Weekend fun

Our last 2 weekends have been all about having fun and training. After Brigadoon we have 3 weeks until the next event, so I am using the time to fix the little issues that come up.

Spring bok!

Unfortunately my coach has been in demand around the country so I haven't had much opportunity for lessons. Instead we have had a show jumping comp, a dressage training day and cross country training with some friends.

The show jumping day was last weekend at a club close to home. Dakota had a round at 65, and one at 75. Coolie was going to do his first competitive 105 round. I dropped the horses off and went to pick up Super Groom (SG) and her horse. They were doing dressage at the same comp.

Dakota over the only 80 fence that I was concerned about... Shouldn't have worried

We wait around for ages and then tacked Dakota up to discover she had a loose shoe. I tried warming her up, but the shoe mostly came off. So I scratched her, vet wrapped her hoof so the shoe didn't move, and took her home to take the shoe off (I needed pliers!).

Trakhaners are easy

I drove back to the show in time to see SG ride her first test. Her horse Leo was not playing ball and bucked his way through it. Luckily she stayed on but decided to call it a day. So far no one was having much success!

I got Coolie ready for his rounds and watched the end of the previous class. I couldn't help thinking that the jumps were rather large... it was only supposed to be 80! The course went up and the judge decided she would make a few changes. When it was open, I walked the course and couldn't help notice that there was at least once fence at 110cm! Umm, I though this was 95... oh dear! There were a few interesting lines as well, so I was not feeling great about it at all.

Dakota kept wanting to jump this 95 fence

We went in and popped the first few fences. I then got lost between 3 and 4, and had 4 down. He popped the rest of the course nicely and was feeling pretty good. We waited for our second 95 round, which was shocking! I didn't ride enough and resulted in a number of rails. After that I called it a day, thinking that we didn't need to do 105, the course we had just jumped was about that height.

We were all a bit disappointed with the day, nothing going quite to plan. But that's horses for you.

This weekend we went to dressage training day held by my local pony club. We were meeting SG there along with a couple of other friends. OH had a sleep in and met us there too!

Dakota was tense in her test, cantering on the centre line and in her relaxed trot circle. I was a bit let down, we have been working very hard in these things. The mark we got was not encouraging either!

Dakota nailing 95

Coolie's test was much nicer, if a little strong. He didn't get his best mark but he kept it together with less tension.

105 part a

Sunday was XC training! We were very lucky and had a lovely fine morning. We met 2 friends at Brigadoon and we all had a wonderful morning, conquering a few things. Coolie and I jumped our first 105 XC combination, and Dakota was super, even tackling some 95 fences! I was on cloud 9, and it made up for the crappy dressage day!

105 part b

Dryandra CNC is in 2 weeks, so we are really focusing on dressage for both the horses. They have both competed there before so I am hoping for more relaxation. Following that, Coolie gets a mini break while I focus on upgrading Dakota to 80! After the weekend I think she is more than ready for it.