Unfortunately, we were going extremely well until we arrived at a double of uprights and I turned in too sharply, got a bad stride and took my leg off just before the first element. I then thought Rocky was going to stop, so I sat back, but he shuffled a stride in and jumped it. Unfortunately, I got unseated and landed on the floor, but we then finished the round! If I hadn't thought he was going to stop (silly me, I know he always jumps) we would have gone clear!
Despite a small buck in his first canter, Rocky did a fabulous prelim 7 (restricted) test earning our best ever score of 63.00% (126/200) which meant that we came 3rd (1.5% behind winners)!!!
Judge's comment - "A positively ridden test. Could be more supple over the back to keep the pace having more freedom and length."
His second test (prelim 10) went much better and I managed to get the correct bend all the time in canter. We achieved 61.82% (136/220) which once again gave us 3rd place. This was a particularly amazing achievement as this class was an open class and there were some very strong competitors!
Judge's comment - "Active, but guard against him becoming hurried, affecting the balance."
Rocky performed a very pleasing test today, showing real improvement in his overall way of going since last summer. He worked in quite a consistent outline for all the walk and trot work and even his canter wasn't too unbalanced. We ended up with 127/220 which was 58.00% and good enough for 7th place!
Judge's comment - "Nicely ridden, try to keep him more round inside leg."
Novice 2ft3ins
Showjumping
Although we
haven't jumped in any SJ competitions for almost 2years, Rocky excelled
himself today and was one of only 3 competitors who went clear in the first
round. However, only two of us chose to contest the jump off and despite the
other rider going clear, Rocky's time was impossible for her to beat and we
came 1st!!!
Prelim 10 Dressage
Despite
our good SJ, our dressage was disastrous as I didn't have any time to warm
up for it and literally trotted straight out of the SJ arena in to do our
dressage! Also, half way through I forgot the test and messed it up earning
us some penalties.
We scored 104/220 which was 47.27% - I think that mark is better forgotten!
Judge's comment - ""A nice chap but a bit tense and resistant at times. Try
to ride him forwards with a better contact so that all the energy can work
for you and not against you. Well tried."
Style & Performance Show 22.06.03
Arrived at yard to find that despite having put a
summer sheet and leg wraps on Rocky last night, he had still managed to get
stains all over his back legs and under his rug! Luckily, the start of the
competition had been delayed (originally we were in the under18s class, but
as we were the only entrants we were put in the over18s so it started later
than planned) and I quickly managed to shampoo all the stains off.
Then started on the plaits, but Rocky was in a fidgety mood because some
flies which were bugging him, so they didn't go very well, and then half way
through we had a mini-thunderstorm so it was a mad dash to get Rocky back in
his stable and get the saddle covered over! However, the weather quickly
cleared and Rocky was soon ready.
We warmed up in the indoor school and Rocky worked fantastically (he is
working a lot better since I've been riding him in a Cavesson instead of a
flash on the flat) and was going round in a lovely round outline with lots
of impulsion. All the competitors then walked around the outdoor school and
I carefully positioned Rocky near the back as he always works with more
impulsion if there are horses in front of him. Then we all had to line up in
the other school whilst every combination did there individual show and were
inspected on their turnout.
Unfortunately, it turned out that Rocky was almost last to go and so he had
to wait another 30mins for him to strut his stuff and despite me keeping him
walking round the other school and doing a few transitions he was clearly
too hot (so was I with my body protector on over my show jacket on one of
the hottest days of the year). As a result, Rocky's show was not up to his
usual standards and despite doing a nice extended canter and free walk, his
canter figure-of-8 where he broke his canter too early and his hurried
serpentine (we were facing this jump and Rocky was eyeing up his stride!)
meant that we were not placed in the top 6. However, Rocky's impressive
warm-up has filled me with confidence when we do the Prelim 10 at next
Sunday's summer show, as he will be able to go straight from the warm-up
arena into his test.
Schooling - 18 &19.05.03
Here are a few pictures from Rocky and my schooling session on Sun 18th May in the indoor school. The two of him at halt are some of my favourite photos of Rocky ever as, in my opinion, he looks particularly stunning. Luckily, he is starting to learn to work in such an outline in both walk and trot! It's only a shame that the third photo was blurred as Rocky was working lovely and rounded at the time.
The following day we arrived to
see Rocky after school to find that Moulton's working pupil was just about
to exercise Rocky (usually he does it earlier in the day but he'd been
showing prospective pupils around). Thankfully, I had brought my digital
camera along and was therefore able to take some photos of them jumping!
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Happy B'day Rocky!- 06.05.03
As it was Rocky's 8th birthday today, I decided to get
some photos of us (including some of us jumping), so here they are.
NB. In the photos of Rocky jumping the upright fence, the green and yellow pole behind the fence was already there and was acting as a ground line if the filler was jumped from the 'wrong' direction. Rocky had not knocked this down!
Dressage Competition (Prelim 4) - 12.01.03
Arrived at the yard in good time to sort Rocky out,
sign in and then proceeded to give him a good solid warm-up indoors to make
sure he was really settled and rid of all his energy on such a cold morning.
Just before I went into the outdoor school, Mum took 2 quick photos of Rocky
and I (despite best efforts with the hair lacquer, his mane still refused to
lie neatly!)
Then we entered the outdoor school at 11:06 (unfortunately, I was in the
left-hand one where a line of tall hedges separates it from the driveway)
ready to begin our first ever outdoor dressage test, and I walked and
trotted him quickly round until the judge's horn blew. He trotted up the
centre line "quite straight" and we were awarded a 7 - a good start. Rocky
then proceeded to do a nice 20metre circle at B on his worse rein before we
headed for corner F-A. But just as we started to enter the corner Rocky
heard a noise from behind the hedge and shied across completely ruining our
line for turning up the centre line. However, we quickly recovered and we
ended up doing a nice test (even managing to ride most of the trot and walk
work in an outline), although he was very reluctant of that corner (F-A)
afterwards.
After a long wait (in which I sorted Rocky out and gave him lots of fuss), I
collected our score sheet expecting to see about 50% because of the
spooking, but when I collected our score sheet I discovered we had
61.36%!!!!!! Our best ever result, by a long way! I also discovered that we
had just narrowly missed out by a few %s on being placed in the top 6 of the
class (and it was a very big class).
The judge's comment was particularly pleasing - "A nice horse who showed
some nice paces at times. Well ridden"
Thanks ever so much Rocky for doing such a great test. Unfortunately, our
competition season is likely to be over now until after my AS-Level mocks
and real exams, but we are hoping to compete again (dressage and maybe
showjumping) in the Annual Summer Cup Show at the end of June. Maybe then
our dressage will be good enough to be placed in the top 6 :-)
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