And we're off....

We made a welcome return to SJ lessons last week. I had gotten out of jumping with Fred, as between my nerves and our mutual lack of confidence, it had become a bit of 'dinner and a show' as Caroline would say.

But this year I'm determined to get our groove back. I would really like to do a One Day Event with the two of them, and Fred has 2 disciplines down ( dressage & XC) and CC has the two jumping ones down.

So on Wednesday evening, I rushed home excited, ran out, brought them in for grub, got changed, threw on the horsebox and locked 'n loaded them. We went over to Creagh Equestrian Centre for a jump lesson I'd organised with a few friends.

I just did flatwork with CC before my lesson, he's going nicely in sitting trot, so I think I'll try that for our test on Sunday.
Then it was time for Sir Fred.
It was a lesson of highs and lows...and the lows were 'eat dirt' kinda lows 😂 We started off nice and easy with a small cross pole. But Fred does not know how to approach small jumps, he doesn't know how much effort to put in and basically puts in SFA or gets in really deep and pops them awkwardly.
We then moved on to 3 jumps. And Fred got confused when I asked him to jump a little early and decided to not jump at all and go through the jump and literally eat dirt...I was soo lucky he's got a long neck and I just ate mane (see Serena this is why you want a mane!!). BUT. .....it got better. We worked on one jump a few times with some placing poles and he got more confident and then we jumped the course and he did great. He was breathing like a fat 10.2 pony and sweating up loads, but that was all stress. He wasn't that bad after 2 hours of XC!! I was delighted with him though.

On Saturday, I brought them over to Creagh EC again. My friend Lynn was trying out a horse and wanted my help with him. He's a lovely chestnut gelding and he's a little sweetie. I think they have a great future ahead of them.
I rode both of my two outside, but I was lacking in energy - stupid cold still has me wiped. So I gave Fred a decent workout and CC got a quick run through. He was great considering there was a muck spreader two fields over, in a field with a thoroughbred who kept galloping away from it in fright and CC wondering why can't I run?!

Sunday was D day. First comp of the year. I went over in the morning to help Lynn with Ricki and Emma and Star. They both did super and placed in their grades!
I went home and cleaned up the boys as much as I could. I had to take a break between the two to sit down and gain some energy. Screw you cold, screw you.....
They were running behind with the dressage by the time I got over. So that gave me time to get myself together a bit. Fred was up first. It's a tough decision on who to ride first. Fred is always goign to do better, so should get the better warm up. But CC needs a longer warm up to get him to cooperate accordingly....I didn't kill him out enough on Saturday so I reckoned I had some fun on my hands, and wanted to start off easy rather than use all my energy on him.
Fred got a fairly quick warm up because I was feeling meh....we had a few horses ahead of us, so we waited about 20 mins or so to go in. I had hoped to do sitting trot with him in my tests, but I didn't have the energy so we went with normal. And he was a little star bar for me. He was such a joy. Big pats and carrots for Fred.


Then it was Cu Chulainn's turn. I was right. He was in a fowler. I cantered him around in jockey position because I didn't want to fight. But after that there were arguments. We went in and I did a few laps of sitting trot around the outside of the arena and he went lovely. Wow. This might not go too badly. We went up the centre line and CC basically said nahhhh not today human!! He stuck his head in the sky like a camel and said nope, I don't do dressage... In the canter I lost a stirrup and he freaked cos it hit against him, drama queen, and then I lost the other one. So I had to pull him up altogether and get them back and then pretend it never happened 😂😂
We got to the end in one piece and he did a good halt -his one redeeming quality, square halts!!
They came 3rd & 4th respectively. There were however only 4 in the class 😎 It was our first outing at the new grade, so all in all it was not a complete disaster ( maybe just parts). They both scored well and both in 60s. Onwards and upwards from that!!

Poor CC got sedated when he got his teeth done...

When you've had too much vodka....

Wednesday we went for another SJ lesson. Again I brought the two. I decided after the Sunday fiasco I'd let CC jump, seeing as he's lost none of his fitness over his holiday!! So we had a school around before the lesson. I actually walked him for 20 mins because I could not be arsed trotting. I was, again, completely zonked. He's still fairly excited in canter, it hasn't lost that magic yet for him. So we did a few transitions and he was nice and controlled. Then we popped the course. I thought the first jump could be a big one, but he jumped it lovely and steadily -mostly because he'd no idea it was coming up! He didn't touch a pole. For our second round, he was far more tuned in and knew what was coming. He tanked to number two and I said hell no! He chilled the beans a bit then. Needless to say, he's happy to be back jumping!!
Fred's turn. We jumped the course to start with at a small height. He jumped lovely and calmly and popped everything. He's been getting in deep constantly because he got reefed too many times in the mouth by me. But when the jumps were put up and we did the course for the last time he really took them on and jumped them out a bit! He also stretched over the jumps!! He really enjoyed it too! Giving out a happy sigh and had very little sweat!! Such a turnaround in only two lessons!! Lots of hugs and kisses and carrots.....eventing is looking a lot better now!!


**internet is not cooperating with uploading photos :( **