I was in two minds whether to go, with the cough from the lesson the day before, and how shitty I was feeling after the lesson I had. But some cool friends made me see the lesson for what it was. Passed on the note re Pencils cold and putting him in with another horse in the truck, and got the ok anyway, so off we went.
Dresage: It was OK. Literally just OK.
He was coughing a lot in warmup, and had a small meltdown over leaving the other horse behind. I had some really nice moments in the warmup, and some bloody terrible ones. About to enter into the arena, when the bell had gone... and low and behold- the tounge goes. On Jutta's advice, I had dropped the bit a hole, so some small 5m circles in walk at the entrance, and SOMEHOW, he put his tounge back - MONKEY. I didn't know if I was allowed to adjust my tack before going in once the bell rings.
So the OK test, was reflected in my very average mark 56.5% result. Very fair for the test I rode. My arena craft went out the window as I was trying to stay VERY soft in the hand and let him go around very softly lovely, rather than pushing into the corners and keeping him balance through leg/hand and risking another tounge flipping.
Megan daughter video'd for me (thankyou!) so here is my very average test... its a little wobbly :)
Showjumping I went to straight after the Dressage, I didn't walk the course (normal practice for me). Pencil didn't need much of a warmup, and there were about 10 down to go infront of me, so I put my name down. He took a couple of rails in the warmup, on the upright... not sure why, but he was pulling a little bit, and did leave it be with his cold (he was coughing again and the dust got pretty bad). Short and sweet. The round went ok, took one rail - but rubbed a few others. The one rail was MY fault, 100%. I came around the turn, so we were off, and didn't make a decision fast enough on what to do about it, so I kinda held, then went for it. I think if I had just waited for the fence to come to me, it would have been fine.
Video'd again (yay)...
XC day... this was interesting, as I heemed and hawed all night, and ALL day about riding or not. Was it fair, was it going to make his cough/cold worse... (there were green bogies over night). It wasn't a tough course at all, very easy full of simple logs and roll tops. So do I/don't I.... well I did, then almost regretted it when I fell of at the warm up fence. Pencil put in a dirty stop when he caught sight of his girlfriend to the left and weeee down I went. Held on to the bastard though, I wasn't going to be chasing him all over the show. Did the next ones nicely. Thanks for that buddy.
No normal photo's my battery died, but they weren't that exciting anyway. Had a almost stop at fence one (expected of course), and a few looks at the different ground coverings.... and then rocked on. Clear over all the fences, but 6.4 time penalties, I was just cruising him along with the cold thing and not worried about the time at all.
Eventful drive home, truck's alternator must have gone, and we died about a hour away from home. THANKYOU FIL, who came with 2 charge 12v batteries that got us home a couple hours later.
17th Place at the end of the day, with 28 riders in my class. A very Average result LOL. Got to fix that dressage.
Two more horse trials for the season for us, and heap of lessons/training to be done. 4 weeks to the next one, and I really want to improve the dressage by then.
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