Post by racaille on Jan 4, 2016 7:19:47 GMT
Yesterday most of the team met up for a New Year day of fun. There were 10 riders plus a few parents/friends and we had a ball.
It started rather badly for my mates who turned up in their new lorry, with their three horses inside, to find that the hydraulic tailgate had jammed shut. Cue much panic and an hour of trying to get the thing open. There should be an override but no one could find it and various would-be solutions included brute force and a manitou. It seemed obvious to me that it was an electrical fault and lo and behold, eventually it was found that the gate motor fuse had blown and the horses were rescued
Of course everything was horribly delayed as these guys were the other two in my group (we were in three groups: OK, good and beginners).
We were working on approaches so our coach E had set up a pretty tricky course but not too big. Paco was a very good boy (and no tripping!) and did everything I asked of him although I had to work hard to keep a lively canter going, particularly in the doubles. Then we worked on shortcut options and he was brilliant, jumping a nasty skinny upright at an angle to shave five seconds off the time. I have to keep reminding myself to breathe and on my first tour was just about passing out so on the second one I just shouted 'cowboy' (a reference to keeping my legs in place!) over every jump and that did the trick
P was riding his young horse and came a cropper when he asked for the option but just was not precise enough about the approach. The poor horse arrived at the wing and ploughed through it with P flying over his head and hitting the deck. No injury though.
The 'good' group included the T on Sam who was as always an angel. He does not like blue things and it was a challenge for him to jump a big blue jump with a blue house as a filler. At first he had a big, horrified look but he did it because he is lovely.
The beginners included a lady on a TB who takes the mickey (and largely gets away with it), a man on a little Connie who is just starting out and a 10-year-old on a gypsy cob who is only four and really far too strong for her. The girl is lovely, quite good and with a great attitude but the pony is wilful (and young). She coped very well.
Then we stopped for lunch and got the BBQ going. There was champagne (not for me, Dry January) and too much food and a wonderful special New Year Cake filled with frangipane. Yummy!
So for the afternoon we all played pony games. We had such a laugh! They were well thought out so that everyone had a chance of success - even Paco won the fastest walk heat, a lot of the others were eliminated for jogging
It got very competitive when we were divided into teams for slalom races. Paco is good at slalom in canter but not so fast on the race back but we all had our strengths and weaknesses. It was very hilarious when we had to get off after the slalom and run back: surprising how many horses will not trot in hand.
We had such a fantastic time and it was great to see a large part of the team all together. Happy New Year!
It started rather badly for my mates who turned up in their new lorry, with their three horses inside, to find that the hydraulic tailgate had jammed shut. Cue much panic and an hour of trying to get the thing open. There should be an override but no one could find it and various would-be solutions included brute force and a manitou. It seemed obvious to me that it was an electrical fault and lo and behold, eventually it was found that the gate motor fuse had blown and the horses were rescued
Of course everything was horribly delayed as these guys were the other two in my group (we were in three groups: OK, good and beginners).
We were working on approaches so our coach E had set up a pretty tricky course but not too big. Paco was a very good boy (and no tripping!) and did everything I asked of him although I had to work hard to keep a lively canter going, particularly in the doubles. Then we worked on shortcut options and he was brilliant, jumping a nasty skinny upright at an angle to shave five seconds off the time. I have to keep reminding myself to breathe and on my first tour was just about passing out so on the second one I just shouted 'cowboy' (a reference to keeping my legs in place!) over every jump and that did the trick
P was riding his young horse and came a cropper when he asked for the option but just was not precise enough about the approach. The poor horse arrived at the wing and ploughed through it with P flying over his head and hitting the deck. No injury though.
The 'good' group included the T on Sam who was as always an angel. He does not like blue things and it was a challenge for him to jump a big blue jump with a blue house as a filler. At first he had a big, horrified look but he did it because he is lovely.
The beginners included a lady on a TB who takes the mickey (and largely gets away with it), a man on a little Connie who is just starting out and a 10-year-old on a gypsy cob who is only four and really far too strong for her. The girl is lovely, quite good and with a great attitude but the pony is wilful (and young). She coped very well.
Then we stopped for lunch and got the BBQ going. There was champagne (not for me, Dry January) and too much food and a wonderful special New Year Cake filled with frangipane. Yummy!
So for the afternoon we all played pony games. We had such a laugh! They were well thought out so that everyone had a chance of success - even Paco won the fastest walk heat, a lot of the others were eliminated for jogging
It got very competitive when we were divided into teams for slalom races. Paco is good at slalom in canter but not so fast on the race back but we all had our strengths and weaknesses. It was very hilarious when we had to get off after the slalom and run back: surprising how many horses will not trot in hand.We had such a fantastic time and it was great to see a large part of the team all together. Happy New Year!
