jumping

Jumping Variations

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After the excitement of getting the jumps out, I finally got the chance to use some of my birthday presents (from March!).

First I had a wall jump for the first time.  It’s a great design and fits neatly over a straw bale.

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It might be meant for the ponies but the first jump belonged to the dog.

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When I did get to jump it with Galahad I was fully expecting him to try to run out so I set up some guide poles but he actually popped over it with no trouble at all.  I think my face shows how astonished I was.

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The wall is double sided so of course we had to jump it both ways.  This time Galahad did run out at our first attempt but as usual it was because I didn’t keep my eyes up.

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I also got some pole sleeves which just needed trimming and sliding on.  As always, my Dad came in very useful.

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Once again I looked down at the jump and Galahad ran out.  After that he jumped very well but I really must work on looking up!

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As you can see, there were enough trimmings to make an extra interestingly coloured pole.

We had a great time playing with the jumps and I am looking forward to using them more.  It is good to get Galahad jumping as many different things as possible but apart from that it is fun!

Jumping!

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Now we have finished the work on the field we can get the jumps out again.  It has been seven or eight months since we have been able to jump at home so this was a very exciting moment.

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We went out to jump as soon as we could but as it has been so hot recently we wanted to ride reasonably early.  We got out into the field by about eight but even so the sun was blazing and it was still very hot.

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Considering how little jumping the ponies have done recently, they both did really well.  Galahad and I had a few run outs to start with but once we got going he jumped really nicely.

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The run outs are mostly my fault.  I know very well that if I look down at a jump Galahad is almost certainly going to try and run out.  The trouble is that if I think Galahad will be worried about a jump I find it very difficult not to look at it.  At least I know what I need to do to get better!

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We had a lovely play in the sunshine and even the lambs next door seemed to enjoy it!

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It is wonderful to have the jumps out again and we are looking forward to using them over the summer.  Let’s just hope the ground doesn’t get too hard!

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Sunday Schooling

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I very nearly didn’t ride Galahad this evening.  I had a busy day yesterday, I was at work all day today and had already ridden Cookster out so I was pretty tired and wanted to curl up with a book. However, I told myself that was not the right attitude and tacked him up.  It was too good an evening to waste anyway.

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We had a pretty decent schooling session.  The ground is a little rutted from the winter but is actually in surprisingly good condition considering how wet it has been.  I was pleased with Galahad too – we don’t manage a lot of schooling over the winter but he worked well and is even improving at picking up the correct canter lead on the right rein – he got it right nearly every time today!

I was hoping to get in a little jumping as well but I was more cautious with that.  We hadn’t jumped at all yet this year and in the past if Galahad has had a break from jumping he has had a tendency to get over excited when we pick it up again – he either rushes at the fences or gallops off after them.  I made sure he was calm and listening to me before I attempted a jump, then I introduced some very small fences, keeping strictly to a trot.

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I was very pleasantly surprised as he popped neatly over them and showed no sign of getting above himself.  Before long we were happily cantering over the bigger, scarier jumps.

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It was a very positive start to this year’s jumping.  We will hopefully manage to harrow the field this week and then I’ll be able to put out the rest of the jumps.  I was lucky enough to get some new fillers for my birthday this year and I am very excited about trying them out!

 

Exploring

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Galahad has had some time off this week as I am just back from a couple of days in Surrey.  I had a lovely time pottering about and found a simply wonderful bridlepath.

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I would love to have that a little nearer to home!

I came back home to some very good news.  Firstly, the grass is starting to grow.

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It’s a bit hard to see in the picture but I promise it is sprouting!

Secondly, the field is finally dry enough to school in.  It is still a little soggy down one end so we have to be careful but today I managed to school both ponies and Cookster and I even had a little jump.

I didn’t jump Galahad – instead we did some semi cross country training.  We went up and down pretty steep hills in a different field and splashed in and out of the stream.

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I had a thouroughly good time and I think Galahad enjoyed himself too.

Making Progress

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Last Sunday Galahad and I went to a jump-cross challenge competition – a round of show jumping followed by a cross country course.  Given our last cross country outing had involved a lot of stops I was feeling a little apprehensive.  However, Galahad was jumping very well in training (barring some braking issues).  That and the fact that his back was probably a bit sore last time gave me some reason to hope we would manage better this time.

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We entered the 50cm class and the show jumping went pretty well.  We had one stop – I still don’t know why – but the rest of the round felt really good and back up to our normal level.  We made our way to the cross country course and actually managed to get over the first fence at the the first attempt.  That was much better than last time – as you can hear if you watch to the end of the video and listen very carefully!

In fact, the whole course was miles better than last time.  It was almost the same course and the only fences we stopped at were the quarry (which we had previously only jumped with a lead in the pairs class) and the chair (which was the fence we had to miss out last time).  Everything else we just flew over.  I was enjoying it, Galahad was enjoying it and it was so much fun.

We had too many stops to place in the cross country or the combined competition but as the show jumping was split into senior and junior riders we managed a fourth place for that which was very welcome.

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We also entered the show jumping section of the 65cm class.  Galahad felt even better and I was much more confident.  I did however completely misjudge the turn into the double and presented Galahad with a horrible angle at one of the widest fences on the course.  I was convinced he would either stop or just crash through it.  He did hesitate slightly but popped over it and the second part of the double with no problem at all.

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We did knock one fence down but in a completely unrelated incident.  We claimed fifth place in that class which felt very good indeed.

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It was good to feel that Galahad was enjoying his jumping – the rosettes were a bonus and we had a fantastic day.

Pinging

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We recently had to have the fields topped again, which meant that I had to put all of my jumps away.  Then it started raining and we couldn’t cut the grass.  It didn’t seem worth getting the jumps out when I would only have to pack them up again so it has been a couple of weeks since we have been able to jump.

Last week however, it was finally dry, the grass was cut and the jumps came out of storage.  I found this lovely moth on one of them – it was huge!

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Its wings were open when I first saw it but it closed them before I could get to my camera.  It was beautiful though.

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I’m sorry the pictures are rather blurry.  Apparently the camera couldn’t cope with the light levels!

Galahad seemed as excited as me to see the fences – he was rushing rather to start with and he was putting in some enormous jumps.  We then had a horrid jump over the filler and completely demolished the fence.  After that he was much more sane!

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He was actually jumping quite nicely and we had a lovely evening in the field.  We didn’t overdo it though – it was still pretty hot even at nine o’clock in the evening!

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.

Back to Jumping

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Another result of the field drying out is that I can finally use my birthday present pole sleeve and filler.

Galahad was being a bit awkward steering wise as he wanted to go and talk to Cookster so he did run out once or twice.  We perservered though and eventually got some very nice jumps from him.

It is the first time he has jumped for several months and also the first time he has jumped a filler like this so I was actually quite pleased with him.  We also popped over a water tray and a log a few times – we had a rather productive session really.  It was great to be able to school again and we had a lot of fun.

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!

Teamwork

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Galahad and I recently got another chance to compete as part of a team, this time with the riding club.  It was again teams of four with each person jumping a different height.  Obviously with my little pony I was jumping the lowest height.

The warm up was again on rather damp grass and given our mishap on our last outing I was very careful over the practise fences and didn’t come out of a trot.  We still slid into one of the jumps and Galahad was a bit wobbly trying to avoid the muddy take off spot so I didn’t over jump him.

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Our first round went very well and we whizzed round clear.  My team mates did the same so after one round we were in the lead and quite excited.

Galahad was also great in the second round but I messed it up for him.  Between fences three and four we needed to change the canter lead but I got my whip tangled in my reins and was distracted by trying to untangle it.  I didn’t even think about the leading leg until it was too late.  We had to jump off the wrong leg so Galahad wasn’t well balanced and we knocked the fence down.

It was such a silly mistake and it really wasn’t necessary to untangle my whip – I felt pretty bad about letting both Galahad and my team down.  The next two members of my team both got four faults as well and the last got twelve.  We ended up eighth out of ten which wasn’t bad but was rather disappointing after our good start!