Monday, August 20, 2007
hey guys!!
So..... this is totally a giant brag, but..... fleck is just a ROCKSTAR!!! he was totally awesome this weekend. i'm sooooo proud of him.
anyways.... we got 3rd out of 9 in our first training CT. he was fantastic. 35.5 in dressage despite the slipping and tripping (to the point of the judge telling me... like i didn't notice that he was tripping.....??) and went clean in stadium. then we schooled later that day at jumping branch. mostly technical stuff as opposed to just height. and...he is such a smarty pants!!!! We did a big rampy ramp and he took it in stride. then we went to a very odd fake looking almost log pile type jump. that was a skinny...in the woods. and he galloped on up to it, saw 2 strides out that it was gonna be a really tight spot, shortened his stride and carried me over safely. and i thought he was backing off so i clucked. good thing he's so smart. course he took off at a all out gallop afterwards and probably would have cleared the picture frame jump without a thought, but i finally got him pulled up. then we did a line with three jumps and the middle one was a ditch. totally just galloped on through. YAY! then we did a downhill skinny coop to a trakenher..again, just took me right on over! oh, and before that.... we had some issues... mine mostly. we did a log on a downhill and i could do that. then we did a drop but it had a log on it, so you had to jump the drop.... which was fine...except every time he landed, i'd sit up and he'd take off bucking and galloping. silly goober! so after the 4th try i didn't sit on him until about 10 strides out...at which point he decided that that warrants another bucking spree and an all out holycrudholdonforyourlife gallop down the lane. did i mention it was hotter than heck and he'd already done a CT that day?! lovin' the seminole feed!
So..... this is totally a giant brag, but..... fleck is just a ROCKSTAR!!! he was totally awesome this weekend. i'm sooooo proud of him.
anyways.... we got 3rd out of 9 in our first training CT. he was fantastic. 35.5 in dressage despite the slipping and tripping (to the point of the judge telling me... like i didn't notice that he was tripping.....??) and went clean in stadium. then we schooled later that day at jumping branch. mostly technical stuff as opposed to just height. and...he is such a smarty pants!!!! We did a big rampy ramp and he took it in stride. then we went to a very odd fake looking almost log pile type jump. that was a skinny...in the woods. and he galloped on up to it, saw 2 strides out that it was gonna be a really tight spot, shortened his stride and carried me over safely. and i thought he was backing off so i clucked. good thing he's so smart. course he took off at a all out gallop afterwards and probably would have cleared the picture frame jump without a thought, but i finally got him pulled up. then we did a line with three jumps and the middle one was a ditch. totally just galloped on through. YAY! then we did a downhill skinny coop to a trakenher..again, just took me right on over! oh, and before that.... we had some issues... mine mostly. we did a log on a downhill and i could do that. then we did a drop but it had a log on it, so you had to jump the drop.... which was fine...except every time he landed, i'd sit up and he'd take off bucking and galloping. silly goober! so after the 4th try i didn't sit on him until about 10 strides out...at which point he decided that that warrants another bucking spree and an all out holycrudholdonforyourlife gallop down the lane. did i mention it was hotter than heck and he'd already done a CT that day?! lovin' the seminole feed!
but anyways... so we did the easy one again and quit with that. but... i also should mention that i was grabbing my ohcrud bar (the reason i can justify the breastplate!!!) all 5 times and not once did he try to run out...cause i had no reins really.... even with me smacking down on his back. such a saint! then we did the water. which....confused us both. it's supposed to be a jump in, up bank out to a two stride big table thing. well...the jump in part...is more like two poles with grass in between (on the ground). fleck couldn't figure out if he was supposed to walk through it or jump it...so he waumped it! hee hee. but it was fine. he did it. then we did this awesome complex! it's a bank heaven! we did a log, bent line to an up bank, one stride to a hanging log. no sweat! then we did the prelim one... and up bank, one stride to a ditch (basically you jumped from the square of up banks to another square of up banks) and a two stride to a skinny. well..... fleck was pretty tired by this point, as was i, so we did it, but couldn't quite manage to get a one stride before the ditch, we did it in two. which meant that we just couldn't make the two strides to the skinny, nor could we fit in three. so we ended up just not doing the skinny part. he was trying and it just...he wasn't equipped to be doing that yet. but he tried. so it was a great day overall!!! no pics of that day.
the next day we did full gallop. which was also fun! we started easy and it was sooo much easier to jump out of stride and not feel insecure in my galloping seat. as opposed to my sitting dressage seat! oops. but so then we went to the bank complex. holy crud!! the intermediate question was horrifying!!! it was a hanging log about 3 feet in the air but it was a jump OFF the bank..which was already a good 3 feet. very scary. and it was right next to my bank drop down. so of course...fleck always going left...we jump up the bank, do the one stride and instead of going straight and down the other side... we end up going left...well, fleck does. i go straight, but luckily i manage to stay in the air until AFTER the bank slopey thing and land on my knees and sorta water skiied for a step or two. Fleck toko off, but then came trotting right back. poor guy. so we did it again and this time i had my left leg on him and wow..he went straight! and then we jumped a jump two or three strides after. then we went to the ditches. then we did an up bank, one stride to a coop, then we did a down hill log pile to a drop bank. then we went to the water! and this is where i got pics! we jumped a log heading into the water...no big deal. then we jumped down the bank into the water but there was a small log on the end. then we jumped the little rolltop into the water. which was really hard for me. i finally got him to not launch off like a lab and now i'm asking him to jump! so it was hard for me to figure out how to ride it. so then... i got brave and tried the big roll top. which was after a jump but i didn't manage to put it all together. i think i would have, but... we ended so well i just quit with it. so we did have a refusal at the big roll top, of which i lost my crop over the edge. hee hee. but not me! so yeah...we finally got it and i think he was enjoying himself!
it was just a very fun weekend and fleck's such an honest horse! he totally was willing to go to anything i set him to, .....as long as i was committed. he could feel it if i wasn't and was like....well,.... guess not then! but man... when i rode like i was supposed to, he was awesome!!! we had so much fun!
so i'm feeling pretty good about AEC's! atleast for now ;)
yay!!!!
holly
anyways...here are pics..
this was the group of us cooling off and letting them drink. i met cindy and katie and lindsay this weekend and they were all fantastic! Cindy has more guts than anyone i know!!! She jumped this huge scary like Rolex type jump!!! and was AWESOME! and katie rode great. and Liz is fantastic as always! Pie looked great. And lindsay did a fantastic job driving that golfcart and taking pics and video. she's sooo sweet.
the next day we did full gallop. which was also fun! we started easy and it was sooo much easier to jump out of stride and not feel insecure in my galloping seat. as opposed to my sitting dressage seat! oops. but so then we went to the bank complex. holy crud!! the intermediate question was horrifying!!! it was a hanging log about 3 feet in the air but it was a jump OFF the bank..which was already a good 3 feet. very scary. and it was right next to my bank drop down. so of course...fleck always going left...we jump up the bank, do the one stride and instead of going straight and down the other side... we end up going left...well, fleck does. i go straight, but luckily i manage to stay in the air until AFTER the bank slopey thing and land on my knees and sorta water skiied for a step or two. Fleck toko off, but then came trotting right back. poor guy. so we did it again and this time i had my left leg on him and wow..he went straight! and then we jumped a jump two or three strides after. then we went to the ditches. then we did an up bank, one stride to a coop, then we did a down hill log pile to a drop bank. then we went to the water! and this is where i got pics! we jumped a log heading into the water...no big deal. then we jumped down the bank into the water but there was a small log on the end. then we jumped the little rolltop into the water. which was really hard for me. i finally got him to not launch off like a lab and now i'm asking him to jump! so it was hard for me to figure out how to ride it. so then... i got brave and tried the big roll top. which was after a jump but i didn't manage to put it all together. i think i would have, but... we ended so well i just quit with it. so we did have a refusal at the big roll top, of which i lost my crop over the edge. hee hee. but not me! so yeah...we finally got it and i think he was enjoying himself!
it was just a very fun weekend and fleck's such an honest horse! he totally was willing to go to anything i set him to, .....as long as i was committed. he could feel it if i wasn't and was like....well,.... guess not then! but man... when i rode like i was supposed to, he was awesome!!! we had so much fun!
so i'm feeling pretty good about AEC's! atleast for now ;)
yay!!!!
holly
anyways...here are pics..
this was the group of us cooling off and letting them drink. i met cindy and katie and lindsay this weekend and they were all fantastic! Cindy has more guts than anyone i know!!! She jumped this huge scary like Rolex type jump!!! and was AWESOME! and katie rode great. and Liz is fantastic as always! Pie looked great. And lindsay did a fantastic job driving that golfcart and taking pics and video. she's sooo sweet.
this was the jumping into the water jump that scared me a bit. not quite as scary as the bigger one!!
and our ribbon from the CT!! So proud!
and this was the big scary one for us!!! i almost didn't do it, but... finally did...go fleckers!!
anyways... so i'm totally feeling good about AEC's... i never did quite get this one perfect, and i finished on a smaller one. But i wanted to go back and do more! so that's a good sign. i just didn't want to push my already fantastic horse too hard. he'd done alot that weekend.
anyways.....WAHOO!!!!
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