How do you get to Carnegie Hall?

After the busy busy May bank holiday, we had a break from competitions for a few weeks. Competitions only that is!! The training kept going. There was still plenty of room for improvement.
PLENTY.

Even dirty he's a beaut!

Fab rain sunset

Sun and chill time

I took the week after the bank holiday off, for him and myself. I had the vet out to take x-rays of Freds legs to see how the arthritis has progressed since the last set of x-rays I’d gotten. The vet was amazed at how good he was. I thought that he would need the steroid injections, but in fact he was ok. He said just to send the x-rays on to my farrier and get special shoes for him. So that was wonderful news to get. Once I got the x-rays I sent them on to Brian Horohoe master farrier who I’ve been using since I moved home. He hot shoes them as well, which is even better.

The following Tuesday myself and Dani did a lesson with Seamus. I thought Cu Chulainn was a bit
off but he loosened up. We worked a bit in the warm up, jumping a vertical and a spread and slowly
increasing the heights. For some reason in the warm up he always jumps to the right, that being said I
don’t do an awful lot about it because I know he’ll be in the centre out on the course. The warm up
was slightly downhill as well and I find the turns I make into the jumps aren’t great and I tend to have
him ‘in the bridle’ as Seamus says, which basically means he’s all in your hands and that’s just for
you. Like a safety net. And I have had that safety net for quite a long time so it’s hard to get rid of it!!
Once we finished in the warm up, it was on to the course. Dani did it first. I probably volunteered her
to go first 😛 They were fairly big to start with but I was so focused on the things I needed to do
correctly that I didn’t notice the height as much. The course went fine, I just need to commit to each
fence. Then we went back to the warm up and he put them up again. I didn’t look at the heights this
time, because there were things to improve on from the first round. We jumped it well once, although
I lost him over one of them, just because as we were coming to it, I decided oh shit, this is fast, this is
really fast…..and we hit it. TOTALLY my fault.

Ooooohh oh

Bit late in the day to start thinking it’s too fast! Uck.So the wheels started to come off the bus a bit then, I started to get tired and my ability to focus was dwindling. Between the speed and keeping my leg on and leaving him alone (when you’re tired you can’t even feel that you’re at him).

I kept Seamus busy!!

But we finished on a good note and I got it right in the end.  Jumping lesson video

Seamus doing them with us!

When we were talking afterwards, Seamus told us we should be happy with that, that it was a big full
height course. I asked him then how big was big. 1.20. ONE.FUCKIN.TWENTY. Sweet jeebus. I
have never in my life jumped that big, never mind poor Cu Chulainn!! But we were well able. It
wasn’t even the height that put me off in the end!! Naturally I was on a high after that. Funnily
enough, it wasn’t as much of a high as back in April, and I think that’s because we’ve come sooo far
since that I nearly expect it of us. Dani and Dubh aced the course as well. It’s handy watching them
do it because she has to ride Dubh similarly to what I need to do with Cu Chulainn.

Motivational talks

That weekend I went for a hack with a friend Emma and we came back to the newly cut field to have
a nice little gallop. The ground was a bit hard from all the warm weather so I didn’t go flat out with
Cu Chulainn; he enjoyed it none the less.

Flying

Fred, Cu Chulainn and Bluto did a spot of modelling for my neighbour Elaine, who was showing off
her knitted items. Fred absolutely loved it- anyone looking for horse models please DM me!!
Check her out on instagram; elaine_mclouglin_studio

Dani, Amanda and myself did another lesson the following week, this time in the Ballinasloe
showgrounds. We were only in the warm up arena, as the main arena was being saved for the show
the following weekend. The course was the same as the last time I’d been there. But that didn’t mean I did it any better 😳 I started well, like a good amateur, but then I hit a wall.

 I couldn’t get the course into my head, never mind actually doing it right. There was some serious motivational words being bellowed at me. There was frustration left, right and centre…….I was zonked by the end and I wasn’t impressed with myself.

Fail!!

I think Seamus' face says it all here!!

Trying to instil some confidence back in me.....

Fast forward to Friday. I took a half day as I was only doing the one class. I called in on my way
home to watch the big boys in action. Then ran home and had dinner and got Cu Chulainn. Seamus
helped me warm up and then we went in. My head wasn’t in it. I was all over the shop and boy did it
show……again I felt zonked. The weather was really warm and it didn’t agree with me.
I wasn’t competing on the Saturday but I went in to watch and maybe learn a few tips. The size of
some of the jumps!! And they come up so quickly. The Grand prix was mahoosive!!
Sunday was my next day and it was all on a grass. It was tricky because it wasn’t level at all. I had 3
classes on the Sunday. It went from bad to better, thankfully. I rode badly in the first one. Rode much
better in the second, but we’d a miscommunication and he refused the last fence, we were clear till
then!! Then for the last class I just hit one. Even though we weren’t clear in any of the classes I was
delighted because I had improved overall. Anyone can have a pole down sure. Neither of us are
professionals and it’s a journey we’re on. I don’t want it to be a lucky clear when we have one, I want
it to be because I did everything right. I rode right. And you can be happy like I was, if you have a
pole down, if you both did everything right.

**currently uploading videos from the Ballinasloe show, could take a while with good ould rural broadband.