Cross Country

Getting Kitted Out

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Since Galahad has now done two whole cross country competitions I decided it was time to get a hat cover and saddlecloth to match my cross country colours.

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Obviously that’s just an excuse to treat myself to some horsey goodies  (although I do have another competition coming up soon).

I went through a phase a few years ago when I fell off every time I wore something new.  Even now I still make sure that I never wear anything for the first time at a competition – just in case.

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Naturally this meant that I had to try out the new colours on a normal ride and I am pleased to say that they worked very well and fit nicely.  I am starting to feel like a proper competitor!  Best of all, I didn’t fall off – hurrah!

Testing my Limits

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On Sunday I went to our local hunter trials.  We were a bit doubtful whether I was ready but I don’t get many opportunities to do cross country and I want to make the most of the ones I do get.  This time I tried riding Galahad in a kimblewick – we had some steering issues last time!

I was very pleased with how relaxed he felt in the warm up.  He can get a bit wound up and bouncy but this time he was listening very nicely and I had no worries.  The grass was a little slippery but wasn’t too bad and I was pretty happy setting out.

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That changed rather quickly.  We had an awful lot of refusals which is quite unusual  – Galahad is far more likely to run out than stop dead.  I think he was worried about the new jumps and after my few weeks off my legs just weren’t strong enough to keep him going.

The course was set out over two fields and we refused at least once at most of the fences in the first field.  At the chair we even slipped and very nearly fell but just managed to hang on.  The fence judge made us skip that fence!  At the next fence I had a friendly helper who stood to the side to encourage Galahad over and after that we did a lot better, with only a couple of stops in the second field.

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By this point I knew that I wasn’t really fit enough to ride as positively as Galahad needed.  I was also coughing quite a lot between fences – thankfully not very much when we were actually tackling a fence.  I’m pretty sure the adrenaline controls it a bit!  It was a good experience though and I hadn’t expected to be competitive anyway.

 

I also had a pairs class in the afternoon.  My partner was riding a very green horse but he had been jumping better than us so I was hoping for a bit of a lead from them.  I was not disappointed!  We flew round most of the course, with just a little trouble coming out of the quarry – a fence we had not had to tackle individually.  We even managed our dressing fences very nicely.

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Galahad and I were responsible for getting into and through the water as our partner had been having issues with that.  I was a little worried but Galahad popped straight over the fence and into the water with no trouble.  Sadly our partners managed to go over the flag instead of inside and as we didn’t go back to correct it we were eliminated.  Still, we had a fantastic round and Galahad was definitely enjoying himself.   He was much more forward than he had been in our individual round!

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I went with the others to check the results at the end of the day but I was obviously not expecting anything for myself – we had clearly been eliminated in both our classes!  However,  so had quite a few other people and the riding club was nice enough to present rosettes to us anyway – the later in the course we were eliminated, the higher we placed.  Galahad and I managed a fifth in our individual class and a ninth in the pairs.

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The rosettes were completely unexpected but very welcome indeed.  We may not have had the best of days overall but our pairs round was wonderful and I think we learnt a lot.  I was very glad I decided to go.

New Jumps

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It has taken me a while but I finally managed to get our logs moved to a suitable place for jumping.  It was lovely to be able to jump them at last and I did so at the first opportunity.

Galahad was not at all sure about the logs when we first entered the field and didn’t really want to go anywhere near them.  When we did get close he had a very good look at them and from then on we had no problem.  When we got to jumping though he ran out twice.

I  then gave myself a stern talking to.  Galahad has been round a proper cross country course and although we did have a couple of run outs we got round most of it with no trouble.  The only thing stopping him was me and my nerves so I told myself to look up and ride positively.  It worked!

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The next time I rode was with my sister who suggested trying some pairs jumping.  The ponies had never done it before but they took to it really well.

They jumped very nicely together and Cookster was more forward going than usual.     It took a bit more practise to jump our tyres – round a corner – after the logs.  Cookster kept drifting right, pushing us both around instead of over the fence.  We got there in the end though and we had so much fun!

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Not every fence is a dressing fence!

Birthday Jumping

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It has only taken me three months but this week I was finally able to use my birthday presents!

It was a very exciting moment as apart from the odd hop over a small log  we haven’t been able to jump at home since last autumn. My sister and I had a lovely time playing in the field and both ponies behaved very well.  Galahad loves jumping anyway but even Cookster was putting in some very nice jumps and looking beautiful.  Galahad is starting to take off further from the fences and is making a much better shape in general – I am very pleased with his progress.

We are starting to build up a proper little course now.  Hopefully we will be able to move the logs in from the other field soon and then we can have some cross country jumps too.  It is all very exciting!

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A Wonderful Weekend

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The ponies were due to come home after their back checks on Tuesday but I extended their stay to make it easier for me to compete at the weekend.  I had a short lesson with just a few jumps on the Friday night which went well on the flat but we had rather too many runouts when it came to jumping which did not fill me with confidence!

We went show jumping on Saturday and when I got on Galahad was the most relaxed I have ever felt him when out at an event.  I think he is getting used to it!  Our first class was 60cm and Galahad flew round without even hesitating anywhere.  He felt amazing.

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The jump off also went really well and we cut two corners we wouldn’t have been able to cut a few months ago.  We could have gone a bit faster but I was still very happy with the progress we had made.  I wasn’t expecting to get placed – Galahad only has little legs after all – but we ended up fifth.  Our first solo jumping rosette!  Our only other jumping rosette was in a pairs class and was mainly due to my very speedy partner.

We next rode in the 65cm class.  This time we had a little wobble in front of a (perfectly plain) fence when Galahad wanted to run out.  I managed to get him over the fence but it meant we knocked it down.  That was our only problem though and I was not really worried by the knockdown.  The fact that he jumped the fence when he hadn’t wanted to was far more important.

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It was the first time we had a photographer in the ring with us!  Galahad didn’t react to him at all.

Altogether it was a very successful day.  I went home and rode Cookster out still wearing my show gear and just in shirt sleeves as it had been absolutely gorgeous all day.  About half way round there was the most enormous clap of thunder and the heavens opened. We got completely drenched.  Cookster was a little worried by the thunder but behaved very well indeed so I was pleased with him too.

Both ponies went out on Sunday as they were getting dropped off home on the way back.  It was the first time Cookster has been anywhere other than home and my instructor’s yard but although he was noisy when they were separated he was very good.  It was Galahad who tried to barge out of the lorry after Cookster!

This time we were doing an eventer’s challenge – a show jumping round followed immediately by cross country.  Galahad had never been cross country before so I wasn’t at all sure how he would get on with all the scary jumps and we entered the 50cm class so we had a less testing start.  We jumped clear round the showjumping with six time faults.  The time was pretty tight though and I had less faults than the person before me so I was actually pleased with that.

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The cross country went less well as we had four runouts.  Two were at a wall which was quite intimidating and after the second I took the easier alternative.  If we had been at home I would have persevered with the wall but a competition didn’t seem the place to do that!  The other two runouts – one at a log and one at a double of roll tops – were a bit unnecessary really.  I definitely needed to channel Galahad better to hold him to the line.  However, he did seem to enjoy himself and he finished without running out of steam which had been another concern of mine.  I was thrilled with him.

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He even went straight through the water!

As I was doing such a small class everyone else was riding later in the day which meant that I had my own little team of grooms.  My pony was tacked up (almost the wrong pony!) whilst I dressed and when I dismounted he was taken off me, untacked and washed down.  It was like riding at Badminton!

There was also a small clear round jumping course in a corner of the lorry field which I decided to take Cookster round.  I was a bit worried about my steering as he very much wanted to go back to Galahad in the lorry and he is so good at loading his right shoulder that I was having a hard time turning him left as we warmed up.  However, once we got into the ring he went very nicely and the steering wasn’t an issue at all.  We had two fences down but he didn’t even think about stopping.  He isn’t nearly as coordinated as Galahad but he has had a lot less practise and I was very pleased with him.  I have never had two ponies competing before – it made me feel quite professional!

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I had an absolutely fantastic weekend filled with riding.  I was pretty tired (and a bit sunburnt) by the end but it was definitely worth it!

Galloping Galahad!

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It was finally dry enough for me to be able to get some schooling in over the weekend.  Galahad can still take a while to start listening properly but once he is listening he does try hard.  We even did a little jumping which excited him very much.  It is definitely his favourite thing to do.  I would love to take him cross country jumping so now he is happy jumping tyres laid flat I have started introducing upright ones as well.20150830_160415

We are just jumping the pole in the middle at the moment.  It took him by surprise the first time he saw it and he slid to a stop but after that he popped over it happily.  I will fill in the gap soon so we are actually jumping the tyres themselves.

I also schooled my sister’s pony on Saturday.  He is completely different to ride and is a pony of extremes.  It is either a struggle to get him moving forward or he is nice and forward but with dodgy brakes and steering. Saturday was a dodgy brakes day!  We still had quite a good session though and jumped a few jumps.  He is really good for my riding as he forces me to use my legs not my hands and I always feel I have learnt something when I finish riding him.

Yesterday Galahad and I rode out with my sister and we braved the hay bales in the field up the hill.  They are apparently safe enough to ride past now, although they still have to be closely watched.  We had a couple of proper gallops again but this time Galahad went where I was intending and stopped when I wanted.  He is clearly a lot fitter than he was a few months ago as he can now canter the whole way up hills where he couldn’t before.  It is something that seems to have happened all of a sudden without me noticing!  It’s rather gratifying – we must be doing something right!