Applehurst Farm 3 phase
It was a hot and bright day, the weather had been cooling off as it does towards the end of the summer, but temps had risen into the 90's again, and with humidity to boot. I was glad to have relatively early ride times, with a scant hour in between. I'd be finished riding by noontime. Little did I know that I'd be finished well before that!
The cornfields up the hill to the dressage rings had been replanted this year, so warm up was in a narrow corridor between fields. I had my usual case of nerves, but was excited to ride a test in my new (to me) dressage saddle. After I stopped pulling back against Clover, warmup went well, and we headed into Ring 1. Clover was more forward and energetic than our last outing at Senator Bell; she even tried to shy at the judge's trailer, gawking at it as I tried to ride a shoulder fore past it. The bell rung and we exited and re-entered the ring at A. After riding Novice A for the last several years, it was a pleasure to finally ride a new test. I loved the way Novice B rode, and it seemed to go a lot quicker than A. Clover was fairly steady during the test, I could have employed more half halts to keep her even steadier and coming through. A 33.5 put us into first place.
After a rush rush job of changing into x-c gear, we headed "across the street!" to the warmup area in the apple orchard. Applehurst's x-c warmup is unique in that they have actual x-c obstacles instead of the usual poles and standards. Our warmup didn't feel unusual--I was able to keep Clover going from my leg, and other than getting ahead of her once, she seemed to be jumping well and willingly enough. With a minute to go, we headed to the box, and headed out with no fuss.
Fence 1 was a haybale stack, Clover backed off a bit, so I widened my hands, sat back, and put my leg on to get her over it. There was a left angle turn to Fence 2, a widish tire pile with sawdust on top. Clover really sucked back on that one, I sat up and kicked again, and she nearly stopped--it seemed as if we had lost all forward motion, but I was getting into angry panic mode, so I kicked her over from a near standstill. Fences 3 and 4 were related-distance logs, with #4 a fairly skinny log. By this time Clover was in full suck back mode, and was tuning out my leg and even the bat, so I resorted to my voice to get her over.
We squeezed over the logs and headed to #5, a max table-like bench. The approach was an s-curve through the woods. Again Clover sucked back, and I kicked over over it, scrambling, good thingwe had new sturdy galloping boots. More woods, then up a slight incline to fence 6, logs with birch rail on top, slight sucking back, but I shouted her over it. I was pissed by this time. What happened to the willing x-c machine I had at Kingsbury and Senator Bell? Sure, we were on Clover's first Novice course, but nothing we had jumped to this point was much harder than the Beginner Novice we had been doing. Not only that, but we'd schooled much of UNH's Novice course, and had even schooled a couple of Training fences at Ledyard.
(Excuse Mode on) We headed down the Beginner Novice drop en route to the ditch. Let me tell you something about this ditch--it's widish and skinny, and frankly, it's more like a coffin. Clover has successfully schooled the Training ditch at UNH, and the Novice ditch at Ledyard. The forces of nature were against us that day, I had a suck-back horse, and when she spotted the fence judges, who had arranged themselves just across from the ditch, she backed off enough to see into the ditch and stopped (end Excuse Mode). It took me 4 times to finally get her over. I knew we were eliminated, but was able to continue on, as Applehurst is a schooling event and allow riders to continue on--so long as they're not a danger.
Directly after the ditch was a small water wade-in-jump-out framed by cat tails. The approach from the ditch was an angled 4 or 5 strides, it was hard to get a straight approach into the water. I missed it the first time, and we ran out past it to the left (of course). I wheeled Clover around, and stuffed her through the water, and went hell-for-leather through the rest of the course. It went fairly uneventfully from there; other than I chased Clover through the rest of it. We cleared everything successfully, even the extra Beginner Novice fences on my course. We did take a much shorter approach to our drop, and jumped it at more of an angle than I had planned. My trainer said that she heard me tell Clover, "Not this way, that way!" as I steered Clover back into the woods after the drop.
We jumped over the Beginner Novice stone wall to get back into the last field, jumped the max coop with only the slightest of suck-back action, and I chased Clover down the hill to the final fence, a small bench festooned with pumpkins, and through the finish. I jumped off, gasping, and said that we got E-ed at the ditch. Then I realized that everyone was looking at me kind of horrified, even Tony. In the heat of the moment, and in my desperation to get Clover over all the fences, I had really yelled, loudly and a lot. And used the bat too much--you're only allowed 3 swats with the bat at each obstacle, but at the sticky ones at the beginning of the course I had popped her 4 or 5 times, and then once more after landing, to reinforce that I wanted Clover thinking and going forward. It was a bad show on my part, but it was either that or take all the refusals and stops. If it happens again. I'm not going to force Clover over anymore. If she really doesn't want to jump, then I'm not going to make her, I'll retire and figure something out.
I decided that Clover and I had enough for the day--I could have taken a courtesy stadium round, but decided not to. I know we would have gotten over it. I let the steward know that I was excusing myself, and headed over to the secretary's booth to turn in my pinny and get my dressage test. I picked up the test, and my ribbon for dressage, and the TD nabbed me for a little chat about my yelling on x-c. I took my lumps, apologized, thanked the TD and sauntered away feeling miserable. Boy, was I an ass.
I just don't understand why Clover has been so inconsistent on x-c. Sometimes it seems like she loves to be out galloping, and really pulls to the fences and eats them up. Other times, she's reluctant, behind the leg, and herd-bound. There is no pattern to the balkiness; all her tack fits, she gets acupunctured and chiropracted, her teeth floated twice a year, and there is no injury or pain that she is showing. My trainer suggested that it could be an estrous-related issue--or lack thereof. When we thought about it, we hadn't really seen Clover come into heat this season, not that she was ever a demonstrative mare. We decided to try her on Regumate to see if that didn't help make her more comfortable--if indeed Clover is not consistent for that reason.
Otherwise, I don't know. More mileage, and if experience doesn't do the trick, then I'll retire her from horse trials and consider our options ... dressage? Western pleasure (heh)? At this point, I'm not even considering bringing her through to Training--I'll let her get bored at BN, and then test the Novice waters--if I think she is willing. Of course, that being said, we have BN at Kingsbury Hill in a couple of weeks, and an entry in for UNH at Restricted Novice. Like I said, though, I'm NOT going to force Clover to do anything she is that unwilling to do. She's too good of a horse to sour that way.
The cornfields up the hill to the dressage rings had been replanted this year, so warm up was in a narrow corridor between fields. I had my usual case of nerves, but was excited to ride a test in my new (to me) dressage saddle. After I stopped pulling back against Clover, warmup went well, and we headed into Ring 1. Clover was more forward and energetic than our last outing at Senator Bell; she even tried to shy at the judge's trailer, gawking at it as I tried to ride a shoulder fore past it. The bell rung and we exited and re-entered the ring at A. After riding Novice A for the last several years, it was a pleasure to finally ride a new test. I loved the way Novice B rode, and it seemed to go a lot quicker than A. Clover was fairly steady during the test, I could have employed more half halts to keep her even steadier and coming through. A 33.5 put us into first place.
After a rush rush job of changing into x-c gear, we headed "across the street!" to the warmup area in the apple orchard. Applehurst's x-c warmup is unique in that they have actual x-c obstacles instead of the usual poles and standards. Our warmup didn't feel unusual--I was able to keep Clover going from my leg, and other than getting ahead of her once, she seemed to be jumping well and willingly enough. With a minute to go, we headed to the box, and headed out with no fuss.
Fence 1 was a haybale stack, Clover backed off a bit, so I widened my hands, sat back, and put my leg on to get her over it. There was a left angle turn to Fence 2, a widish tire pile with sawdust on top. Clover really sucked back on that one, I sat up and kicked again, and she nearly stopped--it seemed as if we had lost all forward motion, but I was getting into angry panic mode, so I kicked her over from a near standstill. Fences 3 and 4 were related-distance logs, with #4 a fairly skinny log. By this time Clover was in full suck back mode, and was tuning out my leg and even the bat, so I resorted to my voice to get her over.
We squeezed over the logs and headed to #5, a max table-like bench. The approach was an s-curve through the woods. Again Clover sucked back, and I kicked over over it, scrambling, good thingwe had new sturdy galloping boots. More woods, then up a slight incline to fence 6, logs with birch rail on top, slight sucking back, but I shouted her over it. I was pissed by this time. What happened to the willing x-c machine I had at Kingsbury and Senator Bell? Sure, we were on Clover's first Novice course, but nothing we had jumped to this point was much harder than the Beginner Novice we had been doing. Not only that, but we'd schooled much of UNH's Novice course, and had even schooled a couple of Training fences at Ledyard.
(Excuse Mode on) We headed down the Beginner Novice drop en route to the ditch. Let me tell you something about this ditch--it's widish and skinny, and frankly, it's more like a coffin. Clover has successfully schooled the Training ditch at UNH, and the Novice ditch at Ledyard. The forces of nature were against us that day, I had a suck-back horse, and when she spotted the fence judges, who had arranged themselves just across from the ditch, she backed off enough to see into the ditch and stopped (end Excuse Mode). It took me 4 times to finally get her over. I knew we were eliminated, but was able to continue on, as Applehurst is a schooling event and allow riders to continue on--so long as they're not a danger.
Directly after the ditch was a small water wade-in-jump-out framed by cat tails. The approach from the ditch was an angled 4 or 5 strides, it was hard to get a straight approach into the water. I missed it the first time, and we ran out past it to the left (of course). I wheeled Clover around, and stuffed her through the water, and went hell-for-leather through the rest of the course. It went fairly uneventfully from there; other than I chased Clover through the rest of it. We cleared everything successfully, even the extra Beginner Novice fences on my course. We did take a much shorter approach to our drop, and jumped it at more of an angle than I had planned. My trainer said that she heard me tell Clover, "Not this way, that way!" as I steered Clover back into the woods after the drop.
We jumped over the Beginner Novice stone wall to get back into the last field, jumped the max coop with only the slightest of suck-back action, and I chased Clover down the hill to the final fence, a small bench festooned with pumpkins, and through the finish. I jumped off, gasping, and said that we got E-ed at the ditch. Then I realized that everyone was looking at me kind of horrified, even Tony. In the heat of the moment, and in my desperation to get Clover over all the fences, I had really yelled, loudly and a lot. And used the bat too much--you're only allowed 3 swats with the bat at each obstacle, but at the sticky ones at the beginning of the course I had popped her 4 or 5 times, and then once more after landing, to reinforce that I wanted Clover thinking and going forward. It was a bad show on my part, but it was either that or take all the refusals and stops. If it happens again. I'm not going to force Clover over anymore. If she really doesn't want to jump, then I'm not going to make her, I'll retire and figure something out.
I decided that Clover and I had enough for the day--I could have taken a courtesy stadium round, but decided not to. I know we would have gotten over it. I let the steward know that I was excusing myself, and headed over to the secretary's booth to turn in my pinny and get my dressage test. I picked up the test, and my ribbon for dressage, and the TD nabbed me for a little chat about my yelling on x-c. I took my lumps, apologized, thanked the TD and sauntered away feeling miserable. Boy, was I an ass.
I just don't understand why Clover has been so inconsistent on x-c. Sometimes it seems like she loves to be out galloping, and really pulls to the fences and eats them up. Other times, she's reluctant, behind the leg, and herd-bound. There is no pattern to the balkiness; all her tack fits, she gets acupunctured and chiropracted, her teeth floated twice a year, and there is no injury or pain that she is showing. My trainer suggested that it could be an estrous-related issue--or lack thereof. When we thought about it, we hadn't really seen Clover come into heat this season, not that she was ever a demonstrative mare. We decided to try her on Regumate to see if that didn't help make her more comfortable--if indeed Clover is not consistent for that reason.
Otherwise, I don't know. More mileage, and if experience doesn't do the trick, then I'll retire her from horse trials and consider our options ... dressage? Western pleasure (heh)? At this point, I'm not even considering bringing her through to Training--I'll let her get bored at BN, and then test the Novice waters--if I think she is willing. Of course, that being said, we have BN at Kingsbury Hill in a couple of weeks, and an entry in for UNH at Restricted Novice. Like I said, though, I'm NOT going to force Clover to do anything she is that unwilling to do. She's too good of a horse to sour that way.
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