Reaching new heights!

Not much to say other than MY HORSE IS AWESOME!

2010 Aims!

I set myself quite a few aims for 2009 and some of them I didnt achieve and felt quite disappointed about. So this year Ive hopefully made myself a set of target that I can achieve but will still push me and Deanna to further heights!

2010 AIMS

• * Go on beach and thetford forest rides
• * Jump a 1.10m course (in comp)
• * Do the RC area Dressage teams
• * Qualify for the trailblazer finals. Dressage/SJ/Combined training I dont care!
• * Enjoy more HT and ODE's at whatever height suits us :)
• * Regularly compete at novice level dressage
• * Get Mum confident riding Deanna before I leave for uni!
• * Possibly take part is some BYRDs training days

SNOW!!

Ohh what an end to the year! 3 more comps planned for december and dont think we'll get to any of them! One was cancelled and other was just too dangerous to try and drive to and the 3rd, whilst a week away, probably wont be a good idea as D hasnt been ridden properly in 2weeks!

Have however taken some cute pictures!!

Managing to ride a week after the initial snow fall!!

5th and 6th December - showjumping

After the rain put off our plans to SJ last weekend we made a real effort to get out this weekend!

Saturday - TERRIBLE day on paper but overall Im quite pleased with D! It was the local equestrian college running SJ and the schedule looked fab as they were running to to 1.05m! Schedule said "not before 12pm" for the 95cm so turned up at 11:30 to be safe. Got there and found only 2 other trailers!! Ran to go sign in to find there were only 2 others in the 95cm (managed to get it up to 5 of us in the end) but I had 5mins to warm up as the class was going to start?! (so much for not before 12!!)

So pulled poor D off the lorry and flew some warm up fences and had to go in. Course was fab actually, really lovely brand new polyjumps and lots of fillers we've never seen before - big bright multicoloured ones, stone walls ect and Super D went in and flew round the first phase clear.

Old Deanna would have stopped 5strides out from the 3rd fence and that would have been in the end of it so really chuffed that she was braver.....until the first fence of the jump off phase where we had 3 run outs! Black and white - an old enemy of Deannas! So that was that :( They kindly dropped it and so we could pop it but still a little disappointing (also didnt get a rosette even thou other ppl didnt go clear in the first round?!)

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Anyway onto sunday! At risk of being rushed we got there far too early (damnn) but better early than late. Entered the 3ft first and annoying had a look at the first fence - rider error. Got round fine though although I was too 'gun hoe' and instead of thinking 'sit back and hold, she wont look at the fillers' I was kicking on so she flattened over the two uprights.

Into the 1m which was looking rather up to height baring in mind the last 3ft class we did was in august!! Anyway bigger fences and Deanna knows what she's doing and had a much nicer round. Just tapped the oxer down coming off the corner as I didnt get her straight enough. Finished 3rd though and really chuffed with how she jumped :D

22nd November - Dressage

Went off for some dressage this weekend although unfortunately it didnt go quite as well as I hoped!

Firstly with torrential rain outside we struggled to get any warm up and when we did get in the indoor arena Deanna spooked at everything and never relaxed. Scored poorly (as you would expect!) although there were a few glimpses of 'superr Dee'

Had another test, this time prelim 10 but with the poor weather I didnt warm up for long and Deanna was not moving off my leg. She also got very cheeky and started pushing her left shoulder out and refusing to take correct bend >:( naughty pony!

Lordsbridge - 15th November

Eurgh what a horrid weekend weather wise! I was planning on going outdoors on saturday and jumping the 3ft and 1m class then popping to a local venue for something tiny.

Due to extreme rain and wind on saturday we werent able to get out which was a shame but continued with our plans for sunday. Only went for a tiny class for three reasons 1) Deanna hasn't pure SJ'd in around 2 months now! So wasnt sure if she's go back to silly spooky D! 2) I havent jump at this venue in almost 2years as Deanna used to get incredibly tense in the arena and stop a lot so as she didnt seem to like it I didnt bother going! and 3) As I wasn't sure if she would still be spooky and tense I didnt see the point in jumping a big class on her and having her stop!

Anyway so entered the 2.6ft and super pony went straight in, no worries, not tense and jumped a lovely clear! I was in disbelief to be honest! I was getting a little nervous outside as the warm up is quiet small and I wasnt able to get a good practice fence + I was convinced D was gonna spook in there! Then had to learn a jump off route so took the turns but didnt go nutts but THRILLED to find I'd won haha!! :D :D

Wanted to skip the 85cm and jump the 95cm but unfortunately despite 25 entries in my class there were only 3 entered in the 85cm and none in the 95cm so they didnt run it!

Anyway, chuffed to bits as it means I am now far more confident to go straight to this venue and jump a big class which is fab as its only 20mins away!

24th October -Trailblazer dressage

Set off to norton heath for trailblazer first rounds today! First attempt to get first round Q and wasn't feeling great as the only time Ive done dressage at NH we couldnt even scrape the 58% qual score!

Anyway, Deannas been working so nicely recently and always scoring above 60% so in that sense I was hoping we should get through!! Anyway, prelim 7 was outdoors and not a great test; Deanna wasn't as forward as I like and as such not as round as she should be. Scored 59. something which I was quite disappointed with however it actually placed me around 11th out of 35 so really is was rather harsh judging I think!

Prelim 10 was a much better test, first time D's been indoors in a long long time though so she did tense up a bit! Overall dead chuffed with her, score 62% so not amazing but more than enough to get our first round qualification woop woop :)

11th October - awesome ODE!

So Im a complete wimp when it comes to competing in XC! Schooling I'll jump anything but in a comp I get proper windy!

Set off for our first ODE of the year, our 2nd ever and first in 2years haha! (do you see how Im not an eventer!!). Anyway, things started a bit badly as I didnt have time to plait! Ooops thankfully there were quite a few horses unplaited but I like to make an effort.

Didn't seem to matter to D as she do a really super dressage test, she didnt warm up that well - kept falling out thru her left shoulder naughty pony but got in the arena and she knew just what to do! Got the 2nd best score (and was only 1/2 a point off the leader!) of 33 or a 67% test!! WOOP WOOP

Onto the SJ, now it was very very small. I always think that the SJ should be bigger than the XC as at the end of the day you don't wanna try a 2.6ft XC unless your jumping 2.9ft SJ as XC. Anyhoo, the course looked fine with all fillers placed at the side bar one and thankfully D flew round clear :D

Then for the XC, I've jumped this course before and gone clear until the last fence where I fell off haha! So this year I was a bit more determined! D had a little look at fence 3, and well in all I rode terribly but she flew round and finished clear hooray!!

Long wait for the results and was really chuffed to find we'd finished 3rd!! :D I was about a minute too quick, as were quite a few people, so lots of time faults. If we had of been slower I might have snuck 2nd but anyway!

Dead chuffed with my pony! Finally feel that my XC confidence is really back after our rotational fall earlier in the year! :)

Finally dressage video :)

27th September - Hunter Trial

I love HT's that give you start times! The whole day was lovely and relaxed, never more than 6 in a very large warm up arena.

D warmed up sweetly and was popping the warm up fence really sweetly.

Headed off for the start box and D looks over the hill and notices horses appearing, cue completelack of concentration! Had to proper boot her over the first fence :S but perked up on the way from 2 to 3. Almost stopped at 4 as she saw the car and focused on that! Down the drop and over the skinny at 5a and b and no worries over the little telegraphpole. Next the ditch! Made her trot and she went straight over *HUGE SMILE!*. Up the hill to no 8...

Which she flew! Fine over 9a and b the log to ditch, didnt put studs in so had to take it slowly down the hill and over the skinny arrow head.  Round the corner and straight over the pheasant feeder and brush fence. Sweetly over a log with drop on the other side, no worries with the next skinny log. Straight up the step and down the next two, round the corner and straight thru the water to finish clear =D

I had no idea how to judge time and ended up 20secs over but still good enough to get 9th rosette out of 35 :D yayyy