Post by racaille on Mar 1, 2016 12:11:26 GMT
We battled up to Montelimar for Sam's latest complet but it really should have been cancelled. It had rained torrentially beforehand and the terrain was worse than anything I've ever seen. (Funny the change of weather after the heatwave at Montpellier.)
I had to squeeze my rig into a space between two lorries and immediately the Hilux sank up to its axles in liquid mud. I abandoned it and helped the T prepare.
The dressage warm-up was in a mudbath and there were a lot of posh horses in there: both big ones competing in Amateur and some really posh ponies in the super-pony level.
Sam was unfazed by it all and happily squelched into the arena. He was much better than last week, much more relaxed and attentive ... but this time it was the T's turn to slip up. She forgot her two 12m circles
The first time she was stopped but the second time they let her go on. Nevertheless the judges must have liked something as despite the minus points for the mistakes, they came in 14th out of 24 after the dressage.
The SJ warm-up was a joke: it looked like a swimming pool. The actual arena was not a lot better and I saw one horse slip and go right onto its side with the rider underneath - it looked like she had broken her leg as she was carried off. Sam too lost his back end a couple of times and because of this he couldn't get back up enough in front of one jump and brought the bar down. However, he was jumping much better than last week - the T said he was really taking her to the jumps even though they were smallish, having been lowered by 10cm in deference to the terrain.
The XC time was extended by 15seconds and Sam set off really well. It was a very technical course with some very scary elements but he didn't balk at any of them ... until the contre-bas into the water. The T says it was her fault as she was concentrating so much on the upcoming wedge that she didn't ride him to the water properly and he took one look at it and said NO! He teetered on the edge but didn't go backwards or sideways before doing a huge sheep leap into the water so the T was later very disheartened to see the judges has counted it as two refusals so a loss of 60 points. Despite the pause at the water and a steepish slope that she took really slowly they still managed to come in inside the time (Sam's big stride) but they were not awarded the 10 extra points they should have been. The T was philosophical however.
Despite coming second last out of the competitors who finished (there were a fair number of eliminations) the T was very pleased with Sam. His dressage and SJ were much improved and she knows she now has to work on his dislike of jumps down into water (but I didn't blame him!)
Luckily there was a huge tractor on hand to pull all the lorries out of the mud. I wedged some stones behind the Hilux tyres and whacked it into LO4 ... and we escaped. The T can't wait to have another go at the exciting XC course though!
Vids to come.
I had to squeeze my rig into a space between two lorries and immediately the Hilux sank up to its axles in liquid mud. I abandoned it and helped the T prepare.
The dressage warm-up was in a mudbath and there were a lot of posh horses in there: both big ones competing in Amateur and some really posh ponies in the super-pony level.
Sam was unfazed by it all and happily squelched into the arena. He was much better than last week, much more relaxed and attentive ... but this time it was the T's turn to slip up. She forgot her two 12m circles
The first time she was stopped but the second time they let her go on. Nevertheless the judges must have liked something as despite the minus points for the mistakes, they came in 14th out of 24 after the dressage. The SJ warm-up was a joke: it looked like a swimming pool. The actual arena was not a lot better and I saw one horse slip and go right onto its side with the rider underneath - it looked like she had broken her leg as she was carried off. Sam too lost his back end a couple of times and because of this he couldn't get back up enough in front of one jump and brought the bar down. However, he was jumping much better than last week - the T said he was really taking her to the jumps even though they were smallish, having been lowered by 10cm in deference to the terrain.
The XC time was extended by 15seconds and Sam set off really well. It was a very technical course with some very scary elements but he didn't balk at any of them ... until the contre-bas into the water. The T says it was her fault as she was concentrating so much on the upcoming wedge that she didn't ride him to the water properly and he took one look at it and said NO! He teetered on the edge but didn't go backwards or sideways before doing a huge sheep leap into the water so the T was later very disheartened to see the judges has counted it as two refusals so a loss of 60 points. Despite the pause at the water and a steepish slope that she took really slowly they still managed to come in inside the time (Sam's big stride) but they were not awarded the 10 extra points they should have been. The T was philosophical however.
Despite coming second last out of the competitors who finished (there were a fair number of eliminations) the T was very pleased with Sam. His dressage and SJ were much improved and she knows she now has to work on his dislike of jumps down into water (but I didn't blame him!)
Luckily there was a huge tractor on hand to pull all the lorries out of the mud. I wedged some stones behind the Hilux tyres and whacked it into LO4 ... and we escaped. The T can't wait to have another go at the exciting XC course though!
Vids to come.
for so much hard work we thank ye!!
He should also have been rounder. At this level the judges are quite pernickity, looking for good transitions etc especially into and out of the counter canter. But yes, lots of stuff in there. 
