Hickstead day

So the local pony club ran a hickstead day (about two weeks ago, I was waiting for the photos but then he looked so awful and when he looked good my eyes were closed or I was laughing) which consists of a dressage test and then a xc course with some showjumpsmixed in. Seriously, China man is a seriously seriously green pony. He's only been off the track since November and I've only had him a couple of months so I really just wanted to get a feel for how he'd go at an outing like this, and make it around the xc regardless of how much he looked at things.

He warmed up for dressage like an absolute burger brain. I honestly thought we were going to end up bolting along behind the arenas in full race mode. And then he goes into the arena and relaxed and bopped around nicely. Like plenty of green moments and loss of attention, and his frame wasn't consistent but it was much better than I expected for such a green horse and he gave me some lovely moments. He ended up scoring around 34% in the intro class ( so set around 65cm or 2'3".)

Probably about one of my riding highlights happened as we walked back after walking the xc and the judge stopped me to tell me how lovely my horse is. She said you could tell he was green but that he was a lovely

Mover and had lots of potential and that it was nice to see a horse going forward. So that was an incredible buzz especially because China man is looking pretty rough with a Mousey winter coat and he still lacks some condition. I have since given him a week off and he has really picked up. 

He was an idiot to warm up again (sensing a theme here??? He gets really set on where the float was parked and he keeps falling in and out towards it and a few little bolts and the like. Super brave to the warm up fences though.

So we started off and he was so spooky to the first fence and napping to the float and we were almost past the bloody thing but I stayed committed and even though we were sideways and basically at a stand still he popped over and he was away. Still a bit nappy and inconsistent as he went out but he kind of clicked on and cruised along in a nice rhythm and didn't pull and was very bravely jumping out of stride. I don't think he'll stay a snaffle horse for xc though somehow.

Approaching the water I was like yea I don't know how he will be with this but apparently he loves water because he trotted through as bold as brass. Can me all take a moment to appreciate the trot on this Mousey little tb??!!

He had another couple of bobbles at te bank where he was like whoa how do I do this? And then wobbled and hesitated and scrambled up and then did the same

On the drop side but then rolled down beautiful to the final roll top and finished so well. I couldn't have been happier with him. As soon as he's got a job to do he gets right into it and he tries so hard. I'm so pleased with him. Oh and he ended up third which was really impressive.