Thursday, October 27, 2011

Wairarapa A and P show- Friday

A mixed bag sort of a day but mostly there is a lot of good to take away from it. I have to say having spent the rest of last weekend at the beach doing fun non horse related things and watching rugby and drinking and not wearing gumboots for three days, I was excited to be at a show again. Down time! You have to make sure you get it! Weather was shitbox though. Blerk I do not like riding in the rain. The secretary gave me a hard time about being a fair weather rider when I scratched Bill and I was like eh? I still have the other three!

A while ago I brought some waterproof overpants off the internet but they were too small. Having lost a shit ton of weight over the winter/spring meant they fit so yay no wet bum for me! I hate that feeling so passionately. The ground did cut up a bit but didn't get so heavy and sucky on the horses as last week. Anyway, Rascal was up first and jumped a very cute double clear in the 95cm. She was pretty adament that there was three strides in the double, but the next time through in the jump-off I got a more aggressive ride into it and made the two strides but she made it feel like a real stretch. Lol Silly mare. I was really unhappy last weekend because I picked at her so I really focused on keeping her forward and rhythmical and I changed her to the waterford snaffle so I was able to be very subtle in my rein aids. Worked a treat, and she was the most confident she has felt over the big square oxers.

Kate was up next. Warmed up well but she is very heavy in the rubber snaffle. Again focused on riding around the corners and keeping her flowing. Had great jumps over fence 1 and 2 was feeling pretty good about life and then she stopped at three and I fell off. It was a longer distance and it was a filler that was spooking a lot of horses and I'm thinking perhaps I didn't maintain enough contact and made her feel insecure so she stopped. Maybe though it's her knee again which isn't that good because she only got treated four weeks ago. I'm not sure I can wear the expense of monthly injections :( Still she is in the 1.10m tomorrow and the 1.15m on Sunday so I'll give her the benefit of the doubt and blame my riding for now and see how we go on the next two days. I landed on my feet and so while I felt a bit flustered I was not injured in any physical way. Even when you land on your feet a fall is still hard on the nerve eh.

Connie up last in the 1.20m class. She warmed up well and felt really good. Guess where I had the problem! Fence three the same fence Kate stopped at. I never properly committed to it and sort of ended up in it. Represented and she flew straight over and then jumped super for the rest of the round. Really getting in the air and jumping off her hocks and feeling good. The teble was the same set up as the treble I jumped at Foxton and we couldn't get down- oxer two strides to an upright one stride to an upright. So I was pretty conscious of not jumping her in too big. Of course I went a bit the other way and jumped into small. Nevermind she has obviously been hanging out with Rascal and jumped through in a very tidy collected 3 strides to 2 strides. Not ideal certainly, but I'm so happy she just wanted to keep jumping down the treble and was so confident. I just have to get a more moderate ride in lol. I'm so in love with this horse. So tomorrow Rascal showhunters, Kate 1.1ms and Connie has another 1.2m. Bring it on!

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