Langdale Horse Sports

Some of the pictures are too large and I can't resize them but if you open them in another tab you will be able to see the whole picture and it will be worth it :)

So on Saturday I went out to Langdale horse sports with Connie, Bill and Kate. A horse sports is the most grass roots competition we have around here, just a small local event. Kate was only along for the ride to make sure that Bill had a good influence not just the hot headed Connie who would have thrown her toys about being left alone at the truck while I was riding Bill. And Bill did not need to have the shrieking Connie distracting her so Kate is a godsend in that regard. And yes Connie is very naughty but I give her some slack because she jumps good.

This was not Bills first show we did a small one ages ago and she was pretty good but got eliminated at the double and she was wearing the evil girth so it was going to be pretty different this time with her super special fleece girth. Now Bill is a bold wee horse, the biggest issue is she is pretty horse shy. She thinks that strange horses cantering and jumping are going to eat her. She makes up for her shyness by being aggressive and wanting to lunge at the other horse so I will red ribbon her tail next time. I suspect she would kick.



The warm up arena was pretty hairy with lots of people charging around so I did a lot of trotting and then went in for a practice round hoping to get away from the chaos. The chaos followed me into the practice round however and there were soon five people charging around the course sometimes nearly crashing into each other. Le sigh. Still apart from some hairy moments it was pretty good for her to be exposed to this kind of madness. The first practice round she had a good look at one picket and a stop at the picket further on around the course but then jumped it straight away the next time around.





Her first round was 60cm and she was awesome. She trotted around well and jumped everything quite confidently. Just getting a bit crooked to some of them but still jumping really happily and taking me to the fences and seemed to be enjoying herself which is excellent.



After that class I took her bridle off and let her rest for a while and then she went in the 75 cm. I only walked her around for her second warm up as it was such a hot day and for a while she even stood ringside with the other horses and rested a hindleg so I was very happy she was getting so relaxed. The 75cm looked huge to me I wont lie and she obvious thought it was worth some effort because man was she jumping.



She also decided she has figured out doubles so she jumped in from the trot took one or two strides depending which double and just launched out of them even though she was miles away. Bold as brass this horse. But I'm happy she was so confident to get so straight to them and canter through.



I then did the jump-off for that class but just trotted around quietly. She did have one little tiny buck but I think it was more a I'm tired and hot and a bit over this than anything else. certainly nothing concerning. I was going to let her canter the last half of the jump-off course but she broke to the trot and I was content to let her trot and finish strongly. I can start jumping her from the canter at home now because she feels so good. She also loves that long distance.



My friend who has Ginga had 4 horses in one class and was pretty flat out classes only being about 20 people so after 6 weeks apart Ging and I joined forces again for the 95cm class. He is such a goober and definitely we have lost a bit of the connection we were forming but he is a nice guy so it was nice to jump him again. Had one stupid stop at the brush because we both got sucked to the base. I needed to have been more attacking and got him more forward and confident to it and it would have been fine but there you are. It happens. Like I say I haven't even ridden him for 7 weeks so to get on and go basically straight into the ring was fairly tough. I still feel like I ride him pretty well which is good.







Connie was in the 1.10m class and felt really awesome. She is a great. Cruised around the course easy as. Rode up for the five strides down to the double and she did back off it a little but then jumped through really confidently.



It probably wasn't visible to spectators but I felt her be all hmm this is a double. But the doubles were really short at this show so she found it easy as. Saved my butt to the last fence when I was a long way off the take off but didn't have room for another stride and she just left the ground and jumped huge. The picture is quite dark and small but you can see how high her body is. Go pony.



Put in a good jump-off and she was awesome as usual and she ended up in second place. She really is a great little horse. she is starting to really enjoy her jump offs and she just was so smooth and easy to ride in both of her rounds. She makes me look good haha.



A huge thank you to my friend Fe who came out and took all the photos and was chief cheerleader and a huge help.