Slighty Soggy Scone BE!

Saturday 24th April was our 2nd BE event of the year at Scone Palace, Perthshire. We were doing the BE90 class and had been drawn 5th to go in our section... which meant a dressage time of 8.24am! So alarm was set for 4am, with as much done the night before (including popping up to walk the XC!), so that we could leave the yard at the back of 6am to get there in time.

It had been raining most of the night and was still quite damp when we got there. A fairly decent shower of rain while we were warming up and doing our test wasn't appreciated by the photographer! ;) I had thought it may play in our favour and make "pokey nose" tuck her nose in for a change, but she was still just as interested in looking around (particularly at the lorries/trailers coming in the road right alongside the arena) and trying to figure out where the peacock noise was coming from!

So not one of our best tests and we scored 44pen, leaving us 23rd out of a section of 26.

Some photos, not all bad, as per usual the best is of a nice, square halt! ;)




At least with the dressage out of the way we could get on to the fun bits! ;) Didn't do too many practice SJs as it was already pretty muddy in the warm up and she doesn't like the mud, it just leads to horrible jumps as she tries to avoid it by jumping the take off spot as well as the fence! ;) Luckily the ground in the arena was holding up better as still fairly early, so she was jumping nicely, although on quite a mission! Had to really hold her back, but got to most of the fences on a nice enough stride, apart from the second last where we both saw a long one and then the last where we just got a little close, but she was very clever and careful and left it up for a clear round. :D




My friend, Lisa was good enough to video our round as well!



So on to the best bit of all- XC! The course had been changed a fair bit since we rode round last year and course designer was taking no prisoners, the first and third fence definitely looked like they were up to max. height! Nothing too horrid on course though apart from a skinny brush fence out of the water as they are allowed to build this 20cm higher than the max height for the class (so 1.10m!) which they had done and I know Heidi "doesn't do brushing through brush"!

Jumped the first fine, a little wiggly leaving the warm up behind to no.2 and then a horrible jump over no.3, but then great round the rest, with a real flyer over the barrel fence at 5! :D A little wussy through the first water (steep ramp in, splash through and out) but fab through the main water and flew the skinny brush leaving me grinning! Came home 7s inside the optimum time for a double clear jumping score! :D This was at least enough to pull us up to eventual 14th place in the class.




Again, Lisa was armed with video camera (she deliberately left it running during the times we were out of sight, hence the "grass & leaves shots" so she could figure out a rought estimate of our time! ;) ) so thank you again to her and here's us in action. :)



So very, very pleased with her jumping. :D Dressage, as always, could be better, but much easier to work on than the jumping. ;) Next is Auchinleck BE90 on Sunday 9th May and then we've been very brave and entered our first BE100 at Scotsburn on Saturday 29th May- eeek!

1st BE of the year- Kirriemuir BE90

Finally our 2010 BE season has started! :D We made our furthest trek to date up to Kirriemuir to do the BE90 event on Sunday 11th April. As we were on fairly early (just before 10am dressage time), with a fair way to drive, no time to walk XC between phases, we decided to go up the day before and "camp" overnight. Heidi had a temporary stable booked and I managed to get a bed in my friend's lorry. :) Arrived Sat dinner time and Heidi settled into her stable quite the thing, very happy to go in and carry on munching her haynet.


I was able to walk the XC, get back and plait Heidi's mane and then do another lap od the XC before it got dark. Then dinner for Heidi (and me!) and off to bed.

Was really nice getting up and no having to worry about travelling! Was nice just having plaits to roll up, tail to plait and then a quick groom and we were ready! Heidi was very excited in the warm up (you could see the XC from it!) but we managed to survive the test with a little more accuracy than previous attempts, even though we still struggled with the "pokey nose"! Free walk was really good though with no jogging, so that was an improvement. Got a mix of 6s and 7s with a few 5s to end up with 38.5pen (61.5%) which is our best BE dressage score to date, hooray! Some photos below, as usual, the nicest is of the halt/relief of the dressage being over! ;)

Quick addition of boots and breastplate and onto the SJ. Arena was right in front of tents/tradestands, so was hoping she wouldn't be too spooky. Fairly hyper warming up, didn't do too much as she was still plenty warm enough from dressage and she knows what SJ is all about. Had a really nice round, getting nice strides to all the fences with no horrible short or long strides but sadly just tipped the upright before the double with her back legs, we were on a nice stride/pace, so think it was just complacency/laziness there, as you can see in the 3rd photo, she was certainly giving other fences on course plenty of air! ;)

No.1;
No.4;
No.7;
No.8- the offending fence that gave us 4 faults!;

So then cursing the 4 faults SJ (usually our strong phase!) when we had our best ever dressage (typical!) we had a quick tack/clothing change at the stables and headed over to the XC. Course was really nice but quite hilly so I was hoping we were both fit enough! Had a really good ride, first 4 fences up the first hill a little wiggly (not sure if she was trying to head for the PN/Novice fences or the other horses in the warm up?!) but jumping nicely.

No.3;
Then down the hill, sharp turn and over the double of roll tops fine and then the Helsinki step at no.6;
A sharp 180deg turn and gallop up the hill and over the chair on a slight angle at no.7;

And then a gallop up a really steep hill to no.8;

We then cleared the palisade, drop, shark's teeth, wall, half coffin, log, corner, brush fence, water and another wall with only a slight hesitation on her way down towards the water! (Princess Heidi does not particularly like getting her feet wet/muddy!) However we did get canter rather than trot once in and got a nice jump out over the roll top.

Back in the main field and a gallop towards the penultimate table fence;

Then over the last fence to finish clear, yay! :D Hoped I'd remembered to kick on after the fences and not dilly dally too much as we had time pens at both BE90s last year. Took ages for XC times to go up, but was thrilled when they did to find out were were inside the optimum time... by a whole 20s! Very pleased as she didn't feel like she was struggling at all, even with all the hills. :)

Got our hopes up when the commentator announced a provisional top 10 for our section with us in 10th place, but it turned out we ended up 11th, very frustrating with BE rosettes going to 10th place! Without the pole down SJ we'd have been 5th! But very pleased for our first ODE of the year, hopefully we can keep improving the dressage and get back to clear SJ/keep the clear, fast XCs, not asking for much really?! ;)

Thanks to my Mum for coming down to watch and cheer us on (and bring mini eggs, yum!) and Bob for sprinting around the XC taking lots of photos. :D

Next event is Scone BE90 on Sat 24th April, can't wait, definitely got the bug back! :D

XC schooling in the sunshine!

Had a lovely day up at Lindores XC course doing a little XC schooling as preparation for our first BE of the year at Kirriemuir next weekend. Heidi was very enthusiatic and on really good form, jumping everything first time of asking. We jumped everything that we could find that had a ditch involved and she was really good, didn't even hesitate or think about stopping, even over the coffin or quite an airy trakhener. :)

Had her jumping nice and confidently on/off the bank and also had a really good couple of runs through a drop fence to tyre fence combo. Water fence was too deep to do more than wade through although with the course being on a hill, the ground was spot on and not too wet at all. :) She jumped really nicely over their pretty skinny corner fences too, so very pleased.

Hopefully she will be as enthusiastic and good next weekend!

A wee SJ lesson with David Gatherer at SNEC tomorrow night for a last minute tune up and then some dressage practice at home through the week. As our section next weekend is on first and it's quite a distance away, we are going up the day before and staying over. It will be our first time "camping" together, hope she likes it and behaves! She will be stabled on site and I have had the lovely offer of a space in my friend's lorry which will be far warmer/comfier than a tent. :)

Sadly no photos from today, but Bob being dragged along next weekend! :)

Montrave HT today

Today Team Hopalong headed off to Montrave for our first solo XC of the year. :) We were doing the 90cm course which had plenty of questions including a couple of ditchy fences, a sunken road that had a real murky bottom to it, a couple of combination fences on funny distances and a step into water, eeek! (full course pics here)

We were lucky with the weather, lovely sunshine while we were riding, but all the recent rain had left the ground really soft. "Princess" Heidi does not like mud very much and when the ground is soft and churned up she likes to get in close! Also a bit of rustiness on both our parts meant we were being a bit "looky" and not kicking on as we should have been.

However, the ditchy fences jumped lovely, one of the combinations I was worried about jumped lovely, (the other she squeezed an extra stride in and we got a rather "upwards" jump over the second part leaving me worried we may part ways, but luckily not!) and although she took a look at both the murky drop at the sunken road and the water, she did go. :)

So a clear round (although over the time by a fair amount due to mud/rustiness!) and now we hopefully both have remembered what it's all about, remembered that we can do it and will kick on and have a more flowing round next time out. :) Our first BE is at Kirriemuir and now only 2 weeks away! Fingers crossed the snow that has been forecast for the next couple of weeks is just the met office playing an early April Fool's joke?!

Some photos courtesy of Bob. Rustiness definitely showing in rider's position, most embarrassing!

Over fences 1, 2 and 3;

Fence 16 (actually beefier than it looks in the photo, honest! ;) )
In and out of the water- much happier going out the way than in! ;)

And a wee video courtesy of us jumping the trakhener at 5, then bank to rails at 6 and over ditch/log at 7. Video courtesy of my friend Lisa (who did brilliantly and came 4th! :D )

Team XC- three times the fun?!

Today, Team Hopalong joined ranks with a couple of pals to form Team "Here Comes Trouble" at Duns Castle team hunter trial. Not done a team XC before, but have always fancied it. Course looked really nice with a couple of questions and the ground was just perfect. We were lucky and got lovely sunshine too. :)

We were tacked up (and, most importantly, colour co-ordinated!) in plenty of time and went down to warm up. Spent a bit of time walking, trotting and cantering around together and they were all happy, but very keen. Did a couple jumps individually each and then attempted one in a line, all fine.

So ready to go and all sorted, Hopalong would be lead (as most experienced and so, fingers crossed, least likely to stop, no pressure eh?!) with my friend Laurie on Tara tucking in the middle and her pal Jay on Jed bringing up the rear who was in control of speed with our brilliant system of "hold" or "push on" to be shouted to differentiate from any "woah" or "steady" commands to the ponies! "Coming through" was also to be used in case of a problem and the person behind was wanting to overtake.

Set off and before we were even at the first fence I could hear "Tara, woah"! Uh oh... she was on a mission! Was slightly concerned we'd be jumping the 1st fence (cross rail) together!! Luckily Hopalong popped over just a horse length (literally!) ahead and stayed in front over the 2nd (sloping gate) until poorLaurie's arms gave out and she overtook to the 3rd with poor Jay at the back desperately shouting "hold"! We ground to a halt after 3 (brush) to let Jed catch up and then attempted a steady descent down the hill to ski jump at 4. Got a huge jump over this (Hopalong felt the take off spot looked a little cut up so opted to jump it also!) and then en route to 5 (chair type thing) hear more "whoas" and then a squeaked "coming through" again!

A quick circle by me (as very close to 5 at this point) and a grey blur later and we were all over, we let Laurie stay in front for the next few and managed over 6 (skinny roll top) and 7 (stile) fine. 8 & 9 were a road crossing double of gates in the fence line with some mucky bedding down as surface in the middle. We were worried they might all spook at this but all were on such a mission I don't think they noticed it!

10 was some barrels, with Laurie taking a scenic route towards 11 (rails) to try waste time and let us catch up (poor Jay still yelling "hold" intermittently as her wee pony's legs weren't quite at the pace of the other two.) Hopalong at least was letting me slow her up to hold back for Jed. Round the corner to 12 (barrel spread fence) where we attempted to regain the original order as Laurie was finding it just as hard to hold Tara back in front as she was behind, however this only lasted the one jump and she was back in front! 13 was a skinny roll top and then 14 rails with Tara a dot in the distance! Round to 15 which was the uneven ground with log after- you dropped down a dip, then up the other side and one stride to the log.

16 was a table on a downhill approach, got a good shot to this, then on to the water (which we'd all decided to play safe and jump to the left, then circle down to water instead of straight, you had a steep drop down to running water a stride after landing and we wanted a nice, confidence building clear first and foremost. Other route not hugely longer. Hopalong ponced down the bank and tip -toed through the water and then got a bit close to the fence on the other side, but over ok.

Check back to make sure Jay ok (poor Laurie miles ahead trying to steady her steam train up!) and over chair fence at 19, trot through gateway into home field. Last fence was steeplechase brush and I told Laurie to go on but she insisted she wanted to tuck Tara in behind us... Tara didn't agree!!! Two seconds later "COMING THROUGH!!!" and they were off over the last fence a couple of strides ahead of us, me desperately trying to hold Hopalong up to give us enough room in case of "issues"! No need though, all three flew it and over finish line... with Tara still making good headway straight off into the distance in direction of lorry park!

So lots of fun, but with all the stop/start we were too slow for a placing. All very happy with a nice clear round and as it was our first XC since Oct, I was happy with Hopalong jumping the skinny/spooky fences, especially with it being a bit stop/start and there being other distractions. In fact, I was so busy making sure everyone else was ok I can barely remember jumping a fence myself!

Hopalong happy back home in the field and Tara apparently looking very smug when she got home too! Bob was our Team 'Tog, so some photos below courtesy of him.

Team "Here Comes Trouble" ready for the off;

And off to the first... Hopalong and Tara looking keen and poor Jed trying to get his legs shifting!
Over the first with Tara on our tail... literally!
Stile fence (no.7);
Table fence (no.16);And over the last;

Really good fun and a great warm up for Montrave HT next weekend. :)

Almond RC dressage & SJ show, Sat 13th March

Team Hopalong went along to Almond RC's dressage and SJ show yesterday at Kingsbarn.

First up was Prelim 13 dressage test. Warmed up beautifully but we both got a little tense when we went next door to the arena. :( Judge seemed to like Heidi though and we managed mostly 6s with a couple of 7s and a couple of 5s to get 60.8% and 4th place! (and there was even more than 5 people in the class! :p We were up against about 15 others, so very pleased with that)

Some photos below, courtesy of Bob!

Cheeky pony giving Bob a big grin while doing a beautiful free walk out of the arena at the end of the test after jogging in the one that mattered during the test! ;)

We then did the 85cm and 95cm jumping classes in the afternoon and Heidi loved every minute, she felt great. :D We did a double clear in the 85cm class with a couple tight turns in the jump off and the only clear in the 95cm class to win them both! :D Heidi was very pleased to see that the winner of each class got a giant sack of carrots, so she will do her best to munch through those!

Enjoying her lap of honour!;
95cm class;

More weather woe.

The weather has been at it again, more snow at the end of February meant the arena event we were supposed to go to at Gleneagles was cancelled due to their lorry park being under 3ft of snow! Our planned trip to Duns Castle for the team HT for today was also cancelled due to the recent snow and wet ground once this started thawing.

Typically, both events have been rearranged for the same date- Sunday 21st March- so we need to choose which one to do. "Real" XC has won over simulated XC, so fingers crossed the ground holds up and we get nice weather in a couple weeks time. :)

We did manage to get to Kingsbarn EC on Tuesday for a SJ lesson with David Gatherer though. We had a really good lesson, working on lengthening and shortening the canter. We usually find distances long, but after warming up and doing the exercise a couple of times I was having to hold and wait to get the distance rather than kicking on to make it! Heidi was fab and David full of compliments about her. :)

A wee video below thanks to my friend Mandy who came along to watch and keep us company.



We are back to Kingsbarn on Saturday for our Riding Club show, doing one dressage test and a couple of SJ classes. Best go learn my dressage test...!