Monday, April 9, 2012

Kihikihi Easter 2012





So, after a brilliant (NOT) Autumn lead up; it was off to Kihikihi.

He was amazingly well settled in his yard, and although we had a few moments in the dressage warm up, he was going really nicely.

In the test though, he couldnt resist a couple of skedaddles, but they were short lived, I didnt react and he was back to good behaviour pretty quickly.
His test was ok, with some 7's just dropping marks on the movements where he "lost focus", final score 57% which I could live with, and definitely not at the bottom of the class.
Cross country, he was diabolical warming up, and wasnt really focused over the first jump clobbering it (which earned a telling off from me)...he then spooked really badly up at the turn into jump 2 but jumped it ok...so I carried on down the hill to the agapanthus oxer, which he jumped really nicely. So I pushed on to the big number 4 spread and he jumped it beautifully...we were on our way.

He was jumping really well, over 7a and 7b, and quick turn inside the tree (that many went around).... only to have branches in my face...oops - you would think that being 6' and on probably the biggest horse there, I would have taken note of tree branches etc. Anyway, I completely lost my focus and missed my line to 8a, and he jinked off the side (nearly decanting me in the process)
I was so disheartened at his first 20 xc, that I wasnt going to carry on...sitting for a while, before deciding to....again...why miss the opportunity for him to gather more mileage...and plus if I didnt carry on, how would I know how he would have coped with the rest of the course.
As it was, he was great....everything was so easy for him and he gave me a lovely ride.

Show jumping was surrounded by distractions, which did prove our undoing. He started off great, and we nailed the oxers (I rode him forward to them and was rewarded by good jumping). The second half of the course wasnt that great as he lost a bit of focus with the distractions, and got in very deep with very little impulsion to a few of them....however once again he still tried his socks off....I have no idea how he even got over some of them, only taking three rails.