Well the wee man is in the good books this weekend – he has managed to jump his first BS 85 DC and also his best mark at a BD show. Lucas also was kind of good – be behaved well at his first jumping schooling session but is very green after so long off so I did unfortunately end up eating dirt at one point!
On Saturday morning we headed off to Rockrose for their first Cat 1 show. I had pre-entered the 85 and the 90 but wasn’t sure about jumping the 90 as we hadn’t jumped a course since Blair over a month ago. The show was quite relaxed, not too busy in the warm up as we were jumping in drawn order. The 85 track has a few tricky turns but wasn’t built too big. We had had a good lesson with David on the Tuesday night so I felt quite happy with the course and height and it turned out Corky was too, he jumped a lovely double clear – our first one ever at a British Show jumping show. I was so pleased with him. We made a couple of mistakes but as the jumps were not too big we managed to leave the poles up for 3rd place (and some prize money). The 90 was a bit more challenging, it was a 2 phase so the aim was to get through to the jump off stage. He jumped the first phase so well that I was so please I almost missed the first jump of the second phase! Poor Corky didn’t have much chance of leaving it up – we then took the following jump too before I managed to get the canter back and finish off the round well. Overall I was really pleased and will continue to jump @ 85/90 until we can start to pick up more DCs at this level.
In the afternoon I headed off to Luffness to school Lucas round a small course of jumps. He warmed up well and seemed fairly comfortable being away from home. He was a bit spooky at a few of the fillers but that is just to be expected I guess. We started with the jumps very small – Lucas didn’t seem to notice and thought jumping the wings would be a better idea! I was literally hanging on for dear life to his mane – not tight enough at one points where I was propelled right out of the saddle into the air, and then onto the ground! It was over a very frightening water tray though lol. I jumped back on and managed to get into the swing of his big jump. Once we put them up a little bit, he became a bit more economical with his jump thankfully. Good session and lots of progress made but I did have a bit of whiplash from the fall – very ironic as I watched the film of the same name the night before?!
I’ve added a couple of videos and stills from our schooling session below.
I was glad to be going to dressage on the Sunday after all of the excitement of the previous day. We were riding prelim 17 in the long arena at Rockrose. I warmed up long and low for the first 10 minutes to help get Corky stretching and opening up his back – I think some of the other competitors thought I was strange but it’s what has been helping at home. Once I picked Corky up he was going well, not like at home but ok for a show I thought. Things didn’t go quite as well when we got into the arena – I struggled to get him moving positively into the bridle, I felt like he needed to take the contact more. He was very obedient though – I was pleased with his transitions as we had been working on them all week. The downward canter transitions still need lots of work but hopefully that will come in time. We ended up with 65% for 6th place which was great as the last time we rode for the same judge we got 58%.
On Saturday morning we headed off to Rockrose for their first Cat 1 show. I had pre-entered the 85 and the 90 but wasn’t sure about jumping the 90 as we hadn’t jumped a course since Blair over a month ago. The show was quite relaxed, not too busy in the warm up as we were jumping in drawn order. The 85 track has a few tricky turns but wasn’t built too big. We had had a good lesson with David on the Tuesday night so I felt quite happy with the course and height and it turned out Corky was too, he jumped a lovely double clear – our first one ever at a British Show jumping show. I was so pleased with him. We made a couple of mistakes but as the jumps were not too big we managed to leave the poles up for 3rd place (and some prize money). The 90 was a bit more challenging, it was a 2 phase so the aim was to get through to the jump off stage. He jumped the first phase so well that I was so please I almost missed the first jump of the second phase! Poor Corky didn’t have much chance of leaving it up – we then took the following jump too before I managed to get the canter back and finish off the round well. Overall I was really pleased and will continue to jump @ 85/90 until we can start to pick up more DCs at this level.
In the afternoon I headed off to Luffness to school Lucas round a small course of jumps. He warmed up well and seemed fairly comfortable being away from home. He was a bit spooky at a few of the fillers but that is just to be expected I guess. We started with the jumps very small – Lucas didn’t seem to notice and thought jumping the wings would be a better idea! I was literally hanging on for dear life to his mane – not tight enough at one points where I was propelled right out of the saddle into the air, and then onto the ground! It was over a very frightening water tray though lol. I jumped back on and managed to get into the swing of his big jump. Once we put them up a little bit, he became a bit more economical with his jump thankfully. Good session and lots of progress made but I did have a bit of whiplash from the fall – very ironic as I watched the film of the same name the night before?!
I’ve added a couple of videos and stills from our schooling session below.
I was glad to be going to dressage on the Sunday after all of the excitement of the previous day. We were riding prelim 17 in the long arena at Rockrose. I warmed up long and low for the first 10 minutes to help get Corky stretching and opening up his back – I think some of the other competitors thought I was strange but it’s what has been helping at home. Once I picked Corky up he was going well, not like at home but ok for a show I thought. Things didn’t go quite as well when we got into the arena – I struggled to get him moving positively into the bridle, I felt like he needed to take the contact more. He was very obedient though – I was pleased with his transitions as we had been working on them all week. The downward canter transitions still need lots of work but hopefully that will come in time. We ended up with 65% for 6th place which was great as the last time we rode for the same judge we got 58%.
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