Yesterday had a lovely little 20min schooling session with him nicely swinging along, soft in the contact etc then went out for a quick 20min hack and he was quite happy and forwards so I thought nice preparation for today.
Up at 4.30am and down the yard by 5.15am. Pony came galloping over at the sound of my voice - weird hearing galloping hooves coming towards you in the dark. Got to BCA at 7am despite an attempt by the truck to foil us by trying to overheat 5mins from home. Limped it there ok though.
He warmed up ok for the dressage, got him soft without rushing him. Not sure what happened in the test but he stuck his nose out and wasn't in front of my leg at all. Got told off in Sunday's test for rushing him out of his rhythm so tried not to push him on too much - it felt really slow and he just wasn't reacting to my leg aids. Because he wasn't forwards he was hollow and it just wasn't very nice. The canter felt a bit more forwards but still not round. Not a good start for the Regionals.
Onto the SJing - he knocked the vertical once in the warmup which was good as it always sharpens him up a bit once he knocks one. He then jumped it and the oxer fine so in we went and he jumped a super clear. It looked tiny compared to the 100 at Munstead last week! Made mincemeat of the nasty line of oxer to skinny planks at 6 and 7, popped through the double on one stride as I remembered to ride forwards at it although surprised I did as they took that opportune moment to announce my hideous dressage score of 42. Worst ever score eventing by far. Previous worst at 90 was 37.5, My dressage mojo has seriously got up and left! We got 32 at Borde Hill end of August but since then they've been getting worse! We had 37.5 at T/down, 39 at Pulborough and now 42!!! I've had him back checked, changed his saddle to one that I know fits him better, clipped him and changed his feed from slug mix and calmer to rocket fuel and propell plus and ditched the calmer. He warms up nicely, he schools well at home and then we go in the arena and he dies and goes all backwards on me. Wondering about trying a different warmup regime at Pulborough - might just take him for a gallop then only do a very short warmup so he doesn't use up all his nice, forwards good work in the warmup! Got a lesson on Sunday so will see if we can ride through a test and work out what's happening. Very disappointing. Wish I'd gone to the Regionals at WW in Aug now as things were going well then! So, 42 left us last after dressage - I've never been last before - not something I want to repeat!
XC perked him up - he even had a naughty moment outside the start box which he hasn't done for a while as a horse came flying through the finish. He set off well, jumped everything no probs, made it feel easy, definitely ready to move up to 100 jumping wise. We were 15secs inside the time which is fine by me as that's about 100 speed which is what we've got used to working at now. Funny to think when we did BCA in June we were 50secs slower and got a whole stack of time faults (it was torrential rain in my defence!) but have learnt a lot about speed control and not wasting time setting up/riding away from fences since then.
Finally finished 29th out of 35. :(
Gonna give him a few days off now then lesson on Sunday and concentrate on flatwork and forwardness this week before Pulborough next weekend. It is the end of a long season and he's now done 12 events and lots of training and other bits and bobs so he might be getting a bit jaded but he seems absolutely fine about the jumping, just no energy or willingness for the flatwork. He's having his teeth done tomorrow and I'm toying with running some blds on him just to put my mind at rest with regards to anything physical but then I think I've checked everything out I can! Perhaps he just needs a holiday now. Might take him hunting after Pulborough - that will no doubt recharge his batteries - he loves his hunting!
Funny you put the last paragraph as I was wondering as I read it if he just needs a holiday!
ReplyDeleteI think a lot of horses need a break from flat work after a while, and when they have been working hard it seems to be the first thing to suffer. I guess physically they have to work pretty hard at it, and I get the impression Monty far prefers to gallop and jump than school.