Post by racaille on Jun 4, 2012 7:07:47 GMT
I won because I was the only competitor in my class!
I had a wonderful day out yesterday at the final TREC of the season as it's getting too hot now.
Amazingly, Paco was absolutley perfect all day - no silliness, no over-excitement, incredibly sensible.
He loaded well so we set off at about 7am and I was overwhelmed by the beauty of the countryside - the sun was burning off a light mist and the fields of poppies are dazzling against the backdrop of the Luberon mountains.
We were the first to arrive so I could get everything ready slowly and calmly and I was greeted warmly by loads of people I know as they arrived (TREC is very friendly).
I set off on the POR with a group of young club girls behind me but P was pretty calm and eventually I lost them - well, they got lost actually! So we did the rest of it on our own and P was a star. There were some very tricky bits in the forest where I really did need my compass and we were out for a little over three hours.
I made a classic, novice mistake at the end though - and I wasn't the only one! Seeing the pretty straight path back I took my eye off the ball and dozed ... and went straight past the last marker which I had assumed I had missed in the difficult forest bit.
The PTV was complicated as it was over two sides of a small valley so everything was either going up or coming down. P was majestic about the gate, even though I touched him on the bum with it and was perfect in the chicane. He made all the spectators hoot with laughter when we did the jump in hand as he did an enormous leap over it! Many of the other horses had been reluctant to trot up to it and the rules say that the horse has to do a proper 'jump' rather than step over it but P was hilariously at the other end of the scale.
I made a mistake in the slalom as I tried it in canter, something we do all the time but I went into it ill-prepared and did not ride enough with my body (too much hands) so he fell back into trot so a fat zero for that.
I thought he was going to refuse or run out at the ridden log jump as it was narrow and hard to see at the bottom of the valley but we got over it and then he was brilliant at the low branches, powering through and I think I was one of very few who didn't get the bamboos down - you really have to hang off the side as they were set only 20cm higher than his withers. Got a round of applause for that.
The last obstacle was a small gate to jump and again P did a large and showy leap over it (it looks pretty but it shows he's no jumper as he can't judge how much effort is needed to get over something) which got us another round of applause (the French aren't natural encouragers
)
So very happy me!
Loading to go home attracted lots of kind people who wanted to help but after a few minutes I thanked them and sent them away as P was getting stressed. So I took the pressure off him and he rewarded me by going pretty-much straight in which brought quite a lot of comments about ethnology etc.
I can't say how proud I was of my boy yesterday. We finished the season on a huge high, and that had nothing to do with getting a nice cup and rosette. He was just so, so nice. There were lots of flashy horses there and P is just another white horse (and a bit tubby!) in an area where every other horse is just another grey.
But he behaved so beautifully that I would not swap him for anything in the world. Love that ol' boy.
Sorry it's a long 'un ....
I had a wonderful day out yesterday at the final TREC of the season as it's getting too hot now.
Amazingly, Paco was absolutley perfect all day - no silliness, no over-excitement, incredibly sensible.
He loaded well so we set off at about 7am and I was overwhelmed by the beauty of the countryside - the sun was burning off a light mist and the fields of poppies are dazzling against the backdrop of the Luberon mountains. We were the first to arrive so I could get everything ready slowly and calmly and I was greeted warmly by loads of people I know as they arrived (TREC is very friendly).
I set off on the POR with a group of young club girls behind me but P was pretty calm and eventually I lost them - well, they got lost actually! So we did the rest of it on our own and P was a star. There were some very tricky bits in the forest where I really did need my compass and we were out for a little over three hours.
I made a classic, novice mistake at the end though - and I wasn't the only one! Seeing the pretty straight path back I took my eye off the ball and dozed ... and went straight past the last marker which I had assumed I had missed in the difficult forest bit.
The PTV was complicated as it was over two sides of a small valley so everything was either going up or coming down. P was majestic about the gate, even though I touched him on the bum with it and was perfect in the chicane. He made all the spectators hoot with laughter when we did the jump in hand as he did an enormous leap over it! Many of the other horses had been reluctant to trot up to it and the rules say that the horse has to do a proper 'jump' rather than step over it but P was hilariously at the other end of the scale.
I made a mistake in the slalom as I tried it in canter, something we do all the time but I went into it ill-prepared and did not ride enough with my body (too much hands) so he fell back into trot so a fat zero for that.
I thought he was going to refuse or run out at the ridden log jump as it was narrow and hard to see at the bottom of the valley but we got over it and then he was brilliant at the low branches, powering through and I think I was one of very few who didn't get the bamboos down - you really have to hang off the side as they were set only 20cm higher than his withers. Got a round of applause for that.
The last obstacle was a small gate to jump and again P did a large and showy leap over it (it looks pretty but it shows he's no jumper as he can't judge how much effort is needed to get over something) which got us another round of applause (the French aren't natural encouragers
)So very happy me!
Loading to go home attracted lots of kind people who wanted to help but after a few minutes I thanked them and sent them away as P was getting stressed. So I took the pressure off him and he rewarded me by going pretty-much straight in which brought quite a lot of comments about ethnology etc.
I can't say how proud I was of my boy yesterday. We finished the season on a huge high, and that had nothing to do with getting a nice cup and rosette. He was just so, so nice. There were lots of flashy horses there and P is just another white horse (and a bit tubby!) in an area where every other horse is just another grey.
But he behaved so beautifully that I would not swap him for anything in the world. Love that ol' boy.
Sorry it's a long 'un ....
for so much hard work we thank ye!!
