It seems like forever since I last did an update infact it is nearly a month.
I made the decision to give Fleur a mid season (well we have managed two events so we have at least started the season 😉 ) holiday as she is too special to break to see if we could find her mojo again. I kept her hacking and infact started riding her and leading Oki (why oh why didn’t I think to sooner!?) but generally just took the pressure off whilst waiting for her heel to heal! Mudfever cream that had worked so well over winter wasn’t touching it so after a couple of weeks I turned to Hypocare that showed good results pretty much straight away to the point I’m a total convert now and as the scab healed up and reduced in size back came Fleur’s mojo! 😀 Last couple of weeks she has been feeling her old self again and we have been introducing a bit more structured work again which is going well. The scab has been irritated slightly the last week in the heat by horse flies but it is not sore or angry and her mojo currently remains which includes passaging or trotting at every available opportunity. The difference was really noticable to my friend who rode out with me 3 weeks apart her on Fleur me on Oki. The first time she admits she was surprised she had to use her legs, the second time Fleur was pinging and my friend said she felt she only need bring her weight forward slightly and she would have taken that as an aid to go!
At the moment I’m not too worried about getting her back out and about as the ground is now so firm and I would rather save her legs plus excitingly it is nearly my Husband’s R&R and so shortly I will get to see him for the first time in 4 months (not counting pixelated Skype conversations!) which wipes out three weekends of competitions as well. If ground stays solid I may actually join BS for the first time in nearly 10 years and get her BN and Discovery DCs as I think she could be quite competitive at second rounds. If though it rains we will go out and have some fun at BE100 maybe even do the Regional Final we are qualified for and then look to step back up to Novice.
While Fleur has been having her holiday I have been concentrating some what on Oki. After her rather successful combined training outing I thought it would be rude not to take her to some super low key dressage being held down the road the following weekend. It was so low key my only test options were a W&T and a prelim so we did both. The arena was on a slope which all added to the experience and all good or her. The W&T test first was good I thought and we were rewarded with 64% and 4th but when I checked my sheet it had been added up wrong and we actually had over 67%. It was that low key there wasn’t a scoreboard and ultimately as we were there for the experience I wasn’t about to start complaining but it’s very possible we should have been placed far higher. The second test the prelim was again good a few baby mistakes but a solid test but imagine my surprise to hear we had 63% and had won! 😀
Although the show was ultra low key the judge wasn’t being generous with her marks to the point the organisers actually asked if I would judge their next event as several riders who were doing their first ever tests felt like giving up having been awarded sub 50% marks. Although obviously judges should mark correctly at shows like this the emphasis should be on encouragement and giving a rider partaking in their first test under 50% and discouraging comments is not beneficial to the sport as ultimately everyone has to start somewhere. I had seriously expected the winning marks to be at the 80% level as there was a smattering of nice young horses with experienced riders and if I was marking if a rider performed the right movement at the right time they get a 6 if also round without resembling a plank of wood a 7 and if looking in general good an 8. But hey that’s me and after all judging is subjective. 😉 I couldn’t judge the next event as it turned out as it was Sunday when I was doing area dressage.
On Thursday I took Oki down to Rabson manor for her first XC schooling session meeting up with her owner and a friend of hers who brought her lovely horse to act as a nanny if needed. We started with a warmup in the SJ field and she jumped her first proper fillers and even a viaduct wall. She had baby moments but is showing to really enjoy herself. We then went on to the XC course overall we kept it small to just let her see the sights and have a play. There were some amusing baby moments including twice when she jumped somewhat bigger than required briefly testing my stickability but I wasn’t going anywhere, it’s easy to forget babies often like to give scarier fences extra room ha! She proved really quite bold though taking ditches, steps and the water all in her stride. Nanny duties weren’t really required other than for initial introductions to the ditch/water so we did our own things and she wasn’t fussed at all to be left on her own at the other end of a large field which really impressed us as that is often a big test. 😀
For her 4th ever competitive outing Oki was in our RC’s prelim area dressage team on Sunday. It was always going to be a big ask as the standard was going to be a lot higher than her previous outings both in terms of judge’s expectations and the competition! Weather conditions were not in favour with the temperature just falling short of 30 degrees! We were entered for a warm up test in addition to the team test but I decided in the heat it wasn’t worth it due to the 90 minute gap between tests so withdrew from the warmup class. She warmed up well but horseflies were playing havoc despite much to her disgust covering her in nearly half a bottle of fly spray. Just as I went to turn up the centre line I could feel her crunch up on me with almost certainly a horse fly on her belly but it was too late to do anything about it and I wasn’t carrying a whip so couldn’t attempt to flick it off. The first half of the test had the right things in the right place but she was clearly distracted. About half way through she suddenly settled (horse fly obviously had had its fill!!) and the second half of the test was far far better. My aim before we started was to achieve 60% and even with the unsettled first half of the test we still achieved that plus we weren’t last so all plus points. Because it was so hot and I didn’t want to risk her over heating in the lorry (I won’t leave a horse tied up unattended outside a lorry as have seen too many accidents in the past) I was a terrible team member and feel bad for doing so but I didn’t stay for the prize giving so haven’t actually seen my sheet yet but I expect the first half to be 5s and the second half 7s but for now will have to wait and see!
Sadly Oki will need to find a new home soon as although I can cope happily with two at the moment when my Husband returns from tour I will not have the time for both especially whilst currently setting up my own new business! So if you know anyone in search of a reasonably priced super cute dun pony who will make a cracking teenagers, RC or grassroots horse with a bit more work please feel free to point them in my direction 😉 :p 😀
