March 16, 2009

Manakau Sports -sh

Alfie
Alfie was a real little superstar for the showhunter. I did a practise round on him and he went clear! Though we got right in under a lot of them, he was happy to try and please. He didn't seem particularly spooky at the fillers either - which is fantastic.
So when we came back for the first class (85cm) I was confident that he'd give me a good round. And he really did. Another nice clear, and probably a bit tidier over the jumps (still in deep to a few, but mostly improved). He was trying for his lead changes - but just overwhelmed by things and ended up disunited through a number of corners before righting himself. I was stoked though!
Beau
I wasn't doing showhunter on Beau, but wanted him to do a practise round (to warm up for his RTR jumping, and also to see the spooky showhunter fences). And boy, did he think they were spooky! He had a good look at every single fence, and I'm sure he thought the grass rolltops were going to leap up and bite him at any minute!
Anna
The showhunter practise round was the first real jumping I'd done on Anna (a few 30cm logs at home, but I'm not sure that counts?). There was no warmup fence either! But she is such a sweet ride. Took me a few fences just to get into a partnership with her (yeah, check out my praying mantis impression in the pic below!) but by midway around the course I thought we were having a great time.
I did the 85cm and the 90cm showhunter classes on her. She's got stunning form over the fences and is a really easy ride - but I'm still getting to grips with the bits between the fences. She doesn't rush or anything like that, but we were getting unbalanced through our corners. More mileage should get that sorted. And I was super pleased to get 2 lovely clear competition rounds from her in her first time trying showhunters. Doesn't she just look so pretty too!

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