Unhappy people don't jump good

I guess was always just a matter of time but the fact of the matter is that the rest of my life and how I feel about it is encroaching on my riding and I’m going to shit. It started at Pukete show really. I had a miss and collected a rail in the amateur class and then had a stop at the combination following it and never really got going again. I’m getting so nervous I’m locking up, and just taking everything so seriously. But then when I’m miserable at work and at home and exhausted getting everything done, it’s getting harder to leave it all at the ring gate. The kicker is I’m riding Malinki fine because I know she will take rails so there is no pressure. Connie on the other hand matters to me. So I’m trying too hard and I have just lost my good quality canter where all my distances show up like neon arrows.

The next day at Pukete she cruised around the 1.15m in the video I put up in the last post. And I thought I had it back again but I was wrong really. The next weekend was Waikato Showjumping and I’m not getting to these shows until after 9pm after a full day of work and then still have to settle the horses for the night and then start at 6am the next day if I am in the first class and I think exhaustion is playing a big part in my problems. It’s easy as a rider to think only of horse and not take care of yourself but the rider is an important part of the combination and needs to be treated like an athlete as well.

Anyway at Waikato I had the Amateur first up and I was clear up until the 8th fence. The distance was a bit long, but she didn’t come with me and chipped in and we had a stop at the second element. Came round again and rode well and finished well. No rails just that silly stop which was my fault. The further around I got clear the more and more tense and frozen and wooden I got trying not to make a mistake so of course I made a mistake. I have lost the fluid feeling of my good rounds where everything happens almost in slow motion and I feel confident and in control.

  I late entered the 1.20m class and as I was cantering into the first fences I was telling myself to move, to do something, to do anything, but I sat there like a giant lump of useless. So naturally I had the rail at one and a stop to the combination and I was so wild with myself I actually you know rode. And it was like a switch had flicked, Connie got confident because she knew I was there with her and I was committed and she just jumped so amazing. In hindsight I should have down graded to the 1.15m championship class but Im so sick of being stuck at around that height so I stayed in the 1.25m championship. I was better in this round and made it all the way to the second combination before I had trouble. It didn’t feel amazing but it was ok and I was getting it done. Somehow I had gotten it into my head that it was four strides down to the second combination but it wasn’t so I ended up miles off the first fence of the double and had a stop. I came round again got a bad distance for a stop at the second element so I popped back over number 1 and retired because I was just getting nowhere. Poor Connie burdened with a headcase like me.

 It’s so frustrating because I know it’s all my fault and I’m not sure how to fix this. I’m struggling at work and I miss my home and don’t feel at home up here and my relationship seems to be slowly but surely circling the drain so I think I’m getting to shows and putting heaps of pressure on myself to do well to justify anything really, to have some good, and in doing so I’m ruining it.

The same weekend Malinki stepped up to the 1.10m and had two rails but is still just stepping over them because she really is ridiculously huge (17.2hh ish) and had a lazy rail in the 1m. The thing with Malinki is I don’t know if she will ever be that clean. Sometimes she tries her guts out to get over the fence clean and other times she will just bludge it. And she taps her way around the jumps. She is better if I hold her up at the base of the fence but still doesn’t try much. She was upgraded to the 1.15m championship and she actually jumped round ok. 3 rails but sometimes she got in the air nicely. Check out the video and tell me what you think. She probably isn’t really much of a showjumper but she is just such a cruisey girl to have around and would be the sort of horse you can jump big on and make mistakes and it wont phase her like it upsets Connie who tries so hard to be clean. I wonder if Malinki will start to get cleaner as she gets stronger because she has improved a lot, but as you will see on the video she still is very crooked.
And as for what comes next, I’m not really sure. I need to make some changes definitely in life because this is misery, I’m broke, stressed, homesick and utterly miserable. When I’m riding is my respite. Had a fabulous ride yesterday into the bush with Malinki, flushed some wild peacock and rode up to bush line and enjoyed the views. I cantered Connie around bareback until my thighs cried and I worked the little horse I’m riding for my cousin and she has made huge improvements in a really short time.

Pukete Showjumping

Sorry I promise a good update next week but I'm flat knackers. Here is a video of Malinki in the mean time and Connie

Feet and bees

When I moved up here at the start of March, I said goodbye to my very very good friend and very very good farrier, Pat Crowley from Crowley forge. Once I found him my horses never went better and despite Connie have ridiculous feet- thin walls, one big foot and three small and one contracted heel, he always produced beautifully balanced feet and we made huge inroads with her feet. She isn’t able to go without shoes, normally I like to rest their feet for the winter, because she just blows abscess after abscess.

Obviously, in the whole shod unshod debate, I’m pretty pro shoes for horses that are athletes. That being said riders and owners need to educate themselves as to what good balanced well shod feet look like. But then the same thing goes for barefoot trims, it can be as natural as all get out but if it isn’t balanced then forget about it you are only going to have problems. I also do use studs. I’m not so worried at around 1.10m and lower but higher than that it is important for your horses confidence and safety that they have a solid grip on the ground. Especially because I mostly jump outdoors and on grass, and studs allow me to adapt to the conditions I am confronted with. It’s amazing the difference in confidence in a horse that has studs in on bad ground and a horse that is unsure of it’s footing.

Anyway, I digress. I came up here knowing that there wasn’t a really reknown  farrier, but the farrier I had was ok. While she was out of work and on the other horses he was ok, but Connie with her niggly little feet is another kettle of fish. The last time she was shod I said her heels aren’t even. He said they were that some scar tissue on her heel from an overreach was fooling my eye. Hmm. At Te Teko show I started to feel it in her gait. A slight unevenness and changes in her shoulder development that was causing my saddle to twist. Anyway, to my delight another farrier has come into the area whom Pat gave the thumbs up too.

He has done both Malinki and Connie and they have beautiful tidy balanced feet. Incidently, he said to me that Connies heels were uneven :/ The only question i want to ask him is why her front shoes are set back which has altered her breakover. In only a week my saddle has stopped twisting which is awesome because feeling like your saddle is crooked when you are jumping is not  a good feeling. Malinki is going really well. I had put a lot of pressure on her and I actually didn’t know if she would cope at one stage, but we have come out the other side and she is going well. So much so that I have registered the great lummox and next week she starts competing higher than 1m. Having found she likes a lot of contact at the base I am finding things a lot easier with her and she is jumping up into the air a lot more athletically and trying to be clean.

 

On Saturday I noticed a few bees flying around Truckie, and when I came around the corner it turned out that a swarm of bees had nested in Truckie. So many bees, like hundreds of freaking bees living in the chest bin on my truck. They sure moved in fast because they weren't there the night before.  I got the exterminator in and he picked up the majority of the swarm and powdered to kill the remnants. I know I know, so horrible for the poor honey bees. My cousin though being a great bee advocate found a man with a spare hive and he has set it up for our bees. The are moving into their hive in the picture above. The honey guy was so into his bees he was very interesting and we ended up so close to the bees. I'm glad my cousin saved them, because if the exterminators friend hadn't taken them, they would have been exterminated and the honey bees need all the help they can get :| . Still some damn bees in my truck though.

 

 

Eastern Bay Showjumping Championships

Last weekend was my new local show, the Eastern Bay Showjumping Championships and it was nice having a show that was only 5 minutes down the road, though of course by the time I swung round to get Malinki it was more like half and hour. Bloody Malinki living far away. The first day Connie was in the 1.15-1.2m welcome stakes and I had pretty high hopes considering our recent run of form. However, horses are horses and horses keep you humble.

At Rotorua, an issue was starting to develop where Coonie was starting to hesitate off the ground a little to the bigger oxers, and so far this season I haven't felt like I really had my canter sorted like it was last season when I could feel right away we were in the right gear so a problem was due and here it was. It didn't help that the ground was very deep and cut up and started to shift a lot.

Had a long distance to the first oxer, landed on the back rail, fine over the next but I didn't ride up enough to the oxer at three and pow a stop cleared that round to the double on an ok distance and a stop again. Reapproach and she struggled through and we finished though it wasn't fun and it wasn't pretty. I sort of froze in front of my new home crowd. At first I was all aww poor pony doesn't like the ground and then I went ahh stuff it and late entered her into the 1.10m class. I wanted to find out if it was her or me and shock horror it was me, of course it was me. In the warm up she was quite naughty and hesitated at the oxer and I hit her and gave her a growl and she wasn't happy having a punge and protest. Next time round she flew over, and wonder of wonders I found my canter. I remember now exactly how it should feel.

She rocked around that 1.10 like it was so easy and I just had a rail in the jump-off when
I interfered with her too much. It was day and night, how different she was. Started to warm up Malinki for her practice round and couldn't hold her, she just blew through the bridle and we even had some small bucks and rears. Goat! So I took her home still saddled up and rode the snot of her and got some quite nice work out of her. I have been worried about he because I have put a lot of pressure on her and thought maybe I had her a little cooked but she just is feeling so good now she is up to weight and fit, and possibly hadn't had enough work. I like to think I'm not one of those ladies that over feeds and under works but I probably am!

The next day Connie was up in the amateur. I'm next to go into the ring all warmed up and bam the horse jumping in the ring collects fence 7 taking rider and horse to the ground in a massive heap. Not cool! Twenty minutes of sitting there stewing later the ring is clear and I'm up. Gulp. Got may canter organised, focues on that and the fences and hello Connie is the bomb and we jump a clear. Meanwhile, I missed Malinkis rounds jumping off. In the jump-off Connie was clear and I thought we were really quick but not so much haha and she came in fourth. I was really pleased with her, though that hesitation does still exist a little.

On the last day of the show it was time for my first 1.25m class of the season and it was a good track, some really big fences and some smaller ones. Before that though I jumped Malinki for a foot perfect clear in the 90cm. Then I wanted to get my 1m in but I didn't have time because the 1.25m was walking and I ended up being late to that class and the announcer telling me off and having a rushed jump off which worked ok because no time to panic. Got my canter organised had this mentality like we were doing this and away she went. She was amazing and I was pretty accurate and we came home with a clear round. Went back and had a shocking 1m round on malinki for only two rails but it just didn't feel good. My eye adapts ok from Malinki to Connie but struggles to go the other way. I also have only just last friday figured her jump big and clean button which I didn't have then.

In the jump off which was rather large we took rails at the first and second fence. Rode up too much to the first fence because it looked hugemungous and had the rail into the double which I think I could have avoided if I had walked it better. Then a little hesitation again at the wall from the longer spot but finished well for only two rails in the jump-off in a relatively smart time. She didn't feel like she was struggling with the height , but I need to be more carefull to avoid the longer distance and get her there a little more, especially in deep ground. Still I was estatic to have a clear over that height- my first ever!

Now I just want one show to get decent photos of me competing and we will be away. Fingers crossed for that because posts are better with pictures.  

Rotorua Spring Show

This was a show of bad omens. Some sparkles have fallen off of Connies sparkle halter for a start and by the time I was organised after work it was that late that I did even make the turn to go and get Malinki and just took Bill and Connie instead. Making it easy on myself you know. We didn't arrive until 10pm. Early start the next day being a late entry in the first class which mjeant I was second to go.

The first class was my first 1.20m of the season and I thought it looked hugemongous! The oxers look mosterous at that height. The whole way itno the first fence I'm going don't panic, don't panic. I do seem to ride that little bit better when I'm a bit scared. Connie was of course amazing and jumped a clear round. It was a two phase and I did jump off and was around 4 seconds off the winning time so I was pretty happy with her. As I jumped fence 12 I realised the finish flags had moved since I walked it and luckily I looked up and saw the last fence otherwise I would have been so lost. Love my pony man.

Then I rode Bill. I don't like Bill. Bill and I don't click I'm pretty intimidated by Bill and she certainly knows it, so after riding her for all of 20 minutes I got in touch with a girl who loves her and Bill is very very sold and I am very very relieved. We click not at all.

The amateur was the last class of the day and I found it hard to get my head in the game. That 1.15m height really doesn't scare me anymore which isd a little demotivating and makes it harder to focus especially when I'm tired and it had been so hot. But if I don't jump that height I need to look at moving up and it's such a safe height for me. The thought of consistently competing at 1.25m and looking towards 1.30m seems almost impossible. Anyways, she jumped a lovely clear round and we went into a competitive jump-off to finish off fifth which is very very awesome, but the double clear in the 1.20m still meant more to me. I'm not going to get to enough shows to really compete in the Amateur series anyway now I'm a grown up and have moved away from home and have to pay my own way 100%.

Only one class on the second day and Connie was clean in the 1.15m and we had one rail in the jump-off. I took the rail in the jump-off really by collapsing at the base and not staying strong in my upper body. IO didn't even push for time in the jump-off because she has been jumped off so much lately she is getting a bit hot across the ground and fussy in the bridle. Then home time. I show again tomorrow in the Eastern Bay SJing show, With Connie and Malinki. Possibly also Trumps but he has been a bit stiff of late so we will see how he is tomorrow.

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.

  

Pukahu Show

 

In all honesty I couldn't have asked for a better start to the season. Connie was a stooper star! She definitely earned her way back into her special sparkle halter. Friday night was like the coldest night ever it was not a good time. I was glad Dan came with me for the weekend because I would have frozen without his body heat. Still it was a pretty nice day even though the wind was cold. My frst class was the 1.10m young rider/amateur class and it was built disappointly small. I wanted to make sure I was on form heightwise but it wasn't to be. Still I was very nervous doing the first round of the season. She jumped really well, I had one sort of moment to the liverpool where I got a bit deep but basically it's all good. A little stiff maybe but on video it looks to flow a lot better than it felt. And it was good enough for second so I can't complain.

 

The nex day was the amateur class series class and what do you know they heavens opened with a cold rain. I worried about how my fair weather princess would cope but she was very brave and jumped awesome again. Better this time, very consistent but again the track was very soft with no real tricky parts and again uilt very small. 21 horses in the jump-off!

Connie is not a very quick horse and she isn't a big mover and she isn't the cattiest so she isn't really a great horse in a jump off. Still she was awesome in this jump-off. So good with her turning and I love that the turns look so smooth, not like I'm hauling her around, she is right there with me. I thought we were flyign but we really aren't that fast! Still it was a tough enough time that we won! Woo. I had decided I wasn't going to chase the series to hard and focus on moving up in height and try get to 1.30m this season, but now I have 10 big fat points! We will see what happens eh.

And saved for prosperity because it may never happen that I'm leading a series ever again.

 

There is a gymkhana tomorrow that I'm riding three horses in so I'll let you know how that goes. Had a pretty awesome day today, wicked to be cantering a  17.1hh hanoverian stallion down the beach, what a feeling.