He had a few days off last week as I went away for a long weekend. The day before I went I jumped him, I set up some technical but small fences to get him thinking. One exercise was 2 fences 1 at E and the other at B I started by jumping each individually then linking the 2 together before jumping them on a 20m circle on each rein. I also set up 3 skinnies 1 on the centre line and 2 on diagonals so I could jump them a variety of ways and Jack didn't disappoint jumping everything easily.
As the weather has been pretty hot again since I came back we've been down to the river a couple of times, schooled and lunged. He's been fab so I decided to take him jumping at a local venue in a trailblazers 1st round. I've never done trailblazers before so I didn't really know what to expect! The show jumping wasn't due to start til after 12pm and I was entering the 4th class so wasn't expecting to need to be there early meaning I could get him ready in the morning. Having bathed and plaited and tidied him up a bit I managed to load him with not too much messing about and then we were on our way.
I was on my own and had not been to the venue before so I managed to miss the turning and have to perform and u turn in a gateway with a trailer!! Not the best start! I was feeling a little frazzled by the time I actually got there then I found myself having to reverse down the drive as I met another trailer coming out!! I'm getting the hang of reversing now though and actually it wasn't too bad!
Once parked I opened up the trailer but left Jack on board where he was safer while I had to leave him to go and pay my entries and work out where I was, what class they were on etc.
I was please to find there was not a huge amount of entries and so I quickly paid and went off to get Jack tacked up. He was happily munching away on his hay chilled as you like! Having tacked him up I hopped on and went down to the main ring to check how they were progressing, still 2 classes to go so I stood and watched a few jump to learn the course.
When it came to walking the course there was no one around to hold Jack for me, so having watched several jump I decided what the hell, I know the course I'll just go for it! I then wandered up to the warm up ring and gave Jack a nice long walk around to relax and loosen off. He was a little uptight about a small pony that was whizzing round and some people walking down the other side of the hedge but he soon settled and felt relaxed.
I gave him and walk, trot, canter and jump and was really pleased with how he was attacking the fences and taking long ones instead of his past trick of chipping one in! I then went back to see how close they were off starting my class. It was still a few to go then the course would be put up and another chance to walk it so I took him for another wander round and kept thinking maybe I should go back and walk the course!
I knew I was 8th to jump so once they restarted my class I jumped him another couple of times over the warm up fences and went down ready to go in. Having listened over the tannoy I knew there had only been 2 double clears when it came to our turn and they had both been quick. It was a 2 phase competition so if you went clear over the first 8 fences you went straight on and jumped the timed jump off section. Jack and I entered the ring ready to give it our best shot and feeling pretty confident but immediately Jack backed off my leg spooking at the banners and poles around the edge of the arena. The bell went and I could not get him to go past a pile of coloured poles on the floor!! Nightmare!! He was having a right mardy about them and was trying to back away and spin from them but I needed to pass them to get to the first fence! It felt like a life time and I was starting the think I was going to be eliminated for taking to long to jump the first fence! I was kicking and using the whip but he was just getting more wound up so I stopped and decided to let him look for a few seconds then tried again and thank god he went passed it and started listening! We turned to the first fence and that was it, we were off. He jumped beautifully making it feel really easy and we were clear over the first part of the course so after fence 8 my competitive side came out, I kicked him on and we flew over the double at 9 and got a tight turn to 10, so far so good! 11 was on a related distance and I had seen it was riding either 5 or 6 strides, obviously I'd not walked it but knowing Jack I knew he would try to get 6 in so I kicked on and went for 5 but he thought otherwise and got the 6 in anyway which slowed us down a bit, it did however mean that I could turn really tight to the final fence and through the finish for a double clear!! YAY!! With a few still to go we were in 2nd place and that is where we stayed :) it also meant we have qualified for the 2nd rounds - good Jack pony!! I'm absolutely thrilled with him!! He felt fantastic and we both came away having another confidence boosting experience and a qualification under our belt to boot! I couldn't really have asked for more except maybe no napping but you can't have everything!!
