Edgecumbe Pony Club Gymkhana

The day started really poorly when I got Truckie stuck. It looked like a small mound of loose earth. Yea not so much, giant lump of chicken shit. :( Soo Embarrassed and not a good start for my day at all. So I hyad three horses to ride, Bill, Malinki and Connie.

With Bill it was a bit of a big ask seeing as she had been in work a week. She was definitely fit enough living on the side of a very steep hill but it was an ask mentally for us both. I just an not confident riding her, I roll up into a little hunchback of nerves. She was actually really good, a little hot and chewy but actually coped pretty amazing. Especially considering I rode her so poorly. In the end this other girl, who just adores Bill, basically talked me into riding her. Bill trotted around the 80cm really nicely, she had a stop at the double but she was looking at the judges more than anything. She went straight over the wall. She is just so little and wiggly and hard to read so I struggle with her a bit. Still she comes with me to the next show to jump the practice rounds so that will be good for her and I.

Malinki jumped the 90cm and the 1m. I had been riding her in a pelham just to help me when she leans and because she is so big- 17.1hh- it means it's easier to organise her but in the warm up she was behind the bridle so I changed it to this ancient nickle snaffle I have thats about the only bit I own big enough for her doongie head. She was heavier in it and had a tendency to lean on it but she was also happier in it so thats good enough for me. She did two lovely smooth rounds, very calm and collected. Tapped a lot of rails. Every so often she just feels super over a fence, and I think I'm influencing it but I'm not sure what I'm doing so definitely planning on having a play with that. I suspect I need to hold her up more at the base of the fence. She was second in the 90cm and third in the 1m. She would have won it having done an amaizing inside turn for such a big horse, but we bludged out the last rail, I should have collected her back and added the stride but I didn't and I think we took it out about knee height. Bless her. She is a lovely girl, my rein broke before the jump off when her rein got hooked in my cousins bridle and I could just trot her back to the truck with one rein and then just canter straight into the ring.

By the time Connie came up the ground had started to cut up and was pretty deep. It was a big 1.10m track, square oxers and relatively tricky- some corners you had to be very aware of to make in time and again the ground was pretty treacherous. The three rounds before me didn't go that well, there was a million rails and a couple of eliminations so I was like damn. Connie though is pretty much the bomb. She cantered around and took the rail at three though I rode up a little much to it. Then the hoodoo was sort of broken and other people had good rounds, but there was only one clear and Connie was second on four faults.

The general carnage and ground meant that only two people started in the 1.15m class and it was also a big track. First up was me :O Still I have Connie and she was spectacular, even if I took a few bigger distances and jumped a good clear round. She is ready to 1.20m this coming weekend. The other horse had a rail and I opted not to jump-off. Connie actually had a massive stumble on landing after the first fence and I only just managed to get her organised for the second fence, so IU definitely wasn't going to jump in the ground again. She has nothing to prove anyone. Definitely nervous and excited for the coming weekend. Fingers crossed for nice weather, she just feels so good at the moment.