Stafford BE90

My aim for the last couple of years has been to do a BE90. I knew Mal was more than capable but thought she wouldn't be ready until next year, but mal being Mal was more than ready this year. SO I decided to give Stafford (2) BE90 a go as it is a gorgeous course and a favourite of mine for a while.

Walking it, I was pleased to have chosen it, gorgeous ground and a beautifully presented course. Thought it would require a bold horse, but Mally is so confident normally I wasn't bothered. A few turns to skinnies that concerned me as I steering is still a work in progress!

Due to being 'local' and entering as soon as entries opened, I was up at 3am (!!!!!) Friday morning, a time I have only seen from the other side, when stumbling into bed. Mally was less than pleased to be dragged out of bed and then have her hair fiddled with, she and I are very similar in a lot of ways.

Arrived in plenty of time, and started working Mally in for Dressage. Recently I've been riding her in spurs to get her used to them for the jumping parts, but decided to leave them off for Dressage and she can over-react to them slightly. Think it paid off as she was fairly accepting of my leg and we definitely had less tail swishing than normal, perhaps she has realised there are worse things to be kicked by than my leg.
I decided to canter her around whilst waiting for the judge to beep, as this normally makes her settle in trot better. I rode her in the outline she does the majority of her work in, a bit longer and lower than the rest of the horses there, but it kept her far more relaxed and I was happy with the test. A few bit that could have been better, I need to ask for downward transitions better and ride my canter transition in the correct corner

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoBaz...el_video_title

Was really pleased with a 39, improved on her previous performances but I know it can be better.

On to Show Jumping, and with KC's 'look at your fences, allow the line to become natural' and 'scoop her up with your legs' ringing in my ears I proceeded to ride like a muppet in the warm up
Into the ring and she was brilliant, I really felt like we got it right. There were a couple of sticky bits where she had to help me out, but because I hadn't killed her canter she could and we jumped clear.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oF1Rj...el_video_title

To say I was chuffed is a slight under statement!

Got changed and went down to the XC, and made my first mistake, put my stirrups up a hole when they were already at XC length. Ignored how short they felt and carried on.

Mally flew the first fence, googled at the flowers on the second fence but jumped it, round the corner and up the mound to the skinny-ish log and was really pleased with how she jumped it! Galloped at some people, but they got out the way, and over 4, 5 was a big brush and I thought Mal would over-jump it, as she always does with brush!
She did a lovely jump, but took off early and I got mighty left behind! Slipped my reins and then had no control on landing, headed for the crowd and just managed to turn in time!
I think the jump over the brush rattled us both and I got Mal back far too much and then didn't kick on. She would normally ignore me and go anyway, but she went green and stopped. Turned and jumped it fine the second time, but then carried on being green and wobbly, nearly dumped me on the floor (not helped by mega short stirrups!) she shot so quickly to the side, but carried on jumping as long as I kicked on.
Next combination I did exactly the same thing, killed all forward momentum and she stopped. Jumped it fine second time and started to get back into the swing of it.
Fairly stormed around the next few, including two skinnies on a straight line, jumped through what is normally the water (but was empty!) fabulously, through the sunken road perfectly (more on that later!) and finished with her confidence back to normal.

I felt really disappointed in myself, even more so when I was washing her off and my OH which fence it was I had jumped the wrong part of and was therefore Eliminated for! Coming through the sunken road, I was so busy looking at the last fence that I turned and jumped out the PN step, I hadn't even realised to be able to turn back and jump the right bit!

So felt mega pants after that! However I have a list of positives now to stop me for being such a miserable whinge bag...

- I am started to feel like I can actually ride my horse
- The Dressage was a definite improvement
- The Show Jumping was HUGELY improved and was clear!
- Mally will stop if she is wrong. I was worried she was so bold she would always jump and get herself in trouble, but now I know she can stop (these were her first ever stops)
- The green moments were perfectly justified, she is only 5 and only been broken since feb, but she felt like she grew in confidence by the end and she doesn't know we jumped the wrong bit!
- The fences she stopped at she jumped brilliantly the second time, so it didn't rattle her too much and next time I can trust her steering more and kick on.
- First BE90 was technically completed (I rode through the finish flags, even if i did get E'd) so on to the next one where I will jump all the right fences in the right order and I WILL kick!

Recieved my CD of photos from the wonderful Bill Parrott, who always manages to get a snap of the jump you want a picture of! But they are such good quality my computer is taking a lifetime to upload them, so you'll just have to wait!

 

Help with Schooling Your Horse.

I, like many people, can't afford to have regular lessons, so do the majority of my schooling alone. Usually I warm up, do a few minutes of work, get stuck for ideas and give up having not really acheived a huge amount!

But after finding this blog...

http://schoolyourhorse.blogspot.com/

... I have made some breakthroughs in Mally's work! First was my contact issues, I was aware it was a problem, but not sure how to go about tackling it. I saw the article on Lorraine's Blog and became determined to do something about it. After only two sessions Mally is far more consistant in the contact and far less ready to jump into canter as I don't fiddle with my reins every 5 secs!

I highly recommend it as a blog to follow!

Arena Eventing at Vale View

Had entered Vale View's Arena Eventing last week, convinced it was on the Saturday and organised cover for my lessons as such... however half way through the week I realised it was today! So quickly cancelled cover and decided I could compete in the morning and teach my lessons which didn't start until 1pm.

So arrived as early as possible and ran around the course, which hadn't actually been finished! Following my Stafford debacle I wasn't feeling confident about remembering where to go given how twisty it was!!

Warmed up and went in first, got an awful shot at the first, I went long before Mally did and generally rode like a twerp for the SJ, including losing my way after 6 (luckily 7 magically appeared in front of me!) and taking a flyer at 5. Miraculously Mally managed to just have 1 down and we lolloped off around the XC part.

Given how terrified she was at one of the XC fences near the warm up I didn't hold much hope, but she really was a brave Mally Pants! She was ace, so honest, there were so many turns and skinny fences and she never once really gave me cause for concern. First time we've had to jump a fence in water and she didn't bat an eyelid, she also did all the 'harder' options and didn't make me regret it!

Didn't bother waiting to see how we'd done, given we tootled around and had a fence down and there were a number of whizzy ponies warming up, but Mally did manage to come away with some treats and a rather swish new Anky pad in UltraMarine.

And a video (there are more if anyone cares to investigate!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FV3dn...&feature=share

EHOA Camp

I had been looking forward to EHOA Camp for a LONG time, when I first got Mally, one of the things I was really looking forward to was having a 'normal' horse and going to lots of training.
So after a fairly sleepless night (far too excited!) I had an early start to set off ready for two days of lessons with JP Sheffield and Kenneth Clawson.

Arrived at 9 and with my first lesson at 10 I had plenty of time to get unpacked and set up, especially as Wonder Mum was on hand to help, for once in my life I was super organised and had everything packed in boxes and I was kipping on an airbed, so had no tent to put up.
Instantly Mally went in the good books, walked straight into the tiny temp stable and set about eating

Got tacked up and set off for our first session with Kenneth, Flatwork and Poles. Moot was a bit of a pleb at first but after a canter she settled down and did some nice work, which is usually the case! Kenneth had us working on riding with elegance, imagining a mirror at every corner and using it to keep ourselves straight, in a rhythm and preparing for the corners. Such a simple exercise and yet it instantly made a huge difference to my riding! Our corners were consistantly rubbish and my riding into downward transitions was awful, but we didn't seem to disgrace ourselves!
Then we progressed to get the canter strides nice and even, so had to get 14 and 16 even strides between K&H or M&F, Mally and I like to ponce about in canter, so we got 16 very easily, but we managed 14 in the end.

Then we had to ride over some poles and stay on the specific colour all the way through, despite Idiot rider getting left and right wrong fairly constantly Mally was a star.


Very pleased with how the first session went, plenty to work on, keeping a good contact and improving transitions being the main things!
Kenneth also made a point of giving me some ideas for teaching my own lesson once he found out I was a Riding Instructor, which was a lovely bonus!

XC with JP followed, with the session focussing on Judging Speed and Water. After getting 2 minutes worth of TP at Draycott, I was interested to see how we got on with judging speed, but we managed to get it fairly well, so I'm even more sure something went wrong with the timings, hey ho!
Mally was ace, no problems what so ever, including little things like being left alone whilst others cantered off, switching off whilst we where standing still and jumping whatever she was told to. Practised getting even strides and discipline, so halting after fences, which Mally was very well behaved about! Got told off once again for having long reins, so something I really need to work on!
Then dinner at JP's, which involved large amounts of wine for a few of us! Being first up for a lesson at 8.30 the rest of my group were sensible and left early, I however was not! I woke up feeling a touch tender, however if you'd asked me on Thursday morning how I felt, I would have said 'Fine' in as cheery voice as possible, I was determined not to let on to all the sensible people just how rough I felt!

Once I got on I felt much better, so set off for SJ Course practise with Kenneth, and once again Mal was a super star! Really felt like I finally understood how to ride her and when I got it right she was fantastic! KC had us jumping a single filler stand on it's own and then on one stride to an upright, then one stride after an upright and finally 3 curving strides after an oxer. Mal can get away from me and run out at times, so I thought we would have problems, but she suddenly decided listening to me was a much better idea than going it alone and she jumped it really well everytime! I was so pleased with her, given I have done no work on skinnies with her, she made it all feel quite easy! We jumped a course and as long as I keep the canter going and don't rush her into a fence when I think I've got it wrong, we're ok!

Our second XC session with JP carried on from the previous one, he got us jumping a few fences strung together and despite an awful line to the last two fences Mally jumped brilliantly! JP told me to stop holding her and kick on a bit more but further out from the fences as it would help her scope no end, and although I knew that's what I needed to do, it wasn't until someone actually said it to me that I did it. It made such a huge difference, so chuffed to bits once more.
We went back to the water and progressed up from a titchy step in, to doing three big steps in. Mal took me by surprise at this point as she has done lots of jumping into water, but suddenly went green and hesitated! Obviously as it was Moot, it didn't last long and she did jump in, and after a few repeats she went in fine!
Onto ditches and again, Mal who has never jumped extravagantly in her entire life, went into orbit over the bloody thing! So we were sent back and forth until she calmed down, which she did.

Verdict was, nice horse get some spurs. Despite always riding my other horse in spurs I've never tried with Mal as she is such a baby, but she can go a bit behind my leg at times and it's normally when I need her to be listening most!

So pleased I went, KC and JP were fantastic and any opportunity I get to have a lesson off either of them in the furture, I will! Mally really made me proud, I got lots of lovely comments about her.
Have also got the entire thing on DVD as Sara from http://www.capture1images.co.uk/ was there for the two days and it's brilliant to be able to go back a remind myself what exactly it was I was supposed to be working on!

Introducing Henry!

Although technically this is Mally's Blog, I think Henry's introduction is long overdue, as without him, there would be no Mally!!

Henry was my first horse, he was bought for a nervous teenager that was adament all she wanted to do was hack ;) He didn't make the best first impression, threw me off and then tried a few more times once I got back on, but something made me go back (despite my Mum saying she would never trust 'that horse' if I had him!) and he was a perfect gent to hack, so I decided I wanted him and he became mine on the 10th November 2001.

Henry is Part Shire and not really designed for much more than pulling carts, in fact whilst he was for sale the Army tried him out as a Drum Horse, but rejected him as too small at 17hh! I think it had more to do with the fact he threw everyone off that tried him, something I wasn't told until after he was loaded ready to come home!!

He was actually pretty well schooled in walk and trot, but his canter was nonexistent and a very green jumping. We progressed together and eventually he became a pretty consistent horse to compete, very rarely was he out of the ribbons, although obviously he had his limitations!
Despite my insistance that he was only for hacking, Henry and I did everything together - Dressage, Show Jumping, Hunting and Eventing - not bad for a carthorse and a nervous nelly!!
 My proudest moment came when he won Eland Lodge's Unaff ODE, the soppy wuss I am, I had a tear in my eye as I collected our prizes!
Henry also came with me to Uni and we both came on a huge amount in that time, and it was at Uni that Hen became the infamous Flying Cow, a name that stuck and caused a fair few Dressage Judges to smile!

Unfortunately, Henry's willingness to do absolutely anything asked of him took it's toll and despite my care to avoid hard ground, he developed Ringbone behind. Once medicated he continued happily with a bit extra TLC, until an extra slippy day out hunting and a distinct lack of brakes resulted in a torn Check Ligament. With his age against him he took extra long to heal and as a result over compensated on all his other legs causing Arthiritis all round.

Despite him still being pretty active and happy, I decided Henry should retire as he owed me absolutely nothing and it seemed selfish to push him for my own enjoyment. And that's when Mally appeared!
So he is now a Feral Retired Pony, living in a HUGE field with the other oldies and a few youngsters to beat up! He thinks life is absolutely wonderful!!

A Mally Update!

The last feww weeks have been so hectic I haven't had a chance to update my Blog, so will try and do a round up!

After Draycott, we took a spur of the moment trip to Weston Lawns to do their Unaff Monday Evening Dressage. Hoping that I could maybe crack the warm up and get her to settle, unfortunately Mally had other plans and on Sunday night her and the rest of her fieldmates broke out of their field and went on a feeding frenzy!! Luckily they were caught before doing any real damage, but Mally had her first taste of barley and oats and then spent the day in her stable whilst the fencing was repaired, so was rather energetic!
15 minutes of cantering did nothing to dampen her enthusiasm and the Judges didn't appreciate her 'expression' and she came 5th in the W&T and LAST in the Prelim 7!!

We also took a trip to Vale View to get rid of my SJ demons and practise for Stafford BE90. So we entered the 85cm and the 95cm on the bases that I would see how she coped in the 85cm and then make a decision whether to go for the 95cm.
I needn't have worried, she was fanstastic, jumped clear in the 85cm and then had one down in the JO (down to idiot jockey getting carried away!) to come 5th!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_LiHgQF-o8&feature=channel_video_title
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vf2THp9IhFU&feature=relmfu

So obviously I had to the 95cm then! It was the biggest course I have ever competitively jumped, so needless to say I was a bit nervous, however coming into the first jump on Mally I had complete faith in her! Unfortunately I still rode like a muppet and she flattened the third fence, but in a class where there were only a handful of clear rounds I was over the moon with her! Especially as she never even glanced at the water tray or had an issue with the treble, which was concerning a lot of riders in the warm up.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uS2lWZal5Y&feature=relmfu

She was also treated to a gorgeous dressage saddle after Draycott, which was a complete eBay bargain! I am positive that the saddle and the white boots and pads have convinced her she is a Dressage Diva and her flatwork is definitely improving.

And just to prove what a fabulous horse she really is, she went from schooling over 1m10 with ease...

To plodding around with my novice Dad on board!!!

And what better way to cool off, than a nice drink out of the hosepipe!



So we are off to EHOA Camp next week (very excited and nervous!) and the Stafford BE90 the week after!

Draycott BE80

Mally's BE80 debut saw us at Draycott House on Saturday. I had fairly late times, so had a relaxed morning getting Mally ready, perhaps a little too relaxed for Moot...

We arrived and I was pleased to see a giant Dressage warm up, so didn't think we would have the same issues as at Eland with lots of horses winding her up. She had studs in for the first time ever, which was rather easier said than done as she's not a fan of her back feet being fiddled with! I managed to get them in with just the one kick and by the end of the day, she was much better at having them in and out, thank god for SupaStuds as they are much easier than normal studs!
She was still unsettled (it is only her 2nd ever event!) so walked her around on a loose rein to let her relax. Unfortunately everytime I picked up the reins she thought I wanted canter, so I trotted and trotted until she started to get the idea, until we entered the ring and she immediately tried to canter... She settled down and did what i thought was some nice work, until the Judge beeped us in the first canter... Panic set in at this point as I was sure I hadn't gone wrong, so thought I'd learnt the wrong test! It turned out the judge had accidently lent on the steering wheel!! So we carried on, feeling rather unsettled yet again! The second canter was awful! I think she was always going to get tense after the first canter, but the beep didn't do anything to help and I began to hesitate about where i should ride the movements, leading to a lot of late of early transition.
I felt the scoring was rather harsh, a lot of 4s and we ended up with 44, but everyone was in the same position, so hey ho!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqsKuyph9gA&feature=channel_video_title

After a long wait, we made our way down to the Show Jumping, where Mally warmed up like a lunatic! I think I anticipate her firing herself at the fence, so slow her down too much which makes her fire even more.
Some of the kids I teach had come to watch, so they gave me some advice (steer and kick!) and crossed their fingers tightly!
Mally went into the ring and jumped ok, if rather out of control! As we approached 6, which she had already spooked at and I had seen a couple stop at, I booted her instead of steadied slightly, so she had an awkward jump and took the rail off. Jumped the last few slightly better to finish on 4 faults.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHwEYA5fcUw&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

A quick change and down to the XC warm up, which was tiny and absolutely rammed with horses! So I took her to the now empty Dressage warm up and had a blast to open her up a bit, then popped the practice fence and went into the start box.
Managed to time our start perfectly (for once!) and she leapt out the box and over the first, jumped the second well and then went very wobbly and green at the third, but jumped it well with some 'vocal' encouragement. 4 was a tiny house which I don't think she noticed until she was almost over it and down to a step at 5, which had a horrible approach. It was really steep and narrow and it confused mally for a few moments, but she went down in the end and didn't hesitate at the actual fence.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atK_SPYS2z4&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL
6 was a small flower box that she flew and then round to 7 which was a large drop in the woods, dropped back to trot and she popped off neatly.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZ-oDuDqu2I&NR=1
She stormed around most of the rest of the course, had a slight hesitation at 9, which was a hedge in the shade and almost ground to a halt but went after a hefty boot! Even jumped the ditch at 12 which I think caused a few issues (Boy was I glad we went ditch schooling the other day!), the flew the last bit of the course with no problems at all! In fact the biggest issue we had on the course was her spooking at the fences in the other classes!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxMUXX-UPLc&NR=1

Despite the fact I felt she flew round, she ended up with 42 (!!) time penalities, however I was happy with the speed we went at and wouldn't have wanted to go any faster and potentially scare her. So although th results don't necessarily look great, I was really pleased with her. I felt her Dressage was better and her SJ was confident (maybe a little too confident!), the XC was a big ask, this was the first time she had jumped a course without schooling around first, and I felt she really stepped up to the mark and by the end of the round was full of confidence.

So she is going to have a quiet couple of weeks, mainly hacking and then I want to get out and do some 90cm SJ so I can get over my SJ nerves! Then it's the EHOA camp in July and hopefully Stafford BE90 a couple of weeks after that!