Murphy did his first ODE today, his first 'proper' eventing debut
Went to a ODE at the south of england showground....and its was PACKED!
all the classes were full and all the classes were split up...and there was still 25 in each of the 3 sections
Not going to ramble on as i'm sure you'd rather see the pictures and videos
Dressage went quite well, considering he barely got any warm up at all, it was boiling hot and its only his 2nd test on grass
Showjumping he had 1 pole down, which i was pleased with as the ring was quite small, and had a giant tree in the middle pleased he got through all the combinations fine, and didnt get put off when he tripped half way round.
Cross Country i was most nervous about, as neither of us have gone round a whole 'proper' XC course, but he was a star! We had an issue at a jump shaped like a giant wooden boat and ran out at it twice. I had to make a decision between trying again and with the fuss murph was making he wasnt going to jump a 3rd time - meant that i'd have to leave the course at a walk, alternatively forget about it, move on and jump the rest of the course... although i'd have been eliminated.
I decided to make it a schooling round, and we cantered off to jump the rest of the course he stopped at a small skinny of tyres (the first skinny he's seen) but he jumped it 2nd time round, and he jumped another 3 skinnies on the course, and he stopped at a small jump on a really steep hill - as i was trying to find a line between rushing him down the hill and not going forwards, but again he jumped that 2nd time round...apart from that he flew everything - steps, ditches, water, and some really weird ones that i thought would've caused problems but didnt its a shame the boat wasnt further into the course, as i think he'd have jumped it if he'd gotten into the swing of XC.
Didnt stay for results as we were eliminated anyway, and i didnt really care cause my boy was such a star anyway
pics/vids to follow
Went to a ODE at the south of england showground....and its was PACKED!
all the classes were full and all the classes were split up...and there was still 25 in each of the 3 sections
Not going to ramble on as i'm sure you'd rather see the pictures and videos
Dressage went quite well, considering he barely got any warm up at all, it was boiling hot and its only his 2nd test on grass
Showjumping he had 1 pole down, which i was pleased with as the ring was quite small, and had a giant tree in the middle pleased he got through all the combinations fine, and didnt get put off when he tripped half way round.
Cross Country i was most nervous about, as neither of us have gone round a whole 'proper' XC course, but he was a star! We had an issue at a jump shaped like a giant wooden boat and ran out at it twice. I had to make a decision between trying again and with the fuss murph was making he wasnt going to jump a 3rd time - meant that i'd have to leave the course at a walk, alternatively forget about it, move on and jump the rest of the course... although i'd have been eliminated.
I decided to make it a schooling round, and we cantered off to jump the rest of the course he stopped at a small skinny of tyres (the first skinny he's seen) but he jumped it 2nd time round, and he jumped another 3 skinnies on the course, and he stopped at a small jump on a really steep hill - as i was trying to find a line between rushing him down the hill and not going forwards, but again he jumped that 2nd time round...apart from that he flew everything - steps, ditches, water, and some really weird ones that i thought would've caused problems but didnt its a shame the boat wasnt further into the course, as i think he'd have jumped it if he'd gotten into the swing of XC.
Didnt stay for results as we were eliminated anyway, and i didnt really care cause my boy was such a star anyway
pics/vids to follow