The venue was Brooksby college which is about an hour away with the trailer and we were to arrive at around 3.30pm to be ready to ride at 5pm.
I spent the morning getting everything ready and making sure my other half and little boy would be ok while I was gone! (I did come home at nights!)
At lunchtime I went and got Jack in from the field, filled the boot of the car with all our gear and hitched up the trailer. With everything ready I loaded him up and he went onto the trailer with only the slightest of hesitation. Slightly later than planned we got underway. We did get a bit suck in some bank holiday weekend traffic which slowed us further and we didn't arrive at the college until after 4pm. Fortunately Jack wasn't too bother about the delays and had travelled well. He was nice and calm when I unloaded him and then left him to go and find out where we needed to go. I was greeted by the lovely staff and shown to our stable for the weekend, given a quick tour and left to settle in and unload all our stuff. Despite being a little late we were not the last to arrive which made me feel better!
We were given a choice for the Friday evening ride, we could go for a hack, take part in the show jumping competition they were running or school in the indoor arena. As I thought we would be doing enough jumping and schooling thoughout the weekend I decided to hack out with 2 other campers and an instructor. It was a lovely, relaxed ride and chance to get to know a couple of my fellow campers as well as the instructor who took us. Jack was well behaved and we enjoyed the ride and having a chat about our horses and aims for the weekend. The other ladies were great company and we had lots of giggles.
Back at the yard we settled the horses down and then headed up to the canteen for dinner, drinks, to organise groups for the weekend and have a quiz!
Dinner was delicious and gave me a chance to meet the rest of the group some of whom had been jumping and others not ridden that evening. It was a really mixed group but already very supportive. Everyone else had come with friends so I was the only person without a mate but everyone was very friendly and made me feel very welcome! The staff had provisionally organised groups based on the information we had provided in our application forms however as others wanted to stay together with friends the groups were moved around, as I didn't know anyone or their level of ability I really had no preference and was happy to just fit in wherever they may put me!
I ended up in a group with only 2 others and thought that would be good as a nice small group would mean more attention from the instructors! We were then given the schedule for the weekend and saw that I would be SJ Sat morning, XC Sat afternoon and Dressage Sunday morning followed by Dressage and SJ competition Sunday afternoon. There was also a feed and weigh in session on the Sat and plating/trimming demo plus a demo from a local eventer in the evening on jumping young horses. On the Sunday there was also an Equi pilates session. I was looking forward to all of it!
We finished Friday with a fun quiz on our groups and then final check of the horses before I finally left for home at 10pm! I was home about 10.40pm and pretty much straight to bed as I would need to be up a 6am and on the road before 7am to be back to start yard duties at 7.30am!! Almost everyone else was staying over in their lorries except me!
I arrived at the yard the bright and early the next morning having not had much sleep thanks to drinking too much tea and my little boy being up very early! I fed and mucked out Jack who was chilled and happy in his stable and then headed for a delicious breakfast of bacon cob, toast, cereal and more tea! We had until 10am to get ready for our first riding sessions.
I tacked Jack up ready for jumping and headed out to the large outdoor school with a full set of show jumps set up at a decent height, I was relived to discover this had been left by an eventer who had been for some practice early that morning and the fences where soon dropped to a more manageable height!
We were joined by a lady who was just coming for the day so there were 4 of us for our showjumping session. I explained to the instructor that Jack had had kissing spines and I had to warm up very long and loose etc. so she didn't wonder what on earth I was doing as I pottered about not looking very much like I was about to jump! Jack was wonderfully relaxed and nice and soft over his back whilst forward and listening. He warmed up well and we were soon able to start popping the warm up fence. We then went on to jumping some individual fences from around the course and then stringing a few together, there was a bit of everything to jump including doubles, related distances and dog legs as well as planks, plenty of fillers and brushes. Throughout the session Jack jumped and behaved beautifully and I was absolutely thrilled with him, the instructor really liked him and the only thing she picked up for me to work on was my contact which I know is still a bit loose and could do with being stronger to help him out more. I just hate picking him up to much as I like him to be nice and free to jump considering what he has been through but she is right there is nothing wrong with him now and it would help to have him more pushed up and together.
At the end of the session we jumped a course and I waited until last so she could put the jumps up for me to a decent 80cm course. Jack jumped perfectly clearing everything and maintaining a lovely rhythm throughout. I couldn't have asked for more and after an hour and a half of jumping he had not touched a pole. What a fantastic ponio!
He was cooled off and put to bed for a bit while we had lunch and then took him up to the rehab barn to be weighed and assessed by a nutrition expert from Dodson and Horrell. He was 522kgs and had a body score of 3.5 his ideal weight is 500kgs and a body score of 3 so he is slightly over but nothing too bad considering it is spring and the grass is so good. She suggested I continue to bring him in during the day, feed soaked hay and muzzle at night and he should be able to loose that few extra pounds!
Next up we had a demo on plating up and a chance to have a little practice before our group got tacked up and ready for XC schooling in the afternoon.
I put Jack in his gag as he can be strong XC and breast plate and martingale for extra control and something to grab! Someone had mentioned there were sheep but I wasn't expecting them to be in the actual XC field! As we got down to the field the sheep were everywhere even on top of some of the jumps and Jack immediately slammed on the brakes and went to high tail it out of there! Luckily the other 2 horses were much less bothered and we followed them down feeling like a fire breathing monster prancing and snorting, spinning with ears stuck up my nose and tail in the air. The instructor herded the sheep away down 1 end away from us and out of sight. I had been worried Jack wouldn't have the energy for xc after a long show jumping lesson in the morning but I soon realised if anything I had the opposite problem and was glad I hadn't tried to take him xc any fresher! He was lively to say the least! We leapt, bronced and spun our way throughout the warm up and I was grateful to still be on board after the first canter!! I wasn't sure about jumping I will be honest! We started by just walking through the water, Jack went straight in and paddled through like a pro so we went on to trotting and even cantering through, he was still messing about a bit in between but actually going through the water he was spot on. Now it was time to pop the tiny x pole practice fence I had planned a nice steady trot into it however Jack had other plans and so instead we leapt about a bit, turned for the jump, galloped flat out at it, jumped easily and then bronced on landing with head between knees! Somehow we did not part company and I managed to get a hold of him and get his head up and send him on before he could send me into orbit. The next few jumps were spent trying to keep his head up on landing and maintaining the forward momentum. Thankfully things did improve!
We went on to jumping a small log then several rails, roll tops and logs. The jumping was actually very good and other than 1 refusal at a roll top which I think was more a sheep issue then a jump issue he jumped everything 1st time. He was still misbehaving between fences quite a lot and the stopping and starting wasn't really suiting him! It was a shame we were the most experienced pair as if I had had another to jump with I might have jumped a bit more but as it was we did enough and finished on a good note jumping a little course without any stopping to leap or Bronc so a good note to end. Even after 3 hrs of jumping Jack was still full of himself on the way back and still pulled all the way home! He was fitter than I thought!
Back at the stables I washed him off and left him to chill while I had a well deserved cuppa!
After dinner we had a demo on introducing young horses to jumping by a local eventer jo shields, she had brought along 2 gorgeous horses both young but at different stages of training and very different characters. It was very interesting to watch her working them, how she dealt with each issue and broke things down to make it easier for the horse to understand what it's meant to do. It was a very useful demo and although Jacks not a young horse it gave me some ideas to try with him.
It was finished at 8.30pm so I was home much earlier and into bed ready for another early start!
Morning routine was the same Sunday and Jack was sorted and fed by 8.30am then it was riders breakfast time before getting ready for riding at 10am during breakfast we were asked what dressage test we wanted to ride and what height to jump in the competition that afternoon, I chose the Novice test and 75cm jumping. It was my groups turn for a dressage lesson, we had an hour and a half group lesson with 1 instructor while another instructor took us off individually for approx. 30min 121 lessons. In the group lesson we worked on transitions and I had my 121 lesson last so we had already done an hours work by the time I went in! Jack was still feeling good and as we had a novice test to ride in the afternoon as asked for us to work on lightening the forehand our medium trots as I felt that would be our weakest movement. The lesson was fantastic and I really felt Jack sitting more and much more uphill than usual. The mediums also improved greatly and I was really pleased, they had much more power and balance and the instructor said he was really flicking his toes, we also received some lovely comments from fellow campers that had come to watch :) good work Jack!
There are 2 main things I need to work on, a shorter contact and me looking up, both of which will improve our general way of going. I am being a bit too nice to Jack and not riding with a short enough rein contact and I have developed a bad habit of looking down! The result of only a hand full of lessons in the last few years!
During lunch we were given our times for our dressage tests and show jumping rounds in the afternoon and time to try to memorise our tests although we were allowed a caller. It was Novice 27 and quite an easy one to remember but I did ask for a caller just in case!
I had a while before needing to warm up for my test and as he had worked really hard all weekend I didn't want to do too much before hand and ruin all our hard work so I decided a 25min gentle warm up would be plenty. I took my time getting ready and then headed for the warm up to find they were running a bit late so just had a walk round on a long rein so a while. Jack was nice and relaxed in the warm up and when I picked him up and rode him into the contact he picked up where had left off in our mornings lesson much more forward and up into the contact and he felt lovely. This continued into our test and I was thrilled with him, the test flowed and we did everything in the right place the mediums felt powerful and we managed to maintain the quality in the transition back to working paces, all in all a good test. I felt I had probably not picked up the contact enough after the free walk and so maybe thrown away a few marks there but in general I was very pleased with how it had gone and how well Jack felt, he was just trying his best for me the whole way what more could I ask for!
Onto the jumping as we only had a about 20minutes to wait so I headed straight for the outside arena to see where they were in the running order and quickly walk the course then it was time to get back on for the last time. I only popped a couple of warm up fences not wanting to over do it and then went straight in to jump. I'm so annoyed with myself about the first fence as I rode it like a sack on spuds and delivered Jack on an impossible stride, he tried his best to jump it but unfortunately we had the top rail off. It gave us both a wake up call and we flew around the rest of the course clearing everything with ease and really enjoying ourselves.
I put Jack away and left him to chill while I packed the car and hitched up the trailer then it was time to go and get our results where I was thrilled to find out we had won!! What a great way to end a fabulous and fun weekend :) I've made some great friends and had a wonderful time, I will definitely be doing it again and highly recommend it to anyone, we've come away having built confidence and learnt loads.
Back at home I have been working on riding in open fields without Jack getting so excited! We've been galloping across some of the open field on the farm and I even took Jack for a paddle in the river on our own and he went in first time no hesitation at all. I never thought I'd see the day after some of the battles I've had getting him into water in the past! It just goes to show how far we have come and how much happier and more trust we have in each other
A few pics of camp
