Post by racaille on Sept 26, 2011 8:34:58 GMT
The teenager did her first affiliated complet (Concours Complet d'Equitation - your one day event, I think) yesterday. What fun it was!
We set off at 5am in the black of night and in driving rain, no fun at all. But an hour and a half later (having lost the lorries we were following, oops :
we arrived at this massive club north of Avignon and it was dry and warm, if overcast, but allayed my (and every other mother's) fears of wet grass for the XC.
The teenager (who continues to be lovely
) was on early for the dressage. I thought she did a pretty neat and tidy test, very calm and quiet but she was disappointed to only score 65% (which I thought was OK for a first outing on a pony that has done nothing but SJ in its career.) She got marked down for a rather underactive working trot, so something to address, but nothing terrible. I thought the pony (Jana) was a bit resistant around the mouth and neck, but again, work to be done, nothing terrible.
Anyway, after the dressage the teenager was 12th out of 17 in her class.
Then Jana came into her own in the SJ, nice clear round within the time. They moved up to 8th place.
Then the XC - again, Jana is inexperienced here but she was fantastic, havinga look but going over everything. I saw her take a big look at the pond she had to gallop across but the teenager put her legs on and yelled, and the brave little pony went through.Again at the dark corridor of trees, approached over a bridge, I saw her look, but she carried on. But they were going too fast so I saw the teenager take a look at her chrono and they slowed down, finally coming in within the optimum time. Fantastic pony!
They finally finished 6th overall, which we were thrilled about. One of our group was second on her really little pony, she did brilliantly! Unfortunately another one of our team had a bad athsma attack and had to scratch.
It was a huge competition, lots of classes, lots of serious competition people. I particularly enjoyed watching the tiny ponies - the competition shetties were divine!!!!!!! And there was one little scrap riding the most beautiful Welsh B stallion who did brilliantly, despite him being terribly strong. I thought what a good idea it was to let little kids start competing so that they grow up just thinking it's part of everyday fun, rather than something to stress about.
I took quite a lot of pix but think most of them are of Jana's bum disappearing into the distance
Next Sunday's complet is in the Alpes, about 2/3 hours away so will be starting from home about 4am I think ...... Jana is going into the bigger class and Racaille is having a go in a small class. We shall see ....
We set off at 5am in the black of night and in driving rain, no fun at all. But an hour and a half later (having lost the lorries we were following, oops :
we arrived at this massive club north of Avignon and it was dry and warm, if overcast, but allayed my (and every other mother's) fears of wet grass for the XC.The teenager (who continues to be lovely
) was on early for the dressage. I thought she did a pretty neat and tidy test, very calm and quiet but she was disappointed to only score 65% (which I thought was OK for a first outing on a pony that has done nothing but SJ in its career.) She got marked down for a rather underactive working trot, so something to address, but nothing terrible. I thought the pony (Jana) was a bit resistant around the mouth and neck, but again, work to be done, nothing terrible.Anyway, after the dressage the teenager was 12th out of 17 in her class.
Then Jana came into her own in the SJ, nice clear round within the time. They moved up to 8th place.
Then the XC - again, Jana is inexperienced here but she was fantastic, havinga look but going over everything. I saw her take a big look at the pond she had to gallop across but the teenager put her legs on and yelled, and the brave little pony went through.Again at the dark corridor of trees, approached over a bridge, I saw her look, but she carried on. But they were going too fast so I saw the teenager take a look at her chrono and they slowed down, finally coming in within the optimum time. Fantastic pony!
They finally finished 6th overall, which we were thrilled about. One of our group was second on her really little pony, she did brilliantly! Unfortunately another one of our team had a bad athsma attack and had to scratch.
It was a huge competition, lots of classes, lots of serious competition people. I particularly enjoyed watching the tiny ponies - the competition shetties were divine!!!!!!! And there was one little scrap riding the most beautiful Welsh B stallion who did brilliantly, despite him being terribly strong. I thought what a good idea it was to let little kids start competing so that they grow up just thinking it's part of everyday fun, rather than something to stress about.
I took quite a lot of pix but think most of them are of Jana's bum disappearing into the distance
Next Sunday's complet is in the Alpes, about 2/3 hours away so will be starting from home about 4am I think ...... Jana is going into the bigger class and Racaille is having a go in a small class. We shall see ....
