasn't running until 11:30 ish or so, and I got massive ants in my pants, a couple of fences had me worried....

Course plan:

Fence 1, quite decent and designed to get rolling. A little hard for P-man as we had to gallop right alongside all the horses in the warmup ring and then had maybe 30m to cover where the horses were left behind. He was pretty good, he got a little sticky but I sat closed my legs and gave a cluck and we cantered on over (OMG fall down dead, he cantered over the first fence! horraaah!)

Fence 2, you can see it in the distance in above, again should be a easy gallop fence to get rolling, but still being in the vacinity of warmup area and other horses... and boogey men in the trees, plenty to look at and be sticky about... back to trotting over this :/  oh well

Fence 3.... I knew this was going to be hard... it was a loop back towards the start box, between fence 1 for other classes of which one was bright green barrels, and then a turn away from all the horses and "home". And rightly so, I had so so much trouble with him here, first we came around and he saw all the horses and tried to shoot off, then we wiggled and jumped to the side past the green jump, then jumped back from the big jump on the left, and stared/fixated on the horse in the start box, so I'm hauling trying to get him around the corner, and boom - a jump was there before he knew it and he hadn't even seen it! Stopped. BASTARD, quick circle around and over it we went... idiot.

Fence 4, nothing to much to worry about here, maybe looking at the one beside it, and maybe still worried about leaving home. but time to start getting into the swing of things and looking for the fences now. which he did, a little wiggly coming up to it, but cantered over it nicely.

Fence 5, coffin on a curving line. Not to worried about this fence, aim to come in slow so I have steering and just pop through it quietly. Often I used to find myself chasing a horse through these, but have since learnt differently. He went through lovely, cantered A, trotted down to B, and trotted out over c :)  I did wonder when walking if he would look at the sand put down, but needn't have worried, he was starting to look for fences now.

Fence 6, shiver me timbers.... argh, put the ambulance next to it ready to cart me off to hospital. I was packing myself. For what looks a relatively straight forward and simple gallop fence, had me packing myself and wondering why I do this sport... Not only was it a large steeple chase fence, it had a distinct downward slope to it, and a hairy ugly corner for another class to distract the horse right before it.  This is where I also question my judgement as well, do I slow down to keep him straight, or kick on and run at it as fast as possible on a wish and a prayer?? I ended up doing something in the middle, yes he scattled sideways at the other fence mentioned, so I half halted and then kicked on. He ALMOST stopped at the base and went for it at the last moment eeeekkkk, it was a climber because I was a large fence, he rapped his back legs hard on it. One part of me thought - good you will pick them up in future, next part was "don't canter away lame, please dont be lame"  I'm telling you that picture makes it look small. Looking at the results for my class there were 6 stops here.

 

Fence 7, not overly worried, rail over a ditch, the jump was small enough if he trotted in, and the ditch shallow, almost non-existant for the world of Pencil. The hardest part about it, coming off the turn to face it after a good gallop stretch. Popped over this from trot at the last minute. And then we rocketed on afterwards!

 

Fence 8, is the bank complex, relatively simple, down, curve a line and up a bank. All I had to think on this one was to pull up enough that I was sure he had seen it, and not let the reins go to far so as to miss the turn for up the bank, I do not ever want to angle banks, if they hang a leg and catch it - eek. Had to get onto it straight, plenty of room to do so though so not a major.

Fence 9, a cool fun fence to power up the hill to and pop over :) not much to it. A nice reprieve. Second one from the left was mine.

Fence 10, water fence - more questions to be asked. I still go slow into the water after he power launched it one day which said to me he isn't confident yet. But on the other hand that worried me, as a rather large fence on the exit of the a.b.c combo. Never mind though, we are used to trotting fences XC LOL. In the water, I TRIED to get him moving through it, but didn't happen, out cluck cluck to him and over the fence out, to gasps from the on-lookers - my clever pony!

Fence 11, heading back towards the trucks, a good gallop space and off we went, cantered this! Yay

Fence 12, similar fence to above, although can't power over it as it was a land and turn so we don't hit the fence.

Fence 13 - heading away from the trucks again, and it was a drop fence, with sand in front, so figured a little sticky here was to be expected, and rightly so.. we popped over it (still from canter - YAY pony)

Fence 14, at the bottom of the hill, and its a bit odd shaped, wasn't to worried, just had in mind to keep straight and push on for it. I think we trotted over this in the end, I can't quite remember for sure. But he jumped it in good form :)

Fence 15 AB... the next reson for the ambulance to come park up LOL. No not as bad, but a fence I was still questioning whether it would go well or not. There was a option and had he been sticker, would have gone for the option... but I went ahead and gave it a go... what I DID NOT account for was crossing a driveway/path 3 strides before hand and Pencil looking at the frigging driveway and scuking back from that..so much for keeping his eyes up!
So he stopped dead at it, I kept him straight, he just plain ole stopped - naughty! I whipped him around quickly, and didn't the option which was a time thing, but cause we trot fences often we were SUPER QUICK!

Fence 16 - last fence, and it was as easy gallop fence, YAY all done.

I never checked the scoring until it was to late, but they mucked up my time, so was eliminated on taking 2 x the allowed time (I emailed them to find out why), wasn't me, and there was no way I took twice as long even with the 2 stops. Not concerned about it as not even near placing...

Part 2 coming later :)