Rackham BE90 22-06-14

Took my mind off the run up to Rackham with a wedding on Saturday evening which involved a lot of wine, a lot of dancing and a night camping in the horsebox!  Great way to banish the nerves.  Wasn't quite sure what made me feel so sick on Sunday though - hangover or nerves!  Didn't have the best prep as wasn't able to sit down for most of the week due to my fall at Stratford Hills last week and did wonder if I ought to be going at all.  I managed a very painful 30min gentle hack on Friday and a slightly less painful 30min schooling session on Saturday morning then dosed myself up on ibuprofen/paracetamol and climbed on board at Rackham.  Fortunately it wasn't too bad and although my position was slightly more perched than I would like I found I could ride reasonably effectively.  Monty warmed up quite argumentatively so I did think it could be an interesting test.  Fortunately he decided to cooperate when it mattered most and did a beautiful test, especially his left trot - he just floated.  I could have ridden it forever!  Beautiful halt to finish and a big pat - very happy with that.

On to the SJ and I felt more sick after last week's mishap in the warm-up.  The warmup was quite chewed up surprisingly considering the ground everywhere else was really good.  Monty hates chewed up ground and told me so quite convincingly so I kept my warmup to an absolute minimum.  Jumped a x pole, a vertical and an oxer and then cantered into the ring.  Did a quick ride-by the troublesome line down the arena - related distance downhill from 4 to 5ab straight into the tradestands which was causing problems and off we went.  They did announce my dressage score but I didn't hear all of it - it ended in point five but that was all I or anyone else got.  Good thing really or it might have rather put me off my SJ!  He jumped a beautiful round.  He really sat back and waited beautifully on the tricky related distance to the double which I saw people do on 6 or 7 but 6 was quite forwards and then they were taking out the second part of the double so I made the decision to make him wait for 7 and he did it beautifully.  All our work with Chris on distances is paying off so well.  The other related distance was from 7 to 8 which was a forward 8 or a slightly holding 9 downhill so again sat back quickly, got him balanced and waited for 9 and he really listened.  Soooo chuffed with him.  Clear round - fab!

fence before the double:

1st part of the double:

No dressage score on the board so still none the wiser and time to get on with the most scary bit of the day.  I made a bit of a hash of the warmup.  Even jumped the practice fence the wrong way as in such a tizz.  Kept getting in deep.  Tried my hardest but just didn't seem to be able to see the forwards stride - argh.  Monty started being an idiot once we got close to being called and at 45seconds we were rearing up and going backwards round the warmup.  Have come to learn this is actually a good sign with him.  When he's like this he jumps brilliantly!  He didn't do it at Farley and it was really weird.  Led into the start box and off we went.  He was slightly looky at one but got a good stride, completely cocked up 2 - he went long when I thought he'd put in another, nice stride to 3

Completely cocked up 4 coming out of the woods by getting in far too deep and cat leaping it.  Friends were fence judging here and yelled at me to just kick on and it was just what I needed.  I gave him a kick and off we went.

Got a little close to the first part of the double at 5 but then kicked on to get my distance instead of wobbling and holding and it was fab from there.  Let him trot to the sunken road and then kicked on for distance out. Flew through the woods a bit spookily but the jump itself no probs and easy peasy through the half coffin - don't think he even noticed the ditch.  Round the field and up a small mound to a hanging log on the top - this gave me the wobbles when I walked it as post-Badminton I now have a phobia of any kind of hanging anything with a slope behind it.  I got him back into a lovely canter though and then rode forwards and he popped it no probs.

Up the 2 steps and kick on for the 4 strides to the brush.

Collected him up for the water - he was a bit looky but kept him thinking forwards and forwards to the jump out.

Didn't give the trakehner a second glance

Then onto a double of dog kennels which he met perfectly, the stick pile was brilliant

And then I noticed the final fence (didn't walk it as knew it was there!) and it was quite large and spooky and thought I better ride that one properly and not be complacent but he flew it.  Was so glad to have got round clear and apart from the initial few fences to have had a lovely smooth round.  Jumped off to hear the end of the commentator's spiel about us wanting to go back to Badminton and saying if we kept on like that we'd have a good chance as we'd just gone into the lead on a dressage score of 22.5!!!  Personal best at BE90 level!  Turns out we finished bang on the optimum time XC as well - my slowest BE90 for a long time but I wasn't chasing the clock, just wanted to make sure I took time to set him up and give him time to look at anything he needed to.  Didn't want him to feel hassled or stressed.  So, after time to get Monts cooled off and sorted went off to check the scoreboard and it was a good scoring section but the 21.5 had a rail SJ and the 14.5 (!!!!!) had a cricket score SJ so we won by 3 marks!  Totally not the aim of the day at all, but of course just what he is capable of if I don't mess him up.

A nice 9 for his final halt (did lot of practice this week with my sore bum and reluctance to go faster than walk!)  First time he's had straight 8's for collectives too!

Still feel like we have some confidence rebuilding to do as he wasn't quite the super confident horse he used to be and I wouldn't have wanted to be doing the 100 on him even though it was a lovely course as we just need to learn to trust each other a bit more again but a good start along that road.

Big thanks to Kim Nye for most of the XC photos and Spidge for the others.

And big thanks to Claire Miller for this super video of the whole day:

Just waiting to see if I get into Eridge this weekend now - last minute entry so ended up first on the waiting list and just hoping someone withdraws as that's another nice 90 course we could do with a trip round before our eventing summer break as the ground is starting to firm up and he doesn't much like that.

Chris Burton XC lesson - Parwood - 18-06-14

Today I was lucky enough to get a private lesson with Chris at Parwood, courtesy of Eventing magazine.  My first XC lesson with Chris and boy was it just what we needed.  He had the measure of our problems straight away and it helps that he knows us well now so knew exactly what we needed to get us both back on track, stop panicing and start jumping like he knows we can.

We started off just walking through the water which he did with no concerns at all.  Then went and popped over some of the littlies and already felt better than last week..  Moved back to the water and cantered over the log, straight through in canter with no hesitation, up the big step and then curved line to sheep feeder - foot perfect.  Felt like I'd been making up all our problems!  Then did the big pheasant feeder and round to a skinny roll top.  I successfully saw backwards strides to both of these and did horrid jumps over both.  Chris said he could see the problem we'd been having and where we'd lost faith in each other.  He sent me off to jump the hedge on a long rein and give him a smack on the bum on the way over and he didn't think too much of that, shot off afterwards and from then on turned into the mad Monty I know and love - boinging around, dragging me to the fences and seemed to be having loads of fun - he is such an odd horse - you have to wind him up like some kind of clockwork toy then let him go or he'll just bumble around half asleep making life much harder for himself.

hedge:

Went back to the pheasant feeder to roll top and did a much better job - lovely stride to both of them:

Then moved onto the table and corner - practised jumping the table centre then off to one side in preparation for the corner which he did brilliantly every time.  I don't have the corner issues I used to - I trust him to go as long as I kick!

We then did this huge oxer thing I've never done before and it was meant to be 5 strides to the skinny brush - I managed to hold for 6 but he did at least stay straight and true and not think about running out.  Did it again aiming for left side of skinny brush and again got 6 in but landed quite deep from the oxer so was the right decision to sit and wait that time.  He said I was still being a bit backwards as there was a much more forwards stride off the corner for the oxer but I held for one more and need to ride forwards more to a big oxer.  Turned it round and did the skinny brush and 5 strides to the oxer - he said to sit back and give him a smack on the bum  - it was the longest 5 strides ever and I didn't think we'd make it so forgot about the smack and just got ready to go with whatever happened and he flew it - he really isn't lacking in scope, just self-belief a lot of the time.  When he believes he can do it he can jump the moon!

Finished with jumping another more acute corner.  He put a guide rail on it just to make sure we ended on a good note.  He said it was always important to set them up for success when XC schooling and keep it all well within their ability limits.  He was leaping and bouncing and taking me to the fences again and felt so full of himself again it was fantastic. Did it 3 times and no doubt he was going to jump it each time.

I was just getting myself into a viscious circle of negativity but he has snapped us out of it and I feel so ready to crack on again now.  We have got Rackham BE90 this Sunday and I am really looking forward to having some fun now.

Stratford Hills BE90 14-06-14

So, since our disaster at the water at Farley BE100 two weeks ago I have been trying to work out what went wrong.  I ran some bloods on Monty to check all was well and make sure there was no health reason why he would have thrown in the towel but all fine.  I'm happy he is otherwise physically fine as he is working well in the school and only recently had full MOT, teeth, physio, foot xrays, vet assessment etc.  So after a few days off we continued on our way.  I took him to Parwood XC schooling and it became evident he'd lost some confidence with water - he wanted to stop and sniff it before walking in which isn't like him.  He did then trot/canter through fine but decided not to push it and ask him to drop or jump in and just keep it nice and easy.  I also tried him with a shorter martingale to see if it helped with him wanting to stick his head in the air and run left but he started jumping badly, running away with me and jumping all inverted so that was a bad plan.

On Wednesday I took him to LMEQ for some more water training.  We started in the SJ arena just to remind ourselves we can actually jump as the SJ at Farley was awful due to the ground - he just got stuck and couldn't take off and was really sticky the whole way round.  SJ went fine and we did the arena corner nicely so then headed out to the water.  Gave him a canter round, popped a few small fences then turned towards the water and he whipped round to the left and stood up before conceding to then trot down and through it nicely.  Spent a load of time just standing in there letting him relax and then trotting/cantering through before popping a little fence on the way out.  Did a few more little jumps but he didn't feel up for it and was getting in close to everything.  Decided to razz him up a bit as he's always had a tendency to be lazy XC schooling and then he was much better - dragging me into the fences and jumping confidently again.

After that I decided we needed another water trip so went to Tweseldown on Friday.  Jumped a couple of logs really nicely on good, forward strides then cantered round the back of the water, back to trot and he trotted through happily.  Water was clear and shallow and perfect for his confidence.  He was happily cantering through so built up to doing the jump before and after it that were part of the BE90 and he was great.  Finished with a blast round the racecourse.  Great prep for Stratford.

So, onto Stratford yesterday.  Went to walk the XC course and felt sick.  Not really the ideal course for confidence building.  Very hilly.  Most of it well within his capabilities but the jump before the water was quite close to the water with the BE100/Novice fences protruding into your landing so that they kind of channelled you forwards into the water - sort of a good thing but Monty always spooks lot at other fences so not really ideal.  Water only tiny but not the most inviting looking.  Had some serious thinking to do as to whether it was right for us to go XC.

Anyway, on with the dressage to start with.  He was super - warmed up beautifully and did a lovely test and a fab square halt at the end (hard work finally paying off there!) - judge gave us a big smile so was glad to see we got 27.5 and were 2nd after dressage out of 33.  Finally we do seem to have that phase cracked!  We got a 9 for his free walk, 8 for his medium walk, 8 for his canter-trot and 8778 for collectives :)

Onto the SJ - got down there with 15mins to go to find they were running 30mins late.  Keen not to repeat the warmup disasters of Badminton I walked him back to the lorry and then back to the warmup to waste some time.  Got back to find only 2 numbers before me so kind of panicked into warming up I didn't really take time to establish my manoveurable canter first.  Aimed at the x-pole and met it lovely so aimed at a small vertical.  Saw a long one, put my leg on and expected him to go on it and next thing I knew I'd hit the ground extremely hard.  Apparently he chipped in and just orbited me - not sure why I came off as used to him chipping in and normally just results in a bit of an uncomfy jump, not full on smash into the ground.  I normally get straight to my feet as hate any fuss but having sat up I was seeing stars and had a sore nose/mouth so waited for help to get to me.  The stars disappeared so I got to my feet but my back was agony.  They made me go and see the paramedics to make sure I was ok to continue and then I got back on - couldn't sit properly as back hurting so much and felt very wary of any long strides so just compacted the canter and jumped him off short ones but he seemed happy enough so took him in.  He was quite spooky at the banners round the edge but that's typical for him.  Jumped well enough except for me just holding that bit too much at an oxer and he took the front rail with his back feet.

Decided most definitely not a good idea to go XC.  Back hurt far too much and not feeling confident so would have transmitted that to him.  Took a couple of hours before I felt well enough to drive the 2.5hrs home.  On the up side, would have finished 3rd out of 33 if it had been Combined Training!  On the down side - what the hell is happening?  4 falls in 6 weeks plus the one back in March schooling?  Over the past 4yrs exluding a few falls out hunting (which you kind of expect), I've come off him once hacking, once SJ warmup at Tweseldown, once SJ lesson and a couple of times XC schooling when I first got him.  It's not normally a regular thing for us.  I'm far too old to be falling on the floor this often.  He felt fine afterwards so I don't think it's too much to worry about regarding him, more of an unlucky one this time but it's not helping my confidence.  Feeling like I really ought to stick to dressage, especially once I heard about the two rider fatalaties that happened yesterday, one at Nunney which is where I was meant to be before I decided to drop back to 90.  A real shock and does make you think twice about why you even do it :(

Anyway, positive thinking needed.  We have a XC lesson with Chris on Wednesday which is much needed.  Eventing magazine are doing an article so we get a private lesson and plenty of time and all for free so that will be much appreciated.  Then we have Rackham BE90 on Sunday and I have just put in a late entry to Eridge BE90 and am 2nd on the waitlist so hoping we can sneak in a run there as well.  Seriously need to get a couple of nice runs under our belts and then having a month off to concentrate on qualifying for the Elementary Petplans and competing at the Novice Summer Regionals.  Will then plan to come back at 90 before hopefully making it to our 100 Regionals later in the year.

As an aside, I got Monty a Micklem bridle last week and am trying to decide if he goes better in it or not.  He seems more settled in his mouth and I particularly noticed when I put him back in the drop yesterday he was waggling his tongue around more but he was quite heavy in my hand in the Micklem and I didn't really enjoy that feeling hence putting him back in the drop for the competition.  More time needed before I make a decision on that one I think.

Farley Hall BE100 01-06-14

Not our day sadly.  Probably should have gone home after seeing 6 people fall off while I walked the course - 6 people!!!

7th out of 33 after dressage on a score of 33 - our worst score in ages!  He didn't like the ground though - it bogged him down and it was hot too - not a good combination for Monty energy levels.  Quite toughly marked section though - Chris led it on 30 so we weren't far behind.

SJ warmup was so sticky he didn't even want to canter through the boggier bits - he really detests ground like that.  Didn't do much and hoped it was better in the ring.  Went in at the gallop, got him back, lovely stride to first fence and he had it down - think he just got stuck in the mud.  Next few fences were horrid with him getting in deep and helicoptering over the jumps.  Thought he was going to stop at 5 and no idea how he cleared it so decided nothing to lose and just booted him and flew round the rest.

Should have withdrawn then.  I know he hates that kind of ground and the XC was causing carnage but I loved the look of the course and really wanted to give it a go.  XC warmup he also hated - another sign to withdraw. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.  He also calmly walked into the start box, stood there and waited for the signal to start before going - not like him at all.  He did fly out of the box though and took a stride out at the first so felt happy to carry on.  Good stride to 2, spooked at the road crossing bark chippings like normal, not great strides to 3 and 4 as ground so holding and by now was really having to work to keep him galloping due to the ground.  He flew the ditch palisade at 5 that had been causing loads of problems.  Spooking at the tractor that was doing something to jump 6 but jumped the house well followed by tight turn to a log on a left bend but locked on nicely.

Trakehner at 7 and I did screach at him as could feel him backing off but he got a good stride and jumped it well.  Good over the straightforward fan fence at 8, a bit looky at the skinny big brush on rising ground with a drop behind it at 9.  Really finding the ground hard work by this point, sticky over straightforward fence 10, had a little look at the log with a drop behind at 11 and still looking at the table at 12.  Got him back for 13ab - a shaped double brush followed 3 strides later by one of those skinny brushes like I fell off at Boomerang and jumped successfully at Badminton.  He locked on and jumped well at the sort of fence he could easily have nipped out left at so pleased with that.  Great stride and jump over the corner at 14 but seriously getting bogged down by the ground by this point.  Got him out wide and back to me before riding forwards really strongly for the fence before the water, growled at him, smacked him on the shoulder, couldn't have ridden it any more positively but he nipped left at the last minute and I found myself on the bloody floor again.  So frustrated.  The water was only a stride behind the fence but we practised jumping into water with no problems over and over last weekend.  There was a big crowd watching and it was right by the XC collecting ring so lots of distractions - wonder if it would have caused such a problem somewhere else on the course or if the ground hadn't been so tiring but I'm still annoyed with him for chucking in the towel and even more so for refusing a 2nd and a 3rd time resulting in another fall and elimination.  By that point he'd had a chance to look at the question and really should have jumped it.  Before Badminton he had never refused anything more than once and even those refusals were very very few and far between and basically due to me not riding him forwards and just sitting there and wibbling.  Really not sure why he's suddenly started this but it really worries me.  I worry there is something wrong with him - the last time he stopped was last summer when his feet were hurting him but it was soft ground on Sunday and he was only checked out at Liphook a month ago and given the all clear.  Plus he seems 100% happy to jump 1m15 SJ courses and never even hesitates so doesn't seem too likely.  If it's not physical then I'm not sure what has caused the sudden loss of confidence when he's always been a bold XC horse - looky but never doubted he'd jump what I pointed him at as long as I didn't wibble and destroy the canter.  Hambleden was brilliant - he was bold and fabulous and didn't have any iffy jumps and flew round.  So what happened between Hambleden and Badminton?  Or was Badminton too much mentally and now he's learnt he can throw in the towel and just refuse to jump so if it looks a bit tough he'll just give up?  It's really not like him.

I messaged Chris afterwards and hopefully he will help us to sort it out.  He sounded confident it could be sorted and is happy to ride him for me to try and give him some confidence back.  Just need to work out when we can do that and I don't think it will happen before my next run.  I've withdrawn from Nunney and entered a 90 at Stratford Hills instead - it's miles away but we need a 90 run and I just hope that's enough to give him enough confidence to complete a course.  Also moved from the 100 at Rackham to the 90 as we've been round that before and should be fine.  I'm so gutted.  It's taken me years to build up the confidence to move up to 100 and we absolutely stormed our first 3 events of the year and it gave me so much confidence.  I'm riding so much better, seeing better lines and strides, he should be gaining confidence from that but it seems he's not and I just don't get it but it's enough to have started me on the slippery slope of not trusting him to jump which could well spell the end of us eventing as I can't do it if I don't trust him to look after me.  I'm really sore after falling off twice in the same way, especially given the second fall was without my air jacket.  I don't bounce and I don't like falling off :(  I really hope we can fix this.  I love him to bits - he is an amazing horse and I want him to be happy so if that's not doing eventing then I won't keep trying to make him.  I absolutely love eventing though and I find myself looking at Novice courses and wishing I could jump them and whatever happens I don't think he'll be the horse to take me there.  He is responsible for giving me the confidence and ability to get to this stage though.  I just need one who can take me to the next level now - anyone got a spare Novice horse lol??

Hatcam:

Trakehner: