closed gymkhana
Holy shit.
i am still on cloud-fucking-nine.
i've got pics but am dealing with the long convoluted process of uploading them.
uploaded to FB. i'll dump vids onto youtube tomorrow...
had a 70min ride (40 mins walk) last night. lots of shying & general silliness. i did get a bit frustrated, but once i got over myself he was very good. fed him some "Good as Gold" - basically a tryptophan & b vitamin supp.
anyway. we had a wonderful day today. quite emoptional and very successful, by anyone's standards.
here it is in a nutshell:
a) pony got on the float in about 2 seconds. pony was accompanied by benito & kelli.
b) pony was suitably mellow apon arrival at pony club
c) pony was tacked up and ready to go 10 mins after arrival. lesson with carly on grounds began.
started with lots and lots of circles & serpentines & figure 8's at walk. start in 'safe' area & gradually pressure him by moving out of 'safe' zone.
move to trot for a few strides only. then back to walk on loose rein. rinse/repeat.
trot work - lots of serpentines & figure 8's. pushing out of 'safe' zone, but not enough to cause complete meltdown. he whinnied a few times for benito but was otherwise very clued in on me. yay. he felt fucking WONDERFUL. just so soft and in tune. my god. carly was practically having babies! also had kelli & kelly (confusing i know) there to REPREZENT "Team Carly" hahaha, plus plenty of supportive onlookers as well. closed schooling shows rock the whole world!
straight into our Rider class. Placed 3rd out of 8 i think? i did think we'd do a bit better, but o well. looking at the pictures, i can see where i can improve (nothing new there!).
carly was VERY excited when we left the ring & i felt GIDDY with happiness:
no bolting, no shying, no takey-offy-lala's... NOTHING. we even had to do a sitting trot & he DIDN'T giraffe up or jackhammer. fuck... where's my horse?
i managed to leave him with carly whilst i went back to the car & got some supplies & went to the loo. then in for our Hack class (15-16hh). carly had strict instructions to get him to try and stride out/ move more forward. i found it hard to get him moving as forward as i know he can... but still. i was stoked with how IN TUNE he was & he was not at all fussed about anything outside the area. anyway, he WON! i think there were 5 or 6 in the class?
omfg.
and then he also won his Pleasure hack class (Jesus christ! pleasure hack! this is the class where the judge looks for the best horse to just jump on and take out on a trail ride and jaunt about the country! BEEJ WON IT. o lordy). again, prob about 5 or 6 in this class.
AND THEN he won his Ladies Hack class (the type of horse a "Lady" would ride, haha!). jeez. maybe 4 or 5 in this class?
he had well and truly had enough by this stage tho & was starting to let me know in no uncertain terms - starting to get jib jabby with his mouth & over-reacting when asking for simple movements. anywho.
so then we had to wait around for Champion. this is the class where all the winners get together. we did our workout & the judge said that she was going to award this to the horse who she would most like to take home, the one who had worked most consistently all day & a couple of other things.
i was THRILLED when she pointed at us. i cried a bit into his neck!
she had lots of nice things to say & said something about how we would go a long way etc. she didn't give a lot of constructive advice tho, just nice positive comments. ah well, i pay carly $$$ to do that!
ugh. something wrong with my mac. it needs rebooting.
anywho. i am pretty thrilled with our day. Kelli & Kelly also had a great day, so it was smiles all round for "team carly". hah.
edited to add (now that my mac's not having a meltdown) - we were entered in a walk/trot dressage test, a round of 45cm jumping and the handy pony course. scratched from all of that as he was just doing such a top job. was VERY tempted to do the dressage test, but it was up in a super scary part of the grounds & i just didn't want to spoil it as he had been sooooo incredibly good.
moar piccies.
fave pic of the day. that's obe (kelly's horse) on the left and benito (kelli's horse) on the right.
loads more pics, but all computeres here are being bitchez.
i am still on cloud-fucking-nine.
i've got pics but am dealing with the long convoluted process of uploading them.
uploaded to FB. i'll dump vids onto youtube tomorrow...
had a 70min ride (40 mins walk) last night. lots of shying & general silliness. i did get a bit frustrated, but once i got over myself he was very good. fed him some "Good as Gold" - basically a tryptophan & b vitamin supp.
anyway. we had a wonderful day today. quite emoptional and very successful, by anyone's standards.
here it is in a nutshell:
a) pony got on the float in about 2 seconds. pony was accompanied by benito & kelli.
b) pony was suitably mellow apon arrival at pony club
c) pony was tacked up and ready to go 10 mins after arrival. lesson with carly on grounds began.
started with lots and lots of circles & serpentines & figure 8's at walk. start in 'safe' area & gradually pressure him by moving out of 'safe' zone.
move to trot for a few strides only. then back to walk on loose rein. rinse/repeat.
trot work - lots of serpentines & figure 8's. pushing out of 'safe' zone, but not enough to cause complete meltdown. he whinnied a few times for benito but was otherwise very clued in on me. yay. he felt fucking WONDERFUL. just so soft and in tune. my god. carly was practically having babies! also had kelli & kelly (confusing i know) there to REPREZENT "Team Carly" hahaha, plus plenty of supportive onlookers as well. closed schooling shows rock the whole world!
straight into our Rider class. Placed 3rd out of 8 i think? i did think we'd do a bit better, but o well. looking at the pictures, i can see where i can improve (nothing new there!).
carly was VERY excited when we left the ring & i felt GIDDY with happiness:
no bolting, no shying, no takey-offy-lala's... NOTHING. we even had to do a sitting trot & he DIDN'T giraffe up or jackhammer. fuck... where's my horse?
i managed to leave him with carly whilst i went back to the car & got some supplies & went to the loo. then in for our Hack class (15-16hh). carly had strict instructions to get him to try and stride out/ move more forward. i found it hard to get him moving as forward as i know he can... but still. i was stoked with how IN TUNE he was & he was not at all fussed about anything outside the area. anyway, he WON! i think there were 5 or 6 in the class?
omfg.
and then he also won his Pleasure hack class (Jesus christ! pleasure hack! this is the class where the judge looks for the best horse to just jump on and take out on a trail ride and jaunt about the country! BEEJ WON IT. o lordy). again, prob about 5 or 6 in this class.
AND THEN he won his Ladies Hack class (the type of horse a "Lady" would ride, haha!). jeez. maybe 4 or 5 in this class?
he had well and truly had enough by this stage tho & was starting to let me know in no uncertain terms - starting to get jib jabby with his mouth & over-reacting when asking for simple movements. anywho.
so then we had to wait around for Champion. this is the class where all the winners get together. we did our workout & the judge said that she was going to award this to the horse who she would most like to take home, the one who had worked most consistently all day & a couple of other things.
i was THRILLED when she pointed at us. i cried a bit into his neck!
she had lots of nice things to say & said something about how we would go a long way etc. she didn't give a lot of constructive advice tho, just nice positive comments. ah well, i pay carly $$$ to do that!
ugh. something wrong with my mac. it needs rebooting.
anywho. i am pretty thrilled with our day. Kelli & Kelly also had a great day, so it was smiles all round for "team carly". hah.
edited to add (now that my mac's not having a meltdown) - we were entered in a walk/trot dressage test, a round of 45cm jumping and the handy pony course. scratched from all of that as he was just doing such a top job. was VERY tempted to do the dressage test, but it was up in a super scary part of the grounds & i just didn't want to spoil it as he had been sooooo incredibly good.
moar piccies.
fave pic of the day. that's obe (kelly's horse) on the left and benito (kelli's horse) on the right.
loads more pics, but all computeres here are being bitchez.