Foxton Debrief 2

I would just like to offer my condolences to Andrea after the loss of her beloved Gogo. Truly that was a horse who never wanted for anything. It really makes you appreciate your horses.

Ok so to the Sunday of Foxton. Early start again because I elected to ride Rascal first up. She was in the 90cm showjumping and after yesterday I didn't know how it would go but the little mare warmed up feeling really really good, jumped super confidently and went into the ring and jumped double clear, though too slow in the jump-off to place. I don't quite trust her enough to really start slicing fences. So I don't know why she packed it in the day before but I'll give her the benefit of the doubt.

Then I basically jumped from her onto Kate for the 1.10m class. It was a lot bigger 1.10m class than the day before whith more fill, two roll backs and a treble. She jumped really well though. Nearly jumped me out over the first oxer with fill. I really need to improve my leg strength some more. not as smooth of a round as the day previously but still I was happy with how she went. She just had the last rail when I didn't let her travel down the 6 strides enough and had to over ride the last two strides to make my distance and flattened her out.

Then I kicked my heels for like 5 hours waiting for Kates next class. She was in the 1.15m championship and again she jumped really well, again having one rail. We have been having a lot of one rail rounds this season. Awesome down the treble though. She had the rail at the liverpool which isn't that surprising because she hates liverpools. Truly she really is quite afraid of them, so I was happy she even jumped it, because it's the first one we have seen this season. Though to be fair I gave her a strong committed ride to it.

Then Connie in the amateur class. Pony was jumping amazing, must have cleared the oxer at 2 by like a foot she just jumped huge as which was exciting and cool. Got a longish distance into the first double but got through ok and then came round to the treble. Honestly I thought we would have issues here. She jumped in big and landed unbalanced and then couldn't jump out of the next two fences so she stopped. I reapproached with the same result- a stop at the second element- so I retired and jumped fence 1 on the way out. I was gutted because she was jumping so well. I wasn't exactly sure what I needed to do to fix this either which I always find more stressful. She was pretty unamused when as soon as we got home from the show I saddled her back up to jump a smaller version of the treble at home. I don't like to leave issues to sit for too long, better just to face them as soon as you can. She did initially stop and was quite hesitant but by the end was jumping through happily with the jumps set at 1m ish.

So really I'm not exactly sure what is causing this issue. She does always land in a bit of a heap, she isn't the most natural of jumpers. With a double it's ok because she only has to jump out over one fence, but when faced with two she couldn't do it. I think I need to improve two things. I think I'm throwing her at the combinations too much to compensate for her backing off combinations and in an effort to help her down the distance, but I'm probably just contributing to the issue. Secondly I need to land and balance her more and be stronger with my body position. I wanted to jump a treble every day this week but the rain spoiled that idea. There is a local show this weekend I'll take her too because I want to jump her down another combination at a show before we face our next amateur class.