On 9 August, Fred and I went down to Mill Farm in Wedmore, mostly just to get the old ditch practice on. Once again, Fred flew everything I put him at, 90cm fences, wishing wells, owl hole, bank to skinny, big old T Fence, diversity house, hay cart etc etc, barrels everything and then sh*t a brick and refused the 60cm ditch - argh!!!!!
I REALLY don't know why this has got stuck in his head. He did eventually jump it three times - in hand with me jumping and him following. I guess at least that's a start.... Just so frustrating as he really hasn't ever looked at a ditch before now - and he walks over one twice to come in and turn out and twice when we go up to the sand arena or to hack and doesn't give a blind bit of notice, nor has he ever. However, the XC was a lot of fun, even on a day when the car was saying 28 degrees - it was a little hot.
I don't have any 'in action' pictures or video footage of either event. So I've just grabbed a couple of pics from their FB page.
Friday 11 August - Unaffiliated Elementary 44 at Home
Then on the Friday, it was unaffiliated dressage at home, so we had another bash at an Elementary (E44) it was crazy hot (gone from one extreme to the other atm!)
It started well, with a 7 for entry and halt, followed by 6.5, 7 and another couple of 6.5s but he wasn't properly 'underneath me' and so we didn't get the travel and impulsion needed for the two mediums - in fact he broke in the second one, which meant we fell into an untidy halt and the canter loops weren't great, made a few mistakes - need to work on those - I'm not quite sure what to ask for in those in terms of bend and suppleness and so he doesn't give anything - although his right loop is always 0.5 a mark up on his left mark.
We were 2nd out of 3.
I knew I'd made a couple of silly mistakes in terms of my riding and output - mostly because I didn't get him up and going well enough after messing up the medium trots. But hey, we still finished on 61.40% and we'll keep working at it. I know at the moment that we are just 'playing' with Elementary and will do more Novice tests too. It's all a work in progress. The last time Anna judged me was 4 years ago and it was a walk trot test, so not bad to now be doing Elementary and to start it so positively - and 2 days after going XC!
And I'm getting quicker at plaiting..... you can sort of see Fred's delight at that... especially in the heat
But, really, you have to think that Fred is just a little bit wonderful.... XC schooling and jumping 90cm fences on Wednesday to Elementary Dressage on Friday.... The little chap deserves a lot of credit.....
We've come a very long way... Long may it continue..... I love this little ginger dude to the moon and back....