March’s weather proved challenging for us in the wilds of
Northants. The mud was becoming
unbearable, but perhaps more so the cattle shed muckings out in the nearby farmyard. So we moved both horses to our dear friend
and neighbour’s yard down the road. (The
humans can close the window…) They now have grass and more space, and my sister
Tory keeps her horse there too so we can all play ponies together – perfect. I am unbearably excited about the approaching
Spring and Summer now – it seems as though opportunities for improvement are everywhere
– not least because the boys’ new landlady is Mrs Motivator and doesn’t let me
get away with the old stock excuses of ‘it’s raining’, or ‘he’s too lively to
ride today (very rare)’! I intend to grab
each advancement and build on it as much as I can
I had another lesson with
Jonathan Canty just before the Cherwell Valley RC dressage competition on March
26th, and we practised strategies for improving my inconsistent contact
(pic). It seems to be working, because –
here’s some news – I came 2nd in the prelim class the next day! Out of 7 entries too so better than halfway. The score was 65.75%, just .05% off my 65.8% PB
from February’s Team Quest. I have
either been lucky twice or I’m actually improving. My only worry is that the list of things I
have to tell myself each time I get on board will become too long to
remember. If you see me with apparent
written notes on my stock/sleeve it’s because so far the list is:
1 Bend my elbows
2. Keep my hands level with each other
3. No more motorbike riding with my left hand
4. Use more inside leg
5. Stop nagging with my legs
6. Tilt my pelvis the other way
7. Breathe (in and out)
8. Floppy joints (no more heels down)
9. Sit up
10. Communication down the reins is a two-way thing
11. Rhythm
12. Contact
13. Rhythm again
14. And contact. Again
The second Team Quest competition was on April 2nd at Glebe Farm in Northants, a lovely friendly local venue. This time the competition was outside, but the weather was glorious! Unfortunately 3 of our team horses had injured themselves, including my sister’s horse Sardra, so Beau stepped up for Tory, and our Chairman Amanda brought her horse to lend to 2 more competitors. Both horses were legends, particularly Amanda’s who had not competed at all this year. Entries seemed to be dominated by members of our club, so it was basically a Cherwell Valley RC playday in the sun! I think there was one rider who was outside CVRC from all the day’s entries. We’re keen! This meant the 3 CVRC teams all scored points for placings, my team coming 3rd (of 3). However, Beau gave me another PB score of … wait for it … 68.8%!!! I was astounded to say the least but I have to say it did feel a nice relaxed rhythmical test, so perhaps some of this training really is sinking in.
Our RC Area combined training competition was postponed from 17th April to 7th May. In a moment of madness (without the help of any gin) I volunteered to take the place of a team member who had dropped out. It slowly dawned on me afterwards that would mean jumping a whole course! So I told myself; well, that is a goal for 2016 and there’s no time like the present! EEK! I have practised. Once. Over one fence. Beau knows his job and despite my hindering him on the approach a bit (a lot) we did fine in practise. It gave me more confidence but I still expected a full meltdown on the way to the comp. On the day, I lined up Tory to drive the lorry with mine and our friend’s ponies in, but in the end I just got on with it. We arrived at the lovely Atherstone RC
field in plenty of time and quite relaxed.
In our dressage test we got two 8’s!!!!
And after the dressage we were – get this – in equal first with 31.5
penalties. I was astounded and when I
saw the scoreboard almost cried! It made
me determined to get a clear round SJ, but when it came to it I was so
terrified of being run off with I made poor Beau do the whole course from trot. At one point I even pulled him up! We got no jumping faults but managed to equal
our dressage penalties with time faults.
Annoying because had I let him canter we’d have won and the team would
have come second. However, it has
boosted me for next time. It is another
goal achieved because I didn’t cry J
Beau is such a legend. He even loaded
himself coming home (whilst still tied to the outside of the lorry). Of course, next day for Team Quest he didn’t
want to load at all ;) He is having a couple of days off now to rest up for
CVRC camp in 2 weeks
Progress?
I had another lesson with
Jonathan Canty just before the Cherwell Valley RC dressage competition on March
26th, and we practised strategies for improving my inconsistent contact
(pic). It seems to be working, because –
here’s some news – I came 2nd in the prelim class the next day! Out of 7 entries too so better than halfway. The score was 65.75%, just .05% off my 65.8% PB
from February’s Team Quest. I have
either been lucky twice or I’m actually improving. My only worry is that the list of things I
have to tell myself each time I get on board will become too long to
remember. If you see me with apparent
written notes on my stock/sleeve it’s because so far the list is:2. Keep my hands level with each other
3. No more motorbike riding with my left hand
4. Use more inside leg
5. Stop nagging with my legs
6. Tilt my pelvis the other way
7. Breathe (in and out)
8. Floppy joints (no more heels down)
9. Sit up
10. Communication down the reins is a two-way thing
11. Rhythm
12. Contact
13. Rhythm again
14. And contact. Again
The ever-growing list does serve
to distract me slightly from my competition nerves though, which can only be a
good thing for me, and more so for Beau.
I can’t be easy to carry when tense.
I once managed to be so nervous and tense that after a test I physically
could not bend my legs to get off. I was
stuck on my horse!
On Easter Monday Simon and I rode
the boys at their new home for the first time.
Simon had to go to work afterwards so we only had ten minutes which I
decided to make count. I have to say,
and I wish I knew why, Beau was amazing!
Instead of downwards transitions being gravity-led, everything was upwards
and even managed a passable canter to walk – on both reins! I will probably never be able to repeat that
but wow did he feel incredible. I think this horse will teach me so much; he
knows his job and just needs for me to be asking the right questions. I proved that the following day when I took
Beau into the school and we managed no decent work at all. Tory said it looked OK-ish, but I didn’t
achieve the lift we got in our lesson.
One step forward…!
In other news I’ve been trying to
build on the luck I had winning this sponsorship by doing the Lottery - so I
can buy Clip-Clop Towers for all my horsey friends to share, and have training
every day like Charlotte. Not a squeak
from Camelot so far. I think they must
have made a counting error
Quadrille
April 1st – no joke –
OUR QUADRILLE ENTRY HAS BEEN ACCEPTED!
So excited! There is always a
small risk that the event will be over-subscribed so we all lose sleep the
night before entries open. I suspect
there may be fewer teams applying this year though, because for the first time
sadly the final will not be held at Olympia L On the positive side it will be at Bury Farm
which is where the qualifiers are held (and the Cherwell Valley RC Camp in May),
so all the horses and humans will be familiar with their surroundings. Plus, there’s a bar
Practise had
stalled a little because we were struggling to find an indoor arena the right
size which is available when we are not all at work or school. We now have some dates pencilled in and
hopefully we can test some of the movements we’ve come up with (i.e. try to
work out how to translate what on earth we were thinking, into movements with 4
horses at the same time – see fig.2??!!?). The Minions and the teddy bear are
exhausted from all the practise they’ve been doing, and need a rest. First practise was fab, but after an hour
practising the movements, when we put it all together we had less than 3
minutes of test! Back to the drawing
board
Team Quest
The second Team Quest competition was on April 2nd at Glebe Farm in Northants, a lovely friendly local venue. This time the competition was outside, but the weather was glorious! Unfortunately 3 of our team horses had injured themselves, including my sister’s horse Sardra, so Beau stepped up for Tory, and our Chairman Amanda brought her horse to lend to 2 more competitors. Both horses were legends, particularly Amanda’s who had not competed at all this year. Entries seemed to be dominated by members of our club, so it was basically a Cherwell Valley RC playday in the sun! I think there was one rider who was outside CVRC from all the day’s entries. We’re keen! This meant the 3 CVRC teams all scored points for placings, my team coming 3rd (of 3). However, Beau gave me another PB score of … wait for it … 68.8%!!! I was astounded to say the least but I have to say it did feel a nice relaxed rhythmical test, so perhaps some of this training really is sinking in.
What was very interesting is that in Tory’s test on Beau I
saw my tests on him until very recently, which made me feel better! They were going beautifully in the warm up
and then got tense at A - hard not to do
The third Team Quest for us was back at Swallowfield EC,
such a lovely relaxed venue. This time
Tor scored better than me on Beau with 68.04% - that needs sorting out before
next time (thistles in her socks I think) and my score dropped back to 66.8% L better than we used to get though so
it’s still good. At the fourth Team
Quest on 8th May we reverted to 64.7%. I think it was because every time I found a
space to warm up everybody else followed, so Beau was having to dodge small
ponies charging at him in medium trot, and got quite antsy about it all before
our test. Plus I was tense and tired
from the previous day’s Combined Training event (see later) …
I have dug out all of our test sheets ever to see if we
have been improving all along, and we have – graph below. It’s thanks to Mollichaff’s generous bursary
and the resulting extra torture training I’ve been having. Our first competition was July last year, and
the red vertical line shows the start of this year’s training sessions:
Christmas comes early!
It was the official handover of
the bursary and all the fabulous gifts from Mollichaff on 11th
April. Becky and Kate from Mollichaff
came to see us and I think you can see from the photos on the Mollichaff
Facebook page and website how excited I was.
Beau took it all in his stride.
He usually does, especially if he is bribed. No amount of bribing or coercion was going to
get his ears forward though. We managed
one picture with one ear forward but that was because I was pushing it from
behind his neck! He has the patience of
a saint, bless him, but he gets easily bored…
Our CVRC Winter Series Dressage championships was held on 23rd April,
and we came 2nd in the Prelim!
The score was 65.83%, not bad but heading in the wrong direction. More exciting was Simon’s score with Beau of
64.78% nabbing him a 5th in the Intro Championship. It was such a lovely test – a vast
improvement in their partnership
Shopping
Since Beau’s GP
saddle had started to look quote old and worn, we had to go out and buy a new
one. Luckily I’d seen this coming and
been saving. Simon’s legs are so long he
can’t ride in my Wintec dressage and has always struggled with the GP, so we
bought a jumping saddle which was fitted to him by Breathe Saddlery and is
sooooooooooooooo comfy! I really have no
excuse now L
Jumpies!
Our RC Area combined training competition was postponed from 17th April to 7th May. In a moment of madness (without the help of any gin) I volunteered to take the place of a team member who had dropped out. It slowly dawned on me afterwards that would mean jumping a whole course! So I told myself; well, that is a goal for 2016 and there’s no time like the present! EEK! I have practised. Once. Over one fence. Beau knows his job and despite my hindering him on the approach a bit (a lot) we did fine in practise. It gave me more confidence but I still expected a full meltdown on the way to the comp. On the day, I lined up Tory to drive the lorry with mine and our friend’s ponies in, but in the end I just got on with it. We arrived at the lovely Atherstone RC
field in plenty of time and quite relaxed.
In our dressage test we got two 8’s!!!!
And after the dressage we were – get this – in equal first with 31.5
penalties. I was astounded and when I
saw the scoreboard almost cried! It made
me determined to get a clear round SJ, but when it came to it I was so
terrified of being run off with I made poor Beau do the whole course from trot. At one point I even pulled him up! We got no jumping faults but managed to equal
our dressage penalties with time faults.
Annoying because had I let him canter we’d have won and the team would
have come second. However, it has
boosted me for next time. It is another
goal achieved because I didn’t cry J
Beau is such a legend. He even loaded
himself coming home (whilst still tied to the outside of the lorry). Of course, next day for Team Quest he didn’t
want to load at all ;) He is having a couple of days off now to rest up for
CVRC camp in 2 weeks
Goals: updated for May:
1. Dressage: Beat my PB of 65.0%
- done with 65.8%, then done again with 68.8%! - and get 70% in a prelim
test unaffiliated. Nearly there but it
does feel a long way off. I suspect this
will be like losing 4 stone quickly and then struggling to shift the last 3
pounds
2. Team
Quest: Compete
in Team Quest for the first time – done! - and improve my initial scores
by the end of the season. (1st comp 65.8%, 2nd comp 68.5%, 3rd
comp 66.8, 4th comp 64.7% L)
3. Side
saddle: I just want to get better – maybe enter a show if I can find a suitable
saddle and habit to hire No progress here, but at
CVRC camp at the end of May there will be a chance to have another play
4. Quadrille:
To play out at Bury Farm again in 2016 for Cherwell Valley RC. It would be awesome to qualify but Quadrille
is such immense fun it doesn’t matter if we don’t First practise was
on 8th April and though we have had to change our theme we are
slowly building a floorplan
5.
Jumping: To jump a whole course of fences with
no fuss and no tears, and no arena surface in my teeth! DONE!!!!!! Next target is to jump a whole course in
canter
Tam
and Beau x
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