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Did the wine help?

23/2/2015

So, as the hardworking and committed athlete I am, I prepared for Sunday's show jumping with a Saturday night full of wine. Safe to say I was not feeling the best on Sunday morning. I managed to pull myself together and headed down to Rockrose. The weather was horrific - wind and rain but we braved it. The warm up arena was lovely - great size and surface. The only drawback was it was outdoors.

I had decided (after watching the Di Lampard demo on Friday evening) to take new approach. Corky is little and I keep killing the canter by fighting with him to slow him down. I decided to just kick on and ride the canter how he wanted to go. I still used the half halt before each corner but kept my leg on, a soft hand and tried to sit up nice and tall, not anticipating the jump.

Apart from feeling like I may be sick half way round, I was super pleased with our round. It was a full up 90 and we only took one pole. There were lots of related distances which we usually struggle with but riding the forward canter and making sure we landed on the correct leg seemed to work.

We were entered into the 100 class but as he had gone so well (and I wasn't feeling 100%) I decided to withdraw and end on a good note.

Here is a video of the round courtesy of my equally hungover flatmate Lee :-)

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Nerves getting the better of me

16/2/2015

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After a good Friday night lesson with Aimee working on getting Corky more active and working through into the contact, we headed off to SNEC. We were riding prelim 14 which had lots of canter and a give and retake of the rein on a trot circle. I tried to channel David G shouting at me 'be brave' and really asked C to work forward into the bridle. He warmed up well and we used the leg yield and neck flexing we practiced with Aimee to get him to feel lighter in the hand. I was pleased with our test, instead of being quiet and backing off when he went into his outline I kicked on and asked for more. He felt really forward and uses the neck flexing to help with the give and retake (which got one of our better marks). The only downside was the movements were not as accurate as they could be and he got a bit wild in the canter. We scored 60.6% which is a standard score for us. I was a little disappointed it wasn't higher but the comments were good, 'nice active little horse, needs to relax more into the contact'. I'm happy with that as he was working much harder than usual so wasn't very relaxed!

On Sunday we headed through to Howe in Fife for the arena eventing. I was pleased with our round in the BE90 class. We took 2 poles in the SJ phase die to rushing a little but took a few more than 2 in the BE100 class! I managed to let myself get so nervous I forgot everything we had been practicing about sitting straight and quietly waiting for the jump. Rather I chased everything, was landing on the wrong canter lead and not correcting it so therefore knocked them. Watching the video I seem to only knock jumps at the end of the arena next to the spectators and none at the other! I'm disappointed that I let the nerves get he better of me, but happy that the XC phase was much better once I relaxed.

http://youtu.be/e1iR_O4dvJY

Thanks to Susan and Arron for coming to watch and filming the 100 round. One to study to remember what not to do!

Lovely photos from Dave Cameron Photography.

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Indoor XC lesson

13/2/2015

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I had such a good lesson with Louisa Milne Home last night I thought it deserved its own report.

We shared a lesson Sarah and her lovely mare Juliet down at Rockrose 8-9 last night. We regularly share with them which is great as they are aiming at more advanced classes than us so helps us to be challenged.

We warmed up quickly so as to make the most of the hour. We worked on 10m canter circles which are something we don’t do at home - I’m always so worried about slipping on our woodchip surface but I think I need to be a bit braver and practice them as we both struggled. It’s hard for C as he is so on the forehand but that just highlights why we need to do it! I’ll be adding it into out canter days!

We then popped a couple of warm up jumps and then moved onto an exercise which was almost like a 15m canter figure of eight with a little jump on the change of rein. It was difficult but very useful. Trying to keep a steady pace and not rush or override to keep on the circle. We moved on to practice the same thing with slightly bigger jumps on a larger circle. Louisa said I need to use my upper body to control the speed, making sure I sit up all the way into the jump so as not to rush him and push for too large a stride.

We finished with some very scary skinny XC jumps – just what we needed to practice. We started with a wishing well – there were wings at the side to help the horses understand what they were to do. It was on a straight line and we had no problems thankfully. We worked on locking onto a point in the distance and ride the same quiet canter as used in the previous exercise. We then finished on a brush arrowhead – it was on the diagonal line which I found harder. It was also very pointed at the bottom which make it harder again! Our first attempt was good, we got over well and I was super pleased. Second time I must have relaxed a little too much and wasn’t on the right line, C slowed, then tried to jump it as he is so honest sand ended up sliding through the brush. This probably would have been fine if the jump was pinned to the ground as it would outside on a XC course – inside it just ended up rolled over with us which was a little frightening but C looked after us and got his legs out of the way. As we couldn’t finish like that we came round again – I was very nervous and went on a rubbish line again – fortunately wee C took over and popped over it. He is a very clever and brave pony!

I have lots to work on at home and definitely need lots more practice at the arrowhead fences!! Super lesson and well worth the late night. I didn’t get any action shots but I did take one of the nemesis arrowhead at the end of the lesson! Photos below.

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Training weekend

8/2/2015

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This weekend was spent training – working on using our gears on the beach, and a flatwork/jumping session with David Gatherer.

We headed back down to John Muir beach early on Saturday morning with Kerry and her wonderful horse Conner. Conner helped teach Corky how to use his different gears in canter and up into a full gallop. Both of the horses were very well behaved – 7yo Corky was actually calmer than 23yo Conner who wanted to go even faster but was held back by Kerry much to his dislike! They both had fun stretching out along the sand and finishing up with a paddle in the sea. They were both much braver than our last visit.

On Sunday we joined a group clinic at SNEC with David Gatherer. David knows Corky from when Olivia owned him which really helps when teaching. Our first session was working on one of the BE90 dressage tests. David had lots of good tips and highlighted common errors riders make. He said that I needed to be much braver and really ride my test. Corky was not keen on this style so was chucking his head about but David said to persevere with it as my marks won’t ever increase if I always ride on the safe side! You can see grumpy Corky in the video below!

We then moved onto jumping which we both enjoyed more! We did pole work initially working on pace and accuracy riding up and down aiming for different coloured lines of striped poles. We then did the same with a triple, initially with the three jumps lined up in a straight line, then on angles, and then a curve to finish.

It highlighted that we could set out on a line and stay on it thankfully – but also showed that if I didn’t set up in a decent canter, Corky would always knock the first jump. Interesting stuff. David recommended adding a ‘canter day’ into my schooling. Use the trot in in my warm-up phase and then only walk and canter. He made a valid point that in two out of three of our eventing phases were ridden in canter so we should be spending equal time working on our trot and our canter.

Videos courtesy of Gareth and photos from Dave Cameron.

http://youtu.be/GfKRW9Vq9B4

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Rusty jumping after the winter break and our first arena event of 2015

1/2/2015

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After 3 months off jumping (mix of giving Corky a break and also him tweaking his back playing in the field) it was time to get back into it and prepared for our first arena event of the year.

I planned three lessons at different venues to get us back into the swing of things – we don’t have the facilities to jump at home in the winter so it’s the only chance to practice.

We kicked things off with an early Sunday morning lesson (50/50 flatwork/jumping) with our regular instructor Aimee at a local yard called Pentland. They have a 20x40 indoor school which is great for flatwork but a little tight to jump in – or maybe it just felt small as we were so out of practice. We did lots of pole work and then progressed to small jumps with placing poles. Corky was chipping in to most of the jumps – I think this was a lack of confidence from both of us and being a little rusty.

The following Tuesday night we went over to Stobs Farm for a 30 min jumping lesson with David Harland – we usually see David once a month. We did lots of work improving the quality of the canter with half halts which seemed to fix the chipping in and by the end of the 30 mins we were happy popping round a small course of jumps.

Feeling a little more confident we went to our last lesson before the arena event – it was a shared lesson with my friend Sarah who was also competing at the weekend. We concentrated on the different styles of jumps we would face at the arena event – skinnies, bounces and combinations with different elements on different angles. The obstacles were quite challenging after having so long off but fortunately when they get more complicated, Corky concentrates more and jumped great. The only issue we had was the simple uprights as C was knocking them - even when I managed to get him on the perfect stride. I need to work on getting the canter a bit more uphill I think???

Anyway – on to the event. We arrived early to walk the course – thankfully as it was 20 jumps two phase, 10 SJ and 10 XC. The SJ looked straightforward and although it was BE90 none of the jumps seemed to be up to height. The XC was more complex but there was nothing that we hadn’t practiced in our lesson. We knocked two SJ fences – rider error both times. I had the wrong canter lead going into the second part of a dog’s leg, and chased into the last jump on the SJ course! The XC phase was better – he was more switched on and rushing less. I even managed to put him on the wrong stride to a corner and he got us out of trouble! He felt super keen and happy to be jumping again – more fun than stressage!

End result was 8 faults, no time faults so 30 out of 90. Not too shabby for our first time out jumping in so long. Photos and video below.

http://youtu.be/TnoKQgd38FI

http://youtu.be/A9X2sjzHhZg

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Welcome to Amateur Equestrian Antics

Did the wine help?

Nerves getting the better of me

Indoor XC lesson

Training weekend

Rusty jumping after the winter break and our first arena event of 2015

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