There was a cross country schooling day on today at Battle Hill, unfortunately it was lessons for most of the day - but there was a 90minute gap at the end of the day where it was open for use (I managed to get 3 of them out there inside that 90 minutes! each horse only got to see about 5 fences though... and I think I was bringing the last one in as they were collecting the flags). Apologies in advance for some of the photos being very blurry - my little snap happy camera seems to have a bit of trouble with the action pics at times. But a big thankyou to Swifty and Brad who helped out with pics and shoveling poo!
Violet was only really there to do the waterjump as a few people have asked if she jumps into water (but we didn't have any XC photos to prove it)... so I had to do my bogey fence, that icky drop into the water that scares the wits out of me! But Violet did it nice and calmly for me:
I was also hoping to do a palisade (as I'm scared of them too) but there wasn't one flagged, so we just found a few other fences to pop over and called it a day:
Grace was having her first go at solid/xc fences. She was very confused at first by the idea of dropping into things and climbing back up them (bank/water etc) and would do it all one leg at a time - which is not really the most graceful way to go about it! It took a couple of tries before she properly jumped in and looked a bit more bold.
We did the bank twice too - but she seemed to have got the idea of jumping up/down from the waterjump and was fine first pop at the bank (eek, look at my hands though!).
There were still a few times where she'd forget where her legs were supposed to be and we'd jump fairly green... but she's getting the hang of it, and I don't think she'd have any problems pottering around an intro or PT course now that she's seen the basics.
My little grey, Dee, came along too. She was a bit tentative to get into the water but once in she was happy to leap in and out very boldly. She learns so quickly! She even managed to get through that awful boggy water without getting her pretty tail dirty - what a good horse!
More water and bank:
And a couple of regular solid fences which she went beautifully over.
And then there is Princess. She's been here for 3 days now, and has had a bit of a trim and tidy-up, and dyed her awfully bleached tail. She's looking a bit more presentable (ok, we still need to address that tummy!... mine and hers!). She stood by the truck really well - though I did give her a haynet. But she didn't get upset when I took Dee away who was the only horse on her side of the truck. She was nice and calm for a short walk and trot while there were other horses around and trucks/floats driving past.
I decided to take her into the creek... and well, about an hour later we were in the creek! Phew. She is quite untrusting of new situations at the moment, but hopefully she is learning that all these new things aren't bad (some are boring, but some are fun!) and will start to be a little more brave. She had a good splash and a big drink once she got in the creek.. and we went back in and out a few more times too.
Everyone loaded well, and enjoyed their dinner when we got home. I think most of them will be looking forward to an easy walk tomorrow after a busy weekend.
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