Post by fimacg on May 20, 2013 11:21:48 GMT
I have finally managed to get the courage together to do a 70cm hunter trial... which was yesterday. the jumps were well up to height and there was very little difference between the 70cm course and the 75cm course, the main difference being that on the nursery novice you only had to jump the first element (and not parts B and C of the novice course. There were 4 water jumps/crossings 3 of which were before fence 7!
Brave varied from going like a train to brakes on full lock... once again the jumps are not the problem its getting between them particularly where he goes from enclosed track to open field where he can suddenly see loads of people, cars quad bikes etc, but he is getting better.
At the start he decided to nap and we did a lovely sideways canter across the field, almost into the path of the horse that was just finishing... before I got him going at which point he decided brakes were an optional extra I hadn't chosen (despite the gag). We had 2 refusals, one at the second water which was a tiny step down into the water it was almost a walk through but had a solid edge and the second was a downhill jump over some barrels, but I step him up all wrong. We had just had a sideways canter across the field and I was busy re-organising and had checked him so much we just had no oomph to get over the fence so he stopped. My fault entirely.
I also spent far too much time in trot, the optimum time was 4mins 10 seconds and I finished in 8mins... but when we walked the course the ground was really slippery and the ground was challenging with steep uphill and downhill bits, aside from the start flat was not a feature. so I was being a bit cautious, and his sideways canters at various points around the course didn't help as we ended up heading in random directions!
I did make some spectators laugh at one point. Brave was going like a train toward a steep muddy downhill slope, which they were waiting beside and I was trying to check him before going down it so was saying "steady, steady, STEADY!" through slightly gritted teeth, when the brakes went on full lock as he spied everything at the bottom and I had to kick to get moving again, this was accompanied by me saying "Not that Steady!!!" which caused the people watching to fall about laughing.
Anyway despite the refusals I had a great time and each time we go out we get better. I do however need to now practice cantering downhill.
2 professional photographers were there but no photos are up yet so will post some as soon as I can.
Brave varied from going like a train to brakes on full lock... once again the jumps are not the problem its getting between them particularly where he goes from enclosed track to open field where he can suddenly see loads of people, cars quad bikes etc, but he is getting better.
At the start he decided to nap and we did a lovely sideways canter across the field, almost into the path of the horse that was just finishing... before I got him going at which point he decided brakes were an optional extra I hadn't chosen (despite the gag). We had 2 refusals, one at the second water which was a tiny step down into the water it was almost a walk through but had a solid edge and the second was a downhill jump over some barrels, but I step him up all wrong. We had just had a sideways canter across the field and I was busy re-organising and had checked him so much we just had no oomph to get over the fence so he stopped. My fault entirely.
I also spent far too much time in trot, the optimum time was 4mins 10 seconds and I finished in 8mins... but when we walked the course the ground was really slippery and the ground was challenging with steep uphill and downhill bits, aside from the start flat was not a feature. so I was being a bit cautious, and his sideways canters at various points around the course didn't help as we ended up heading in random directions!
I did make some spectators laugh at one point. Brave was going like a train toward a steep muddy downhill slope, which they were waiting beside and I was trying to check him before going down it so was saying "steady, steady, STEADY!" through slightly gritted teeth, when the brakes went on full lock as he spied everything at the bottom and I had to kick to get moving again, this was accompanied by me saying "Not that Steady!!!" which caused the people watching to fall about laughing.
Anyway despite the refusals I had a great time and each time we go out we get better. I do however need to now practice cantering downhill.
2 professional photographers were there but no photos are up yet so will post some as soon as I can.
. Well done on doing it and getting around in one piece 
