Horseheath Cross Country - Lovely day in the sun!

Well Georgie and I have had a lovely weekend in the sun. First thing Saturday we came over to our Parents house to lunge and exercise B. He was a very good boy schooling and listening to Georgies vocal aids while is a real positive, seeing as he used to play silly buggers bucking and squeeling.

The passoa really helps him to engage his behind and use his back and neck. 

Then off we went to go and walk the 3 ft+ cross country course at Horseheath. The course was lovely and well put together. Nice gallops with combinations, hedges and skinnies. 

1- Nice palisade for the first.

2 - Barrels leading into number 3, an open gate in the woods 

4 - Rails packed with foliage

5- Skinny log in the woods

6- Hedge out back into the open field 

7 - Onto a larger hedge

8 - Barrels downhill into a drop at A and B

8 C - a big 3'3" skinny barrels out 

9 A, B and C big tiger trap, to ditch, onto another tiger trap

B - Ditch leading into another tiger trap at  C

10 - A big table top

11 - An open gate

12 - A big zig zag palisade. (Sorry my phone ran out of battery) 

13 A and B - Upright with a brush top onto a Skinny roll top 

14 A,B and C. Two big step ups then onto a skinny flower bed fence 

C - Arrowhead skinny flower bed

15 - 3'6" hedge with a rail and ditch in front 

16 - Corner 

17 A, B and C. 3 chairs. A and B had 1 stride between and between B and C had 2 strides.

18 - Big roll top skinny

19 - Hay trough (Dogs are convenient size comparison)

20 - Brush into the water, splash through and another brush out 

21 - Tiger trap to finish 

The dogs liked walking the course too https://instagram.com/p/1aSLwYQJLn/

Well now you've seen the course. I think it flows well, some big questions and complex triples but B loved it.

We arrived with quite a lot of time to spare, so B and I just chilled while he grazed and Georgie went off to get her number and hat check.
After a quick studding up, Georgie got ready and we tacked Beanie up. 
Safe to say he was very chilled... Ahem, fast asleep. 

But he soon knew his job once Georgie was on. 

It was a busy class with the packed warm up arena. Unfortunately there was an accident on course which did delay the course for quite some time. Georgie jumped off B to take the weight off him and keep him walking to keep his muscles warm.

Once the poor girl has been looked after my paramedics the class commenced again and with just 4 people in front of her Georgie and B got their game faces on!
It's been super windy today so G didn't hear the starter, thinking she had 2 minutes left, but was in fact ready to go! They set off and B was very frisky, annoyingly going a bit side ways but G soon straightened him off and he popped over fence 1 no problem! Off to a good rhythm they popped every single fence, even scary ditches! 
Completing the course in about 4 minutes 15 seconds or so which is a good time, seeing as the ground wasn't as forgiving in places as it should have been.

Sadly we had to leave so still no word on how they did, but fingers crossed as it was a strong clear.

I've had an absolutely lovely weekend outside in the sun doing various horsey activities. More weekends like this please!

Hope you all had a lovely weekend!

Sophie x

Easter Weekend Fun - Ely Eventing Centre First Cross Country of 2015

Back to work after a long weekend off, but least it was a good one filled with lot's of Horsey filled activities.
I got to ride Beanie for a bit on Friday which was awesome, it's feels so funny getting on a big 16.2 thoroughbred after riding 14.2/3 ponies on weekday mornings.. I felt so high up!

I got a day off Saturday, what a rare surprise! So I spent it easter egg hunting with Frankie baking and watching the racing!

Sunday we took a trip up to Hare Park, the home off Suffolk Polo Club, and took Frankie and Beanie for a ride with a friend of Francesca's. Well all did not go to plan during the handy pony course. Note to self, little Shetlands either step over things, or full on launch themselves into the air. Sadly for Frankie and I,  Millie decided that a tractor tyre height was just a bit too big, jumped over it unexpectedly and Frankie bumped her face. Tears ensued. Bar a little bloody lip and some tears she was ok. So after a very lovely Easter Egg hunt, Nina and Frankie went off to play and Georgie and I went for a leisurely stroll. My usual trusty steed Blackbird had already been ridden, but with Jerry's go ahead I jumped on for a walk to show Georgie around.

What a lovely morning we had, but alas we had to be off to walk the cross country course for the following day, so whizzed the horses home put all of our equipment away and off we went to Ely Eventing Centre to walk the 95cm Open course.

                         

There were lot's of challenging fences and questions early on in the course, which was actually pretty twisty turny, without many gallops in. We said it would separate the men from the boys. We had hopes as Beanie had won this class last year, so fingers were crossed.

             Nice skinny to pop over 

             Canter up the hill to this log!

             Tiger trap to drop

                                     Water jump at 8, plus a paddling Frankie

            Lovely roll top a few strides out of the water and onto a skinny log 

   Ride frightening ditch upright palisade 

                 Nice big roll top! 

                     Big step up 

Lovely big expanded water with nice big blue  roll top out

Beer barrels to finish - "Come on darling, there's booze at the finish line - Patsy from Absolutely Fabulous"

We arrived with plenty of time to spare and B was a pleasure to groom and get ready. He was really chilled and seemed to be in a really good place in his head. He grazed and watched the horses warming up across the field 

G got ready and I tacked up B. Don't they both look smart?

                        Trying out Cal Rei's numnah jumping for the first time

Rocking our vintage Joules rugby shirt we bought at Olympia ages about 13/14!

Well, it was not to be G's day. Beanie had a bad experience with a ditch early last year while training and sadly hasn't managed to shake it. Note to self, if a trainer says to take a ditch/rail combination from a stand still after your horse has refused, ignore them! B got stuck half way over and it freaked the poor lad out. It's weird though cause he skips over some ditches no problem, but seems to think there's a horse eating monster in others.

                                            Caution, may contain monsters 

The ditch at fence 3 he jumped over easy peasy, then a slanted palisade then onto another ditch at fence 4 just ten feet or so away. But no - B was having none of it. So we're going to have to readdress this fear and overcome it.

The ground is also really good at Ely due to the peety soil so absolutely no complaints there. It's always really well organised, setting the horses off at a nice even pace, big collecting ring and nice relaxed atmosphere. If you haven't competed there before, i'd really recommend you do. Tina does a great job organising it.

Look up @twittaeventing or #twittereventing on Twitter and Facebook, they always have all the lowdown on up and coming events or @Lt_Downham_Int on twitter. 

Despite that B flew round the rest of the course, including a rider frightener big ditch palisade and another ditch with no problems. Here is a video of my footage

Overall we had a lovely day, but at least it gives us something to work on and keep trying at. Hopefully this coming weekend at Horseheath will prove a more successful endeavour 

Hopefully see some of you there! 

ROR - Historical Giant at Burghley for CUDH meet

All these amazing photos are taken by Sam Pawley Photography