Was at RC camp earlier this week so hoping for good things SJ/XC as we did a lot of work on our jumping technique. Course walk was good - looked at the 90 and was glad we were doing the 100 which was a good start. Tried not to look too hard at the rather large and deep ditch at the trakehner at 5 but otherwise nothing to trouble us.
Got on and walked round to the dressage then promptly got off again as they opened the SJ course for walking. SJing is my least favourite phase so tried not to look too hard at the width of the fences!
Back on for a short dressage warmup whereby the heavens opened although fortunately rain stopped for the test itself. Test wasn't too bad and he did everything where it should be and obediently but it wasn't forwards and it severely lacked sparkle. Was hoping for mid 30's. Got back to trailer and the heavens opened again. Went to look at score and was tempted to go home! 39 is not quite what I'd hoped for and left us 29th out of 41 :(
Fortunately the rain stopped again so decided to go and SJ and see if he woke up a bit. Didn't really fancy going XC with a less than forwards horse over our first BE100. Jumps seemed to wake him up a bit, knocked a couple in the warmup but went in a jumped a super super round. Just got fence 6 a bit wrong and got in too close but he launched into orbit to clear a pretty wide oxer. Rest of the round was pretty smooth for us though so very pleased with that.
So, onto XC. Quick warmup and off we went. Had a good look at fence1 and decided the brush might eat him so orbited over that and it seemed an awfully long way down! Eventually we landed and made it over 2 and 3, if a bit stickily - gave him a wake up smack on the shoulder and he went well over the chair at 4 then onto the dreaded trakehner. Looked up, kicked on but he clocked the ditch last minute and threw in a huge catleap over it which didn't make for a very comfy landing but we were over!
Neatly through the coffin and then another slightly awkward jump over the "hump" at fence 7.
Then on to the skinny log at 8 before down a steep hill into the dark woods and then pop up the bounce steps and up and out over the log pile which he did very neatly. No probs through the water and then long gallop, round a corner and got a good stride to the pheasant feeder. Through the trees and out over the skinny hanging log then round to the sheep feeder where he insisted on clearing the brush again! Sharp left to the arrowhead then good gallop over the flowerbed, steadied up for the corner which he hopped over and then fab gallop over the big oxer, no probs over the sharks teeth, a little close to the 2nd last then flew the last but did have to kick him through the finish - he seemed tired for the first time ever.
Was expecting some time faults but we managed to get 9secs inside the time so finished on our dressage score of 39. Ended up 14th out of 41. Not bad for our BE100 debut considering 5mths ago I was wibbling about going round an 80cm course! Dr got 5's for both our centre lines as 1/4's right. 7's for canter work, 6's for other stuff. 7656 for collectives. "Some tension over the back and into the hand spoiling some promising work"
Just need to refind our forwards button for the dressage as last few tests have been a bit lacklustre. Appreciate today he might have been a bit tired after doing a lot of jumping at camp on Wed/Thur but he has been a bit reluctant to do anything resembling work recently. Still quite happy to bomb around the ranges and try and kill me on the roads by leaping into oncoming traffic because a banner on the fence looked at him wrong on Tuesday. He has had a rather busy season so not sure if he's just fed up with working but he's got a couple of important events coming up so would like to instill some forwardness again! We've got BE90 Regionals in 9days time then was aiming for the Tweseldown unaff champs mid Oct then he is going to have a nice holiday. Not sure if he is really lacking energy and needs different feed or whether that wont make any difference? He is on a calmer as it seems to reduce the spooking out hacking so I could drop that and hope I survive to tell the tale to see if that livens him up in general. Considered a short course of Propell Plus or some other similar rocket fuel (may have to employ draw reins for hacking if I do that though!). I could change his feed a bit - he is currently on Spillers slow release cubes (1 round scoop), 1.5cups of Outshine, 1/2 scoop of Alfa-A Oil and TopSpec Comp Balancer once daily. I could change to Spillers quick release or add in a small amount of Power/Performance or similar. Have got physio on thursday to make sure it's nothing physical. I could check some blds to make sure he's not got a virus or something. I might be panicing about nothing and over-analysing as usual but need to rejuvenate him somehow for our last few events. Any ideas please?
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