Countdown

So the show season is only 10 days away from the first ESNZ show. Ii still have yet to register Connie and myself but at least it is in the works now. I have been searching the couch and behind my car seat and have finally put the money together for Equestrian sports NZ to say I'm allowed to compete. Wonderful. I'd love to see some more of my registration money filter back down to the grass roots of the sport. Head office will tell you it does but that's not really true. And i only ever gets more expensive.

I haven't had internet for over a week but plenty of things have been going on. We had the last of the Winter shows. I rode a clients horse for a clear in the 90cm and second in the 1m speed class on the first day and then 1 rail in the 95cm class and the 1.05m classes respectively. Very cute funny little horse who is very generous and tries really hard despite being a little bit spoilt and slightly unorthodox.

Butch was superb in the 1.10m for 1 rider rail but stayed soft and round which he struggles to do indoos where he is a little fried. Connie had a rail in the jump off. In the warm up of the 1.15m I cased down a stupid distance and nearly killed connie and myself. Thankfully, clever pony is clever and kept her feet on the ground which is more than I deserved. The stupidest ride to the biggest miss of m life. I'm still a little rattled. Still 1 rider rail in the 1.15m but Connie hated the surface outdoors. (All my rails were rider rails bar Butch the next day) On the Sunday in the 1.15m butch warmed up super and then got int the ring and had about 7 rails. Not from particularily bad distances or anything. I would/do struggle to understand what happened from one round t the next. It was very much a case of two different horses from one day to the next. I might have been slightly tenser in my body, but no major difference. It's odd. It's horse. It's especially Butch, that being said they are so incredibly different to ride which Butch requiring a lot of tact and support while Connie just chugs around.. Connie had 1 rail in the 1.20m class which was awesome because I was so nervous and it was a reasonable sized tracks with a few big oxers and it always looks bigger indoors. I always worry that the jumps are too big for little Connie but she has jumped so many 1.20m tracks now I need to suck it up.

I find mentally in my head i get bogged down in thoughts that I'm not good enough to be jumping the heights I jump, which is ludicrous because I am jumping them. I just worry I look like a pig in a hen house, that I'm not as good as the other riders. Also ludicrous because I'm a competent enough rider and I should focus on my own stuff and forget everyone else anyway. I know in my head it doesn't matter if you don't have all the gear and the uber fancy horse, but I still find it intimidating. Never mind.

Last weekend I did a ctr endurance fun ride over 10km with a clients kid because she is only 10 and needed an adult to accompany her. It was a bit of a hard case. Beautiful sunny day for a quiet ride across other peoples farmland on my favourite pony. There is quite a lot involved but basically the winner is the person closest to the time with the lowest heart rate on arrival + heart rate at vet check within 30 minutes. We did awesome for time being only 2 minutes over but a miscalculation on my part had us hustling home and while her pony coped ok with it, Connies heart rate was quite high once we got in. She is a typical airy farty leg flaily andalusian mover, not at all economical so I don't hold it against her . Still fourth out of six, I just wish I had worked out the time properly in the first place! The kid I rode out with was second so that's really cool and we had a great gallop across a paddock. So that's off the bucket list now and I never have to do an endurance ride again. Actually I probably would do it again but I think it would benefit from more jumps!

Currently Connie has a nick on her leg that looks like it may be infected because it's swollen and Butch has a bit of thrush in one foot her is being a baby about so preparation for the first show is going perfectly! Horses. Still they should both be fine fingers crossed. Hoping to get away for a few days next week to the beach and have some fun with the ponies.