We decided not to take Olly out this weekend after not going well during the week and having a nasty rotational fall at home. Luckily both he and I are OK, just a bit stiff and in need of seeing the physio, then hopefully he will be back on track & winning again.
The annual Area show is a really popular show and is always packed because of all the qualifiers and championships classes that are held. There were over 50 competitors in each class. We just took Brook to do the Katherine James 1m Scope Qualifier and the 1.05m scope qualifier. When we got there a friend of ours had had some trouble with her horse in the previous class where it got eliminated and didn’t even jump one fence in the ring. She asked if I would ride it in the next class, and as always I’m mad and agree to ride anything even though I’d never even seen it before. It was a 17'3 giant chestnut warmblood! I couldn’t even reach its withers with my arm stretched right up. I looked like a pea on a drum and had ever ridden anything that big in my life, let alone something that’s naughty and I don’t even know what it does, to prepare myself for not falling off. He was quite nappy in the warm up putting in a few rears and leaping using his strength to bugger off out the gate towards the other horses. But I kept going and then when it came to jumping he started of really backing off the fence and putting in small close strides, so I kept pushing him forwards into the jumps and making him take strides out and in the end he was taking me to the fence I was able to sit a bit more still and give him a better stride at the fence. Fence number two was a big scary oxer that everybody was stopping at because it was going away from home off a corner and it was bold and spooky. When I went in rode over to the fence where I almost came off before we even started because he dropped his shoulder and reared and leapt and tried to run off. But I stayed on and made him look at it, he jumped the first fence which was good considering previous history, and then continued to jump round everything and just had two poles. So everyone was pleased that 1. I managed to stay on and 2. That he didn’t stop at anything or get eliminated.
Brook jumped a lovely double clear in the KJ and finished 2nd which means she qualified for Scope Festival in August! I then went 4th in the 1.05 Qualifier where again she jumped another double clear and came out well in the lead. I had a long wait for over 50 competitors but I managed to hold it and stayed in the lead throughout- So another win for Brook & another Qualification for Scope Festival.
A really good day out & pictures can be found on http://www.e-pix.co.uk/
The annual Area show is a really popular show and is always packed because of all the qualifiers and championships classes that are held. There were over 50 competitors in each class. We just took Brook to do the Katherine James 1m Scope Qualifier and the 1.05m scope qualifier. When we got there a friend of ours had had some trouble with her horse in the previous class where it got eliminated and didn’t even jump one fence in the ring. She asked if I would ride it in the next class, and as always I’m mad and agree to ride anything even though I’d never even seen it before. It was a 17'3 giant chestnut warmblood! I couldn’t even reach its withers with my arm stretched right up. I looked like a pea on a drum and had ever ridden anything that big in my life, let alone something that’s naughty and I don’t even know what it does, to prepare myself for not falling off. He was quite nappy in the warm up putting in a few rears and leaping using his strength to bugger off out the gate towards the other horses. But I kept going and then when it came to jumping he started of really backing off the fence and putting in small close strides, so I kept pushing him forwards into the jumps and making him take strides out and in the end he was taking me to the fence I was able to sit a bit more still and give him a better stride at the fence. Fence number two was a big scary oxer that everybody was stopping at because it was going away from home off a corner and it was bold and spooky. When I went in rode over to the fence where I almost came off before we even started because he dropped his shoulder and reared and leapt and tried to run off. But I stayed on and made him look at it, he jumped the first fence which was good considering previous history, and then continued to jump round everything and just had two poles. So everyone was pleased that 1. I managed to stay on and 2. That he didn’t stop at anything or get eliminated.
Brook jumped a lovely double clear in the KJ and finished 2nd which means she qualified for Scope Festival in August! I then went 4th in the 1.05 Qualifier where again she jumped another double clear and came out well in the lead. I had a long wait for over 50 competitors but I managed to hold it and stayed in the lead throughout- So another win for Brook & another Qualification for Scope Festival.
A really good day out & pictures can be found on http://www.e-pix.co.uk/
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