Post by racaille on Nov 18, 2013 7:21:15 GMT
Yesterday I took the teenager and Rac to a super-posh SJ competition just outside Aix en Provence. Aix is a very chic and wealthy place and the comp was huge, over two days with 650 competitors. There was serious horse money there: I saw dozens of 100€ saddle cloths and hundreds of 500€ helmets and the horses were mostly of the 10000€ plus bracket.
And we rocked up with Racaille, the wild mountain horse!
The teenager's goal for the day was just to have a bit of fun and get R out and about. I was less impressed as it meant a 4.30am start for me and towing in the night and rain. Luckily the rain had mostly died away by the time we arrived.
The teenager had enetered Club 4 and 3 (60cm and 75cm) and the courses looked quite big for their class and very technical. The warm-up paddocks were heaving and there were a lot of spoilt kids expecting right of way even when they didn't have it (it's priority on left rein or in a superior pace here, is it the same for you?). But R was calm which was great.
He had one Racaille moment as he went into the ring when he was anxious to be off and not have to halt in front of the judges and he went up which I have got in a great pic (will upload later). But apart from that he was pretty good and only got one pole down. The teenager was very pleased.
But before Club 3 our coach had a long chat with the teenager and persuaded her to trust R more. That's hard as he can be a real surprise sh!t when you least expect it.
But she pointed out that he jumps much better of XC. Over SJ the teenager has been trying to rebalance him to get him to sit up more but R does not like it and ends up getting too close to the jumps then putting in a mighty sheep leap.
So the teenager tried letting R do more of the work. And he rose to the challenge! He did the whole course like a proper horse! No head in the air or pratting around. He made beautiful shapes over the jumps, I've never seen him jump better. I think it was quite a hard thing for the teenager to do as he went at quite a lick (but it was a vitesse class anyway) but the whole thing was fluid and nice to watch. What he needs to learn now is to pick his feet up as he brought down three bars but as I said it was a hard course and he doesn't jump often (not a natural jumper either with his 'pedigree'
).
But the teenager came out absolutely beaming. She was 77th out of 79 finishers - there were many eliminations for refusals. But it was a turning point I think. R will now learn that he is expected to work it out himself and the teenager has learned that he can do it on his own. I know it's hard to trust him as he has fallen flat on his face before!
And we were jubilant as one of our team came in sixth out of the 97 entries in the same class. She is very young and was riding the coach's home-bred arab -x horse who has talent but is not point and click. She decided to go for it and took all the shortcut options and rode him with authority. It was a joy to watch.
And we rocked up with Racaille, the wild mountain horse!
The teenager's goal for the day was just to have a bit of fun and get R out and about. I was less impressed as it meant a 4.30am start for me and towing in the night and rain. Luckily the rain had mostly died away by the time we arrived.
The teenager had enetered Club 4 and 3 (60cm and 75cm) and the courses looked quite big for their class and very technical. The warm-up paddocks were heaving and there were a lot of spoilt kids expecting right of way even when they didn't have it (it's priority on left rein or in a superior pace here, is it the same for you?). But R was calm which was great.
He had one Racaille moment as he went into the ring when he was anxious to be off and not have to halt in front of the judges and he went up which I have got in a great pic (will upload later). But apart from that he was pretty good and only got one pole down. The teenager was very pleased.
But before Club 3 our coach had a long chat with the teenager and persuaded her to trust R more. That's hard as he can be a real surprise sh!t when you least expect it.
But she pointed out that he jumps much better of XC. Over SJ the teenager has been trying to rebalance him to get him to sit up more but R does not like it and ends up getting too close to the jumps then putting in a mighty sheep leap.So the teenager tried letting R do more of the work. And he rose to the challenge! He did the whole course like a proper horse! No head in the air or pratting around. He made beautiful shapes over the jumps, I've never seen him jump better. I think it was quite a hard thing for the teenager to do as he went at quite a lick (but it was a vitesse class anyway) but the whole thing was fluid and nice to watch. What he needs to learn now is to pick his feet up as he brought down three bars but as I said it was a hard course and he doesn't jump often (not a natural jumper either with his 'pedigree'
). But the teenager came out absolutely beaming. She was 77th out of 79 finishers - there were many eliminations for refusals. But it was a turning point I think. R will now learn that he is expected to work it out himself and the teenager has learned that he can do it on his own. I know it's hard to trust him as he has fallen flat on his face before!
And we were jubilant as one of our team came in sixth out of the 97 entries in the same class. She is very young and was riding the coach's home-bred arab -x horse who has talent but is not point and click. She decided to go for it and took all the shortcut options and rode him with authority. It was a joy to watch.
for so much hard work we thank ye!!
