Whilst I wish it had not happened to my horse and it has been a really hard journey at times I have learned so so much about my horse and rehabilitation during the last couple of years. It's a constant learning curve and I by no means think I know it all now, far from it, but I have learnt one really really valuable lesson and that is to listen to my horse, he is not a horrible horse that just doesn't want to be ridden, he is a willing horse given time, patience, the right tools to do the job he is being asked and correct riding.
So with how well he has been going at home I decided it was time to enter a competition again. My friend had asked me to ride her horse in a combined training competition at a college not too far from me so I though I might as well take Jack along too!
I entered the intro A and 60cm SJ on Jay and Prelim 12 and 70cm SJ on Jack, Jay is very inexperienced and spooky so wanted to keep things simple for him while Jack found 60cm very easy last time out and has been jumping comfortably at upto 1m at home so I felt a step up to 70cm would be well within his capabilities as would a prelim test.
In the week before the competition Jack was going really well and I was extremely pleased with both his flat work and his jumping so I was hopeful for a good competition on him. It took me ages to get him cleaned up, everytime he changes his coat he gets lighter and lighter, the horse I brought 5 years ago was almost black and easy to keep clean, he is now almost white and always looks filthy!!
I was a little concerned when I got our times through on the Friday before the comp as I only had 20minutes between jumping Jay and dressaging on Jack! I usually warm Jack up for a good 30minutes before I pick him up and push him together too much and was worried only 20minutes warm up would not give me time to get him working at his best. I contacted the organiser and she told me not to worry as it was her mistake and to just jump Jay and do my dressage on Jack whenever we were ready - phew!
So Saturday was spent scrubbing and cleaning ponies and tack ready for Sundays competition.
Sunday was an early start with my dressage on Jay at 9.20am so I was down at the farm for 6.30am to get Jack plaited, loaded and on the road for 7.30am. As always seems to be the way there was drama to be had before we got underway!! Firstly I had not anticipated the freezing conditions and found the trailer hitched frozen solid when I arrived so had to run back and forth to the toilet getting luke warm water (that is the best we get!) to try to defrost it! After 3 goes the lock came open and I was ready to hitch up when I noticed my hand brake handle was bent double! My trailer is the last in the line before the work vans and we can only imagine one of the vans had hit it when they were parking and bent it. Luckily the hand brake still worked and the brakes had not seized on so it cant have been like it long. There was not other damage so with stress levels elevated I finally got hitched up and could start getting Jack ready! I quickly plaited him up and removed the stable stains as best I could, threw on a light rug and loaded him up. Thanks to our recent loading practice he went straight on - yay! And we were underway!
The journey was uneventful and we arrived as planned at about 8.30am, stress levels now reduced to slightly more normal! I had a quick look around to find out where the dressage and jumping warm up and arenas where and then left Lucy to tack up Jay while I walked the show jumping course. It was a nice course with plenty of space, no tight or tricky lines and I was confident it would not pose too may problems.
I got on Jay and warmed him up in the indoor with a couple of other horses, he was on his toes but well behaved and warmed up nicely, when we went through to do our test he had few little spooks but nothing major and not bad at all considering he had never been indoors before! We trotted round a couple of times and he settled well then the horn went and we were in trotting down the centre line towards the judges car, he performed a beautiful test, the rhythm was consistent, contact consistent and we did everything where it was meant to be done, I was thrilled with him and knew it was a good test. Fortuantely the judge agreed and we went into to lead. I then quickly tacked up Jack and then took Jay down to the jumping arena. Going into the jumping I found out we had maintained the lead and were 4 faults in front of 2nd place! Jay warmed up well over the practice fences and we were 2nd to jump. The first horse and rider went in and I took Jay over to the gate ready to go in next, just as the horse refused the first fence depositing it rider who had taken its bridle off in the fall in the middle of the jump and sending poles flying, it took a good while to get the rider who was fortunately unhurt back on her feet, catch the loose bridleless horse and rebuild the fence. fortunately I'm not a nervous rider but the poor girl after me was having kittens!
I took Jay in and Lucy his owner had warned me to show him the brush as he had been eliminated at that the previous week with another rider so while I waited for the bell I walked him up to the brush which he seem less than bother by, the bell went and we were off and cantering towards the first jump, Jay spooked left and right stopped and leapt over throwing me out the saddle but we stayed together and made it to the otherside with all the poles still up, he was still spooking at fence 2 and I had to ride him quite hard to get him over, we were also heading towards the collecting ring for fence 3 right by the gate, on landing Jay took off towards the other horses and I lost control going flat out straight past fence 3 and had to circle back but he cleared it nicely at the 2nd attempt, he then settled and I managed to maintain the control a little better for the rest of the round, unfortunately speed was a bit of an issue and we knocked 2 fences down, both the 2nd parts of a double where he just got too fast and flat to the 2nd part. A real shame as this dropped us from 1st to 6th but a lot of lessons learnt and we will certainly be changing his bit for jumping in the future as a snaffle is just not strong enough!
I then had to quickly jump on to Jack and warm him up for his Dressage test. I usually warm up for a good 30minutes at home but as I knew I didn't have this long I tested him with a quicker warm up at home the day before and he had been ok with it so I was feeling fairly confident. He was slightly behind my leg and a little spooky but all in all going ok and before I knew it it was time for us to go in. I was a little disappointed with the test as he wasn't going nearly as well as I know he can do, he was very behind my leg in the trot and on his forehand, the canter was ok and the walk good, I was actually surprised to find we had managed a score of 30! I had been expecting at least a 35! Obviously it didn't look as bad as it felt but how exciting that he can score 70% when he not going well, just think what he could manage if he performs as well in the arena as at home!
So feeling very please and in joint 3rd place we went on to the jumping and well Jack just excelled himself! He cantered round in a beautiful rhythm and cleared everything with ease with his ears pricked and a smile on both our faces! I was absolutely thrilled with him, he met every jump on a good stride and he didn't look, spook or falter at anything. As the leaders also jumped clear we maintained 3rd place yay! Ok it was only a 70cm class but the turn around in his attitude and ability is beyond belief, he would never have been able to do this before his operation and it has taken a while to build his confidence back up but wow the round made everything worth while!
I'm so excited as I know he has so much more to give now and he is actually happy and enjoying himself!
Next up we have a weekend camp at the end of the month where I hope to build his confidence to the same levels over xc fences and then hoping to do a hunter trial or unaffiliated ODE in May if all is going well.
Eeek so much to look forward to with my super boy :)
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