Xev had a good warmup in a nice big space - with only a couple of horses jumping the fences we were close to it was really good (as some areas get quite crowded out at Battle Hill on the XC days).
She cantered around really laid back - even after I got up in a more forward seat - I was starting to get a bit worried that she'd have no energy for the jumps! But a few practise fences reminded her that we weren't here to do dressage.
Skinny fences. A skinny Open rolltop, and the hideous Open corner (cheese wedge) - the rolltop was nice and easy, but the corner had a really strange approach so was actually pretty hard to get a good line to.
Ramp type jumps. The Open kennel and Ramp - both pretty straight forward and Xev just cruised into them really nicely.
Random jumps. Training staircase (3 steps with a skinny at the end) and what I think was a PreTraining fence which we jumped on it's short edge as a corner (looks like it is a new jump as I haven't seen it out there before).
The water. Through the Training combination. It was a bit of a disappointment that none of the Open water, bank, palisade, ditch or trakhener were flagged (as those were the main things that I wanted to go practise and get my eye in for!). Hopefully they will flag them at the next day.
So it was a pretty busy day for Xev, and she got a little sweat by the end of it (but no puffing) so think she is at a pretty good fitness now. After coming home and unloading I popped Edie & her things back on the truck and took her back home as she's finished her introduction to what grown-up horses do and has been really well behaved at her outings. Will be great to see her after she is backed next year.
1 comment:
Post a Comment