Hero jumping
Been a very hectic week on the yard, the young horses have been loose jumping again and to everyone’s surprise this time the Maestro colt Hero jumped better than Tommy. Hero’s half brother that I brought over from Holland as a 2 year old broke and at the end of last year decided he wasn’t destined to a dressage home so I sold him as a 4 year old to a young teenager who is having a great time with him. Finish B (now called Chester) is jumping over 1m50 loose and 1m25 with his young jockey onboard, he has been cross-country schooling and his best activity is polo-cross. So if Hero takes after Finish B then there will be no stopping him and a mixed home is where he will find his heart.
Tommy didn’t disappoint either, but it was just more expected. Then at the end of the week we had some spare time so our 4 year old Lord Leatherdale, Giovanni W, was given the opportunity to try a bit of jumping. Gio was very enthusiastic to say the least! His legs are so long now I don’t think he knew really what to do with them – he seemed to enjoy himself though! All 3 are for sale.
Hubert K was training hard leading up to BD on Sunday at our local college Easton. He worked nearly everyday but worked hard one day and then the next day had a half hour under saddle stretching in walk, trot and canter. He seemed to really enjoy a focussed week and I enjoyed it to!
On Sunday we went to Easton and competed in both Novices. Once again a lot of lessons learnt about me and about Hubert. At Easton the warm up is outside and the competition is indoors, Hubert was a little weary in the warm up and started to back off in lack of confidence straight away – then to my surprise started to head shake! There was an awful lot of little flies flying in my face as well as his. It was as if they were getting down his ears – and he didn’t like it! I had a fly veil in the trailer but because the tests were indoors there was no point putting it on. So our warm up didn’t quite go to plan and the second warm up didn’t go much better – all the plans in the world and something new crops up!
In the first test he backed off far too much – not as much as he has in the past but nowhere near forward enough and certainly not forward enough to do the canter across the diagonal and counter canter; second test and he was a lot more confident, still not forward enough but another little improvement – but again we lost our counter canters and got marked for it to with my first ever 1 – we ended up on 61% & 60%. I have no photos or video or even feedback as Ben was busy entertaining Hattie outside of the arenas as she has started to run around now!
Regional qualification looks doubtful now, I just hadn’t predicted how unconfident Hubert would be in the arena,he will certainly get there but it will take a lot longer than I had first thought. He is worth the time and effort though!
This week I’m off to Keysoe for 2 days, well 3 as Ben has to drop me, Hubert & my tent off at Keysoe on Friday afternoon and then picking us up Sunday. I hope the weather is kind to me – I will be shattered after all the end of month paperwork I have to get done before going.
Will update again next week – have a fab time in the meantime!
Anna-Lisa x
