Was pretty much first to go, they were still building course for British Novice when I got there. It looked big enough for my first BSJA so decided to buy 2 tickets for that class and not worry about trying the 1m open.
Warmed up ok, if a bit lazy as usual. Went into indoor and he was quite looky. Predicted he would be - he can be quite a spooky thing when he wants to be. Thought he might not like fence 5 which had rustic poles but funny wings. Jump off only had 4 jumps but they were bigger than the rest. 12 fences in all. As he was being looky he was a bit behind my leg and not going forwards enough hence got in short to 3 and landed short so I opted to hold for 6 strides as thought he might not make 5. He almost stopped at no.5 but I was ready for him. Looky at 6 too but got the curve right on 5 strides to 7, clear over the 1 stride double, big oxer at 9 then onto the JO - nowhere to cut corners so just kept him moving on and met everything spot on. Yay - double clear in a good time. We were only a fraction off being placed and I hadn't even thought about looking where the finish line was and kicking on for it as I wasn't actually trying for the time, just wanted to keep our forwards rhythm.
Quick wander round the warmup to get his breath back then in for another go. This time I had him in a much better rhythm and made the 5 stride distance easily between 3 and 4. He was still a bit looky at 5 and 6 and landed off to the right over 6 which meant we cut the corner and I crazily decided to try and fit 4 strides in the 5 stride distance and he chipped in and somehow left it up. Just lost our canter quality a bit and then he got in a fraction close (not as close as to no.7) and just touched the rail on the way into the double. Clear from then on though. Despite the 4 faults I was much happier with that round as much more rhythmical. Still having to really work to keep him on the forwards stride though. He needs a rocket up his bum!
I looked at the 1m Open and the first part was fine but the JO did go up and out quite a bit and given his lack of forwardness I think good decision not to try that one just yet!
In the afternoon I went with Caroline to watch her lesson with Seb Poirier which was interesting as Womble has a lot of the same issues as Monty. These are the things I really took note of:
- break course down into bitesize sections and regroup in between each one, breathe out, calm and off you go again
- he falls in and cuts corners on the right rein which makes distances too short
- he falls out and jumps off to the right on the left rein making distances too long
- practice, practice, practice
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