Post by racaille on Sept 14, 2015 2:12:31 GMT
Got talked into doing a SJ comp yesterday and once engaged I could not back out even though the weather forecast was terrible.
Got up at 4am to a Biblical storm, monsoon rain plus hair-raising lightning and Paco was not going to be caught in that, thank you very much. When he finally did give in the poor thing slipped badly going into the trailer and thought about refusing to load but with Sam behind him saying: Come on mate, let's get out of this terrible rain, he eventually walked on in.
The drive to the venue was really hairy (not helped by appalling driving by the locals who just don't 'get' rain); the worst moment was when we hit a bit of flooded motorway (quite slowly, thankfully) that send a wave shooting completely OVER the Hilux.
By the time we arrived it was light and the rain had pretty much stopped and I was thrilled to see that the arenas were in great shape, almost no puddles. Of course we had taken huge amounts of wet gear for us and the horses but it turned hot and humid, the flies came out and we wondered why we hadn't thought to pack the fly masks...
For once - and this bit is the exciting part for me - I was not sick with nerves. I had managed to convince myself that it was all about having fun ... and I did. Paco was bouncing around like a young 'un and I was able to keep him in a good canter, no real spooks, although he did look hard at a couple of jumps and brought them down. My coach was cross with him as she said he wasn't fulfilling his part of the SJ bargain: I got him to he jumps nicely and his job was to go over them, not goggle at them.
But I didn't mind about the bars as I felt I have turned a corner: my coach was pleased with me for taking nice lines - and some options! - rebalancing Paco where necessary and being generally more efficient. If I am critical (and I am
) I should have reacted faster at the problem jumps and given him, as we say here, a bit of bim bam boom. 
The T and Sam were in a much bigger class, obvs, and took all the shortcut options. Sam saved the T once or twice and went fast and clear to come third out of a lot of entrants.
Got up at 4am to a Biblical storm, monsoon rain plus hair-raising lightning and Paco was not going to be caught in that, thank you very much. When he finally did give in the poor thing slipped badly going into the trailer and thought about refusing to load but with Sam behind him saying: Come on mate, let's get out of this terrible rain, he eventually walked on in.
The drive to the venue was really hairy (not helped by appalling driving by the locals who just don't 'get' rain); the worst moment was when we hit a bit of flooded motorway (quite slowly, thankfully) that send a wave shooting completely OVER the Hilux.
By the time we arrived it was light and the rain had pretty much stopped and I was thrilled to see that the arenas were in great shape, almost no puddles. Of course we had taken huge amounts of wet gear for us and the horses but it turned hot and humid, the flies came out and we wondered why we hadn't thought to pack the fly masks...
For once - and this bit is the exciting part for me - I was not sick with nerves. I had managed to convince myself that it was all about having fun ... and I did. Paco was bouncing around like a young 'un and I was able to keep him in a good canter, no real spooks, although he did look hard at a couple of jumps and brought them down. My coach was cross with him as she said he wasn't fulfilling his part of the SJ bargain: I got him to he jumps nicely and his job was to go over them, not goggle at them.
But I didn't mind about the bars as I felt I have turned a corner: my coach was pleased with me for taking nice lines - and some options! - rebalancing Paco where necessary and being generally more efficient. If I am critical (and I am
) I should have reacted faster at the problem jumps and given him, as we say here, a bit of bim bam boom. 
The T and Sam were in a much bigger class, obvs, and took all the shortcut options. Sam saved the T once or twice and went fast and clear to come third out of a lot of entrants.
for so much hard work we thank ye!!
