Post by racaille on Jun 9, 2014 5:56:53 GMT
Sam had his first SJ outing yesterday and, being the lovely chap he is, was a complete star. The teenager is very happy.
I was a little concerned as the weather was heading for 35C and we faced a long day at the comp club as we were taking our coach too and the teenager was doing a tour on her horse at the end of the day. But we found that a large area of pine woods had been cleared so we were able to tether the horses under the trees in the shade.
Sam was very, very excited. When he first heard the starting bell from the main arena his head shot up and he seemed to be thinking back to his racing days. Certainly he was hot to handle in the warm up. But he settled down after a while.
His first tour was in Club 4 (65cm) and he was 'looking' a bit - there were some really alarming coloured jumps and fillers - but went honestly up to the jumps and did his best. He brought one bar down but it was simply that he misjudged it due to baby inexperience.
Similarly in Club 3 (75cm) another mistake but this time he had 'got' the point of it and really took the teenager to the jumps, no hesitations at all. She was thrilled with him. He looked lovely too, really well and muscly and going well despite being totally barefoot.
At the end of the day the teenager did her tour with the coach's horse in Club 1 (95cm) and had a ball. Despite just nudging two bars off they did a great round and came fourth - there were a lot of demolition derbys, it was a big, tricky course.
Sam was very good about waiting around all day - I took him about in hand from time to time to move him about a bit - but mostly he just tucked into his hay and carrots. Our coach really likes him too.
So on the basis that he's lovely and it's the end of our season, we will take him to a last, big comp next week.
I was a little concerned as the weather was heading for 35C and we faced a long day at the comp club as we were taking our coach too and the teenager was doing a tour on her horse at the end of the day. But we found that a large area of pine woods had been cleared so we were able to tether the horses under the trees in the shade.
Sam was very, very excited. When he first heard the starting bell from the main arena his head shot up and he seemed to be thinking back to his racing days. Certainly he was hot to handle in the warm up. But he settled down after a while.
His first tour was in Club 4 (65cm) and he was 'looking' a bit - there were some really alarming coloured jumps and fillers - but went honestly up to the jumps and did his best. He brought one bar down but it was simply that he misjudged it due to baby inexperience.
Similarly in Club 3 (75cm) another mistake but this time he had 'got' the point of it and really took the teenager to the jumps, no hesitations at all. She was thrilled with him. He looked lovely too, really well and muscly and going well despite being totally barefoot.
At the end of the day the teenager did her tour with the coach's horse in Club 1 (95cm) and had a ball. Despite just nudging two bars off they did a great round and came fourth - there were a lot of demolition derbys, it was a big, tricky course.
Sam was very good about waiting around all day - I took him about in hand from time to time to move him about a bit - but mostly he just tucked into his hay and carrots. Our coach really likes him too.
So on the basis that he's lovely and it's the end of our season, we will take him to a last, big comp next week.