Sharing the highs and lows of life with my 15.3 thoroughbred cross mare, Emmie.

Monday, 27 July 2015

Competition Report - Frickley

Frickley is a really local event for me, and I placed 5th here in the 90 last year which automatically means you have slightly higher expectations. But neither of us were on our A game and I left feeling a bit "blah" about it all!

I managed to get over and walk the cross country the day before, and was feeling pretty good about that part. A friend was competing in the 80 so I watched her SJ, and one thing a lot of people were saying was that the arena was very uneven, which it was.

So I went home and got Emmie all ready, and bravely turned her back out in the field (she's much happier out) ready for an early start.


So off we went! Dressage first and she was very, very tense in the warm up. She just would not settle! She was not being naughty but just not her usual soft self. I'm not sure why, but am partially attributing it to being a morning - she is pretty much never ridden on a morning, and my test was at 8.54 - but partially it just not being her day. So I went in, and to be fair it was not an awful test, but she has recently done much better so I was quite disappointed. We scored a 38 (62). 


Putting that behind us, I tacked up for SJ and went over. I had already walked the course, which was nowhere near as big as our last two events and a much more suitable course for her. She warmed up amazing and was jumping fantastically, so I was really thinking she would pick up in the ring!
Or not!!! The first 4 fences she absolutely hit the roof and was jumping her socks off. Then she tapped the planks off on the 5th, and sped right up and went quick through a double at the 6th, taking the rail off the second element. She then hit the 7th and one of the fences in another double on the 8th. I then took a hold of her because she was getting too quick, and she jumped the last two great again. 
So four poles, AGAIN! I was so disappointed because she started out jumping well and then it was like she hit a fence and went totally flat. At my next event my plan is to be a bit harder on her if she starts to get silly or quick. I tend to avoid taking too much of a hold because sometimes she freaks out and gets worse if you hold her, but apparently what I am doing right now is just not working so it's time to try something else! 



So feeling very discouraged, I went to get ready for XC. Despite that my showjumping has not been great at all this year, I think it bothered me more because the dressage wasn't that great either, which has been a much better phase for us. 

She was a complete moron in the XC warm up (nothing new there!) I really needed to practise jumping on an angle as I had a very sharp angle on course, but she was being so ridiculous that I gave up on jumping and just tried to get her to chill out. 

When it came to my turn, she continued to act moronic all the way to the start box, jogging sideways and threatening to rear (!!!). Once we set off she was much better, but pulling me to the right (back towards the other horses). She absolutely smashed the second fence and after that seemed to shake off whatever was bothering her and concentrated much better (thankfully, or I would have pulled her up!) She flew around and tackled everything with ease yet again. There were two large tables and a couple of tricky bits, but the only real question for Emmie was a big brush combination that was part of the Novice course. We had to go around their first element (it was the second part in a one stride double) to take the brush on an angle and then down to a skinny brush. She jumped it like an old pro, of course!

I did have a very small piloting error where I attempted to follow the Novice course.. thankfully I realised before I jumped their jump, but I had to rejoin my track and it cost me some time! So I finished with time penalties, but clear (which is what matters!) 





We actually finished in a better overall position (placings wise!) than the last couple of events- but not feeling quite as positive. Onwards and upwards. I just have a couple more events and then I've decided to give us both a decent break and do a bit of other stuff to take the pressure off. We will maybe do a couple more at the end of the season, but the chunk of our season is nearly over!





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