The fall from cloud 9..........

Slightly over-dramatic headline but we all need a bit of Kardashian-ism sometimes (mostly I wish I'd the ass for when I fall off and land on mine!).

What I actually mean by my title is that when after our super day in Claregalway with Midlands & Western dressage, we took a well deserved few days off. I wrote my post excitedly on Monday, still on a high, but by Tuesday, I'd come crashing down........struck down by a cold.......It hit me with tiredness, and a week later I still have it due to not really having the time to rest up.

Wednesday evening I hacked out CC because I had a lesson on Thursday and I didn't want him to be fresh. We kept it to a walk and had a lovely chilled out hack down the lane. He was on his best behaviour, standing for me to open the gate and to close it too.

On Thursday, Dani, who was organising the lesson had someone pull out and asked if I wanted to bring Fred to the second lesson, I did and I didn't. We needed to ride because I knew I probably wouldn't get to on Friday but I didn't want to because I was feeling absolutely fooked in work, and day dreaming of my bed and an endless amount of sleep. But because I'm stooopid, I signed both the boys up. I raced home after work shovelled my dinner into me (thanks mammy) sat down for 10 mins ( if I did any longer I would have fallen asleep) and then went and put on the horse box and got the boys in. They were both wearing a lovely coat of muck.....We got in with some time to spare and I cleaned them both as best I could ( basically brushing all the muck in the same direction.....).

First up was CC. There were just 3 of us in this lesson, which was a nice number. We did some lateral work and our first ever walk pirouette!! CC nailed it! It felt great. Also, our turning is improving, starting to get the hang of moving his whole body over and less emphasis on the inside rein. One of the girls had a bit of miscommunication with her horse and was coming thundering towards myself and CC at one stage, and almost through us! But we all survived and laughed it off.
Then it was Fred's turn. Fred was out on the nice grass all week, chillin, so I brought my dressage whip in case he was still in lazy mode. On the contrary, Fred was in FLYING form and did a nice little buck/gallop show piece to tell me so...... He got that out of his system and then it was off to work and apparently he wanted to show off! There were a few more people in this lesson and of varying degrees of ability so it was much tougher for the instructor, but by the end it was just myself and another girl. We did the same exercises as in the first lesson, but it was amazing the difference between the two. CC was as light as a feather starting the walk pirouettes and got it fairly quickly. With Fred it was like turning a tank and he was like nope nope, I do not move that way.....but eventually he gave way and got it too.
So I started my tacking up feeling like absolute crap and finished on a complete high and ready to tackle the world!!

Getting some sunshine

Saturday I slept in till 9, which really wasn't a sleep in because I started reading a book Friday night and didn't put it down till 1am...... but myself and Rusty chilled watching the European dressage and some other Horse & country programmes I'd recorded. I had lots planned to do Saturday, but my cold was still getting the better of me so I only managed a few things.
In the afternoon I brought the boys over the road to practice for our show on Sunday. I rode Fred for 20 mins max because between the heat and the feeling crap, that's all I could really do with him and he felt great, so he didn't need any more. I got CC then. I was hoping to jump him on Sunday, so really needed to practice as we haven't jumped since Tullamore. We had a nice warm up and he was nice and chilled. We jumped the course and he was great. The jumps weren't big, but he didn't get over excited and just glided along, nice 'n easy. My friend Laura got it on video too. As you can see, he stopped when the pony got in our way and we went on as if nothing had happened.
I brought the two boys home, gave them some grub, rugged them and threw them out. Zero energy to even think about washing them. I had heard it was gonna lash, so half of me was hoping that might wash them, and the other half was praying they wouldn't roll and get mucky!!

Sunday was an early start, I was first on for the dressage at 9 with Fred. Even though I was good and organised and at the yard by half 8, I still managed to not have a great warm up. I was so out of sorts that I got up on Fred without a hat and didn't even notice........so that just shows you how fooked I was. We had a short warm up and went in. I learned the test Saturday night, of course it was a slightly complicated one 😓
We headed down to the indoor, minus our game face. Well Fred might have had his, but I didn't have mine. To add to my woes, it was a lovely humid 22 degrees.....😓😓 Fred did a lovely test, if I had felt better it might have been better, but I was delighted with him. I put him in a stable and got CC tacked up. He had a bit more of a warm up, but still not as long as I'd like. He was nice and relaxed though for most of it, so a definite improvement. If we can sustain that, I'll be happy.


Cu Chulainn's Dressage test video

Fred's dressage test video

I put him in the stable with Fred and went down to the SJ pocket where I was on duty for Primary and Advanced Primary classes. The classes went smoothly and I managed to gain a little helper to put up poles with me.
I got my tack ready for CC to go jumping, then called out a test for my friend Dani. While reading it out I realised that I went wrong, not once, but twice in my test!! Only slightly though. I actually learned the test wrong. Someone just needs to inject some life into me!!Sick of feeling sick and half dead.....
I tacked up CC and we went in to warm up. The warm up was half flooded, so we just popped a cross pole twice and I said I'd use the clear round as our warm up, rather than making him go through the sticky sand. I hadn't quite realised that the clear round was at full height. Oopsie.... CC was in flying form though. He popped them all happily and easily and we got our 2nd ever clear round rosette! Boom. Our class is always a big enough class and even though there weren't too many jumping on Sunday, there were still 9 ahead of me. Not enough people to get off him and chill, but enough to that I couldn't just warm up and go. And CC was not in the mood for just chllin either. So we walked around. By the time my actual round came up I really wasn't feeling great. It was still ridiculously humid and all my energy had evaporated. He was jumping really well and bringing me around, but he got a bit too forward before no. 7 and we knocked, unfortunately, he'd been flying till then. We had one down in our second round too, but that was all rider error. One of these days, I'll be feeling A1 when we're jumping in competition!!
After we jumped, I untacked CC and packed up the boys. I was fit for nothing. I was on the couch in time to watch Galway win the All-Ireland!!

There I am working hard!

Round 1.

CC showing off his Galway colours

Trying to motivate myself

Still smiling

Ping!

I stayed on the couch for the rest of the evening. And two days later, I'm still fighting off this stupid cold. Winter isn't even here yet!!
Fred came 2nd in his dressage with 69% and CC scored a fantastic 63%. Thrilled with the two of them.
Fred has no more competitions till Nationals. We have a freestyle to come up and just general practice to make sure he's in top form for it.
CC might do a hunter trial, or just have some time off.
And I have a Polish wedding to prepare for........swopping riding boots for high heels!




Thanks as ever to G.I.T. for the camera work and all the help 😊