My journal for my horse Johnny as he comes out and experiences the world for the first time. Basically this is a how to on training young horses into little superstars.
Johnny is a 6 year old pure bred Connemara. He has never ever done anything oth...
This morning was a fairly early start, but not as early as the rest of my pony club friends who were jumping in the other classes.
I was up at 8:30am this morning to start getting Johnny ready, were as one of my friends was up at 4am and had left for Hickstead by 5am! Why am I the lucky one? Because my class doesn't start until 12 noon in the polo arena, so I have plenty of time.
I plaited, washed his tail and made sure he was eating before I then went to help my mum with Starlight to make sure he would be settled while we were gone.
By 10:30am we were on the road to Haywards Heath, where Hickstead is based. We had hoped for a nice run up there as we were running late but on a good day it only takes an hour to get there. Luck, was not on our side and we got stuck on the M25 almost as soon as we hit it.
We managed to get there at 12:20pm. We had missed our course walk and this meant I wouldn't be able to work out my striding or anything else for that matter until I was actually in the ring.
Johnny was not happy standing still on the horse box either, he was constantly moving around, making the box wobble from side to side. We then had our first stroke of luck, we spotted one of my team members walking across the lorry park, she gave me my number and told me to meet by tack check in half an hour! It was doable.
Johnny was excited as it was his first big show he had ever been to, we got through tack check and went to do a clear round, which was massive! He jumped it really well and the chief instructor told me to take a deep breath and chill. She is very good and helping me calm my nerves!
I learnt the course by watching the two teams before me jump it, but because I hadn't walked it I had no idea how to ride the turns at all..
Me and Johnny were first to jump in the team, I had a mini panic before I went in but as soon as I was in the ring I was in the zone. I knew the time was tight, I knew what fences would try to cause problems for me but I was confident I knew what I was doing.
Johnny started really nicely, we cleared the first two jumps well but fence three was a problem causer, I got him over it without any problems but because he had looked and got to close he was on a bad stride for the next fence and I had no idea how many strides I should've had causing us to have it down.
Fence five was the tightest line I've ever ridden. Fence six he tapped and rolled the pole and then promptly put two strides in a one stride double causing the next part to come down, the rest of the course was jumped beautifully and we ended on 12 jumping faults, but no time faults! :)
The next member of my team had two stops and time penalties and the girl after (who was more nervous than me) ended up getting eliminated half way round the course :( meaning team elimination.
I was thrilled with Johnny, it was the first time in three years I'd been able to actually jump the whole way round the course and I was so proud of him, considering he had never competed until then.
My mum bought me a beautiful photo and a glass Hickstead frame for it to hang on the wall.
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Excuse my face, I talk to all of my horses when they jump. This fence stood at about 3'3 ft and trust me, when you've never walked a course like that on a pony as green as Johnny it was terrifying!
xxx
I hope you enjoyed this little insight into my horsey days and I'll see you all again when I show you my dressage schooling routine and then when I go XC schooling on Friday 12th.
