Post by racaille on Apr 23, 2013 14:31:44 GMT
Not TREC but nowhere else seems to fit at all....
I had a BRILLIANT day out at my Equifun training day yesterday. And despite factor 30 I've got bad sunburn on my face and arms
Paco loaded pretty well which set up the day in a very good way. First we started with some Equifeel, which is really about obedience on the ground which was very useful. I also managed to teach P to sidepass - dunno if that will ever be useful but you never know!
Then we trained over the Equifun stuff. Basically, you have to complete a course in the fastest possible time but there are various options and you can choose your level of difficulty. For instance there was an opensided 'box' of very small jumps with a small barrier in the middle: you could go into this as a chicane or you could jump in and out of the box on a bounce. There were various versions of this theme, ie go round or over and other bits and bobs.
Paco was on terrific form, almost too full of himself. He saw the big grassy field and the other horses and thought: woohoo, mayhem time! The first time I asked for a canter in the warm-up he just couldn't resist putting his head down and broncing down the field. Silly old boy!
I was feeling confident and I'm ashamed to say there is a bit of competition between me and the useful teenager. So I was taking the short option every time! The others were mainly on young horses/novices so didn't go for it. At the end of the day we had a competition and I hadn't clocked that the teenager had put herself last so she could see what she had to beat. I made a silly mistake at a double jump and didn't rebalance P for the second element and given that we were motoring he touched the bar and it came down so we had a 20second penalty. grr. Then the teenager went fast and clear to the end when it was her turn to make a silly mistake and also get 20secs so I beat her by one second! But then she had a second tour on her mother's horse and whupped me properly. But was it cricket?
As always I was fascinated by the others, they are such a mixed bunch (but good fun). There's a girl who lets her young horse get away with everything because he's sweet and the older randonneur who is up for everything but totally inept, bless him.
Here's Paco bouncing out of the box (it won't let me add the attachment as it says the file is too big - just one jpg?)
I had a BRILLIANT day out at my Equifun training day yesterday. And despite factor 30 I've got bad sunburn on my face and arms
Paco loaded pretty well which set up the day in a very good way. First we started with some Equifeel, which is really about obedience on the ground which was very useful. I also managed to teach P to sidepass - dunno if that will ever be useful but you never know!
Then we trained over the Equifun stuff. Basically, you have to complete a course in the fastest possible time but there are various options and you can choose your level of difficulty. For instance there was an opensided 'box' of very small jumps with a small barrier in the middle: you could go into this as a chicane or you could jump in and out of the box on a bounce. There were various versions of this theme, ie go round or over and other bits and bobs.
Paco was on terrific form, almost too full of himself. He saw the big grassy field and the other horses and thought: woohoo, mayhem time! The first time I asked for a canter in the warm-up he just couldn't resist putting his head down and broncing down the field. Silly old boy!
I was feeling confident and I'm ashamed to say there is a bit of competition between me and the useful teenager. So I was taking the short option every time! The others were mainly on young horses/novices so didn't go for it. At the end of the day we had a competition and I hadn't clocked that the teenager had put herself last so she could see what she had to beat. I made a silly mistake at a double jump and didn't rebalance P for the second element and given that we were motoring he touched the bar and it came down so we had a 20second penalty. grr. Then the teenager went fast and clear to the end when it was her turn to make a silly mistake and also get 20secs so I beat her by one second! But then she had a second tour on her mother's horse and whupped me properly. But was it cricket?
As always I was fascinated by the others, they are such a mixed bunch (but good fun). There's a girl who lets her young horse get away with everything because he's sweet and the older randonneur who is up for everything but totally inept, bless him.
Here's Paco bouncing out of the box (it won't let me add the attachment as it says the file is too big - just one jpg?)
for so much hard work we thank ye!!
! I can't get my head around the fact he is so old! 
