Post by racaille on Jul 16, 2013 3:58:43 GMT
Well, where do I start? It all went tits up yesterday.
I don't know what was wrong with Paco but he was a complete sh!t. It was horrendously hot and even though we started working in the arena at 8.30am it was very hard going, the extreme heat was coupled with an unnatural high humidity which made me feel I was swimming in treacle.
My first mistake was not to put Paco in a bit (I'd taken one) thinking it would be good to do the day in the Dr Cooks. But he just leaned into it and I had no fine tuning whatsoever, more of which later.
The biggest obvious problem was that he took a very fierce dislike to the corner where we entered and just kept running away from it - big time. I tried following another horse into it etc etc but he became more wound up and started to bounce in front which is the cue to rearing. Eventually I got off and my coach tried to lead him towards the corner but by then he was hysterical and went up. I confess I was near tears really - no breakfast meant I was having a severe energy dip (dear children, NEVER skip breakfast) and the heat was crushing.
We calmed it all down and the teenager got on him for a few minutes and eventually he'd approach the corner, although banana shaped and trembling. Finally I decided to get back on and do what I could.
We worked on elements of our individual tests and Paco was just being as uncooperative as he could be. Any canter became a charge and if I asked for a bend he became a banana - I found it very hard to support him with the outside rein while being soft on the inside. Really struggled with it and he took full advantage.
Finally, I was a bit taken by surprise when our coach said we were going to do our tests for real for an outside judge as I had never had a chance to ride this test in its entirety in my life before!
I just went for damage limitation. I had no idea where the letters were or where I was supposed to do my transitions so I guessed.
At least I didn't forget the test, it just wasn't terribly precise and I made no real effort to go into the corners.
The judge's comments were that the first half was a bit slothful and the second rather sketchy. She marked Paco down for lack of balance - no sh¡t - and me for aids that were 'too obvious'. We got a 7 for one leg yield and a 6 for the other (too much bend) but two 7s for the counter canters. One positive note: got the left lead strike off both times (a second half circle at the end) which was something of a miracle.
Got a final score of 68.66% which was probably a lot more than we deserved.
Afterwards we put the horses in boxes in a lovely shady barn while we had a BBQ (which was fun but I was stupefied with fatigue) but Paco was still in meltdown and stood there rigid with fear, not eating his hay or even drinking. Later when I took him out again he almost fell over when someone started up a strimmer. My coach was astounded by his meltdown as he has been brilliant on so many occasions but I just thought: Welcome to the weird world of Paco.
So, dressage not our new discipline. Beginning to wonder what is.
At least Sam was amazing (of course). Utterly chilled, lovely balance, did a super test. He got a lot of admiration, my coach loved him. It was lucky though: on Friday we went down to a flat grassy place to practise our tests and the plonker pulled off the shoe on his dodgy foot (even though he was booted) - and this was one reason I never got to rehebottom my test as we had to walk him home straight away. Happily my lovely farrier come straight out to put it back on.
Anyway. Sam is a star and Paco is a plonker.
Where's that number for Findus....?
I don't know what was wrong with Paco but he was a complete sh!t. It was horrendously hot and even though we started working in the arena at 8.30am it was very hard going, the extreme heat was coupled with an unnatural high humidity which made me feel I was swimming in treacle.
My first mistake was not to put Paco in a bit (I'd taken one) thinking it would be good to do the day in the Dr Cooks. But he just leaned into it and I had no fine tuning whatsoever, more of which later.
The biggest obvious problem was that he took a very fierce dislike to the corner where we entered and just kept running away from it - big time. I tried following another horse into it etc etc but he became more wound up and started to bounce in front which is the cue to rearing. Eventually I got off and my coach tried to lead him towards the corner but by then he was hysterical and went up. I confess I was near tears really - no breakfast meant I was having a severe energy dip (dear children, NEVER skip breakfast) and the heat was crushing.
We calmed it all down and the teenager got on him for a few minutes and eventually he'd approach the corner, although banana shaped and trembling. Finally I decided to get back on and do what I could.
We worked on elements of our individual tests and Paco was just being as uncooperative as he could be. Any canter became a charge and if I asked for a bend he became a banana - I found it very hard to support him with the outside rein while being soft on the inside. Really struggled with it and he took full advantage.
Finally, I was a bit taken by surprise when our coach said we were going to do our tests for real for an outside judge as I had never had a chance to ride this test in its entirety in my life before!
I just went for damage limitation. I had no idea where the letters were or where I was supposed to do my transitions so I guessed.
At least I didn't forget the test, it just wasn't terribly precise and I made no real effort to go into the corners. The judge's comments were that the first half was a bit slothful and the second rather sketchy. She marked Paco down for lack of balance - no sh¡t - and me for aids that were 'too obvious'. We got a 7 for one leg yield and a 6 for the other (too much bend) but two 7s for the counter canters. One positive note: got the left lead strike off both times (a second half circle at the end) which was something of a miracle.
Got a final score of 68.66% which was probably a lot more than we deserved.
Afterwards we put the horses in boxes in a lovely shady barn while we had a BBQ (which was fun but I was stupefied with fatigue) but Paco was still in meltdown and stood there rigid with fear, not eating his hay or even drinking. Later when I took him out again he almost fell over when someone started up a strimmer. My coach was astounded by his meltdown as he has been brilliant on so many occasions but I just thought: Welcome to the weird world of Paco.
So, dressage not our new discipline. Beginning to wonder what is.
At least Sam was amazing (of course). Utterly chilled, lovely balance, did a super test. He got a lot of admiration, my coach loved him. It was lucky though: on Friday we went down to a flat grassy place to practise our tests and the plonker pulled off the shoe on his dodgy foot (even though he was booted) - and this was one reason I never got to rehebottom my test as we had to walk him home straight away. Happily my lovely farrier come straight out to put it back on.
Anyway. Sam is a star and Paco is a plonker.
Where's that number for Findus....?
for so much hard work we thank ye!!
