June Tielcey Park CT

An extremely long day on Sunday. Caught the horses at 3.15am and got them ready to head up to Tielcey Park for another of their combined training (dressage & showjumping) days. The drive wasn't too bad as the predicted awful weather hadn't hit just yet.

Kody was the first to go. I'd put him in the introductory class for the CT. I spent his warmup encouraging him to stretch a little and not appear to 'jammed up' as he can sometimes do if worried. But really he went quite nicely. The equilibrium blue seems to have just taken that edge off him and he's much more fun to ride out and about when he is not scared of his own shadow! I still need to work on getting him straight - his circles and bend have improved in leaps and bounds, but I still feel that when we are heading up the centre line or across the arena then we don't quite go forward enough to get a nice straight line.


Kody's jumping was super! He warmed up inside and didn't worry about the noise or the mirrors. In the arena he had a spook at the first fence but then was on his way. I was so proud, even in the really wet surface conditions. We also did a small straight showjumping round where we got into the jumpoff but clipped a pole. He had a fab time though - faster than most of the ponies!


Neo needed a dressage test, and while he was very outclassed in the PreNovice, it was probably one of his better tests for staying calm and mostly holding correct bend especially in the corners. No jumping pics of him as it was 4.30pm and dark by the time he got to do his first round. He took poles at 1m and 1.05m - I think just being a bit lazy and a bit fizzy. All up I can't complain for his first jumping outing in absolutely ages.


I also rode 'Kraka' for a friend. It was a bit of a nightmare morning for her, resulting in them arriving at about the same time she was due to do her dressage test. So she quickly saddled him and I hopped on to do the test and get to know him a bit (my first time riding him). He was rather unsettled though. Annoyingly as soon as I took him inside to warm up for the jumping he did some beautiful flatwork! I think he just needed a bigger warmup.


Kraka started out jumping rather unconfident - inverted and coming down with his back legs very quickly.. but it didn't take too long for him to start to trust me - and by the time we finished our 60cm round he was quite happy (but so puffed!). We came back and did the 70cm which went great! He was jumping properly and even picked up a placing - go Kraka (& Tabitha for saddling him and running around after me)!


Gem is really starting to be a lot more settled in her flatwork. There were still some points where she got distracted, but she didn't pull or bounce and she was going forward. I'm really happy with that! She is so much happier not just getting regular work, but jumping! Going in circles as a showhack just made her a bit too bored I think! Now that I have her calm and happy I do need to get her working again, but it's one step at a time.


Sunday was also Gem's first ever showjumping competition! It was 90cm and Swifty took video of it. She coped really well. Coming disunited/trotting into the 5th fence sort of got us both a bit rattled and we chipped most of the fences after that. But I am just over the moon with that as her jumping debut - she also came 5th overall for the PreNovice combined training class.


The bad weather hit on the way home and the wind was insane! By the time I unloaded and put rugs and the horses I got them into their paddock at 8.45pm. I bet they slept really well! A big day for them all. No competitions for us for a month now. Just some practise days and the likes.