Re: Brag alert - Quinn's debut at Novice Level eventing
This message is from: Emma Bicknell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Dagrun, That sounds fantastic, big hugs for Quinn. Stories like that really inspire me to get out there and do things with my ponies! Congratulations! Em Dagrun Aarsten wrote: This message is from: "Dagrun Aarsten" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Hello everybody, I haven't kept up with the list lately but hope horses and people are all doing well. This Saturday Quinn and I made our debut at Novice level eventing at Travis Air Force Base equestrian center near Sacramento. Last week, Quinn and I seemed a little out of sync, and we somehow couldn't agree on simple things like canter transitions, so my expectations for the dressage were just to keep him as light and responsive as possible without going for perfection. I was very relieved when everything suddenly seemed to come together during the warm-up. We had a few moments where he was tempted to jump the rail again, and as all the other riders, we struggled with the serpentine pattern (two loops only, and the arena was more 15x40 than 20x40, which makes that almost impossible), and had a hint of a canter stride on a trot diagonal, plus a little sideways step in the last halt, but scored a respectable 64.5 % (35.5 penalty points). Then off to walking the cross-country course. Novice Level is 2'6" to 2'9". Somehow, at Travis, the jumps always seem a little smaller than the maximum, so I was expecting a nice little course similar to the things we practised in the clinic two weeks earlier. Not so! Jump number 3 was a wide table, just "hanging in the air" (no groundline at all) about 2'9" tall and probably as wide(deep). I looked at it and realized we have never seen anything that tricky before. Jump 5 a-b-c was a coffin-type combination. with a log jump, then a short down slope to a ditch with water, then a short up-slope to a plank wall. And so it went. One solid oxer that was also close to maximum height and width, again no ground line, on a pretty heavy uphill slope. All in all, a total of 18 jumps over a long course, most around the maximum height we've ever schooled and 2-3 past what we've ever practiced. Oh well, I decided to give it a try and then retire if Quinn lost heart or got really tired. So off we went, Quinn was rather slow over the first 2 jumps, so I made sure to wake him up before the scary table number 3 - he was quite surprised, and we had a conversation more or less like this: Dagrun: "please jump this terrifying table here in front of us" Quinn: "OK, OK, WHAT! That one???" (smaller jump to the side of it) Dagrun: "YES" Quinn: "Do you think I can do that?" Dagrun: "I know you can!" Quinn: "OK ma'am. Jumping. Hang on!" After that I knew this could be good. We cleared the coffin without faults as the FIRST HORSE that day, almost all horses stopped at the water, except Quinn plus the last rider of the day (just behind us), I was already getting tired but very excited, off to a combination of two enormous cross-rails made with fat logs, big but very inviting. Then up the hill to the BIG oxer - a tap of the whip at the approach to tell him that we needed some extra impulsion for that one, and he flew over, and so it went. Every time he wasn't too sure about a jump he slowed down to have a look and then hopped over, so it wasn't always nice and fluid but WHAT A HORSE! After the "fake" water complex (no water in it, only sand), Quinn threw in a huge buck for fun, and I heard one of the fence judges shouting something to me (I should have listened) before we galloped on. From there it just went better and better. Towards the end I slowed him down to a trot coming downhill, for safety AND to let him catch his breath a little before the last couple of jumps. When I pointed him to the next jump, he picked up a balanced canter and sailed over. I was in ecstacy as we galloped over the finish line and everyone was cheering. Quinn has always been a favorite at Travis but last time he did baby jumps and never showed them that he can actually jump like that. Stadium jumping was another story. Quinn knows a little too well that these thin striped poles knock down pretty easily. The more substantial a jump is, the better he will jump it. So I knew this would be interesting when most of the jumps were single poles(!) hanging alone in the air at 2'6" or so. Add to that a horse that is still breathing after cross-country... and a rider that has finished most of her focus energy supplies... It wasn't too pretty, but we came around with only 3 knockdowns, although we touched at least 6 of the 11 jumps. Quinn took it all like a Sunday walk in the park, which is not necessarily good when the goal is jumping, and he happily knocked down pole after pole! The pole from jump number 10 was balancing on top of his knees for 2-3 strides (or that's what it felt like) but that didn't scare him from jumping the final number 11 with the same cheerful attitude! Oh well, not too bad, all things considered. Then, f
Brag alert - Quinn's debut at Novice Level eventing
This message is from: "Dagrun Aarsten" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Hello everybody, I haven't kept up with the list lately but hope horses and people are all doing well. This Saturday Quinn and I made our debut at Novice level eventing at Travis Air Force Base equestrian center near Sacramento. Last week, Quinn and I seemed a little out of sync, and we somehow couldn't agree on simple things like canter transitions, so my expectations for the dressage were just to keep him as light and responsive as possible without going for perfection. I was very relieved when everything suddenly seemed to come together during the warm-up. We had a few moments where he was tempted to jump the rail again, and as all the other riders, we struggled with the serpentine pattern (two loops only, and the arena was more 15x40 than 20x40, which makes that almost impossible), and had a hint of a canter stride on a trot diagonal, plus a little sideways step in the last halt, but scored a respectable 64.5 % (35.5 penalty points). Then off to walking the cross-country course. Novice Level is 2'6" to 2'9". Somehow, at Travis, the jumps always seem a little smaller than the maximum, so I was expecting a nice little course similar to the things we practised in the clinic two weeks earlier. Not so! Jump number 3 was a wide table, just "hanging in the air" (no groundline at all) about 2'9" tall and probably as wide(deep). I looked at it and realized we have never seen anything that tricky before. Jump 5 a-b-c was a coffin-type combination. with a log jump, then a short down slope to a ditch with water, then a short up-slope to a plank wall. And so it went. One solid oxer that was also close to maximum height and width, again no ground line, on a pretty heavy uphill slope. All in all, a total of 18 jumps over a long course, most around the maximum height we've ever schooled and 2-3 past what we've ever practiced. Oh well, I decided to give it a try and then retire if Quinn lost heart or got really tired. So off we went, Quinn was rather slow over the first 2 jumps, so I made sure to wake him up before the scary table number 3 - he was quite surprised, and we had a conversation more or less like this: Dagrun: "please jump this terrifying table here in front of us" Quinn: "OK, OK, WHAT! That one???" (smaller jump to the side of it) Dagrun: "YES" Quinn: "Do you think I can do that?" Dagrun: "I know you can!" Quinn: "OK ma'am. Jumping. Hang on!" After that I knew this could be good. We cleared the coffin without faults as the FIRST HORSE that day, almost all horses stopped at the water, except Quinn plus the last rider of the day (just behind us), I was already getting tired but very excited, off to a combination of two enormous cross-rails made with fat logs, big but very inviting. Then up the hill to the BIG oxer - a tap of the whip at the approach to tell him that we needed some extra impulsion for that one, and he flew over, and so it went. Every time he wasn't too sure about a jump he slowed down to have a look and then hopped over, so it wasn't always nice and fluid but WHAT A HORSE! After the "fake" water complex (no water in it, only sand), Quinn threw in a huge buck for fun, and I heard one of the fence judges shouting something to me (I should have listened) before we galloped on. From there it just went better and better. Towards the end I slowed him down to a trot coming downhill, for safety AND to let him catch his breath a little before the last couple of jumps. When I pointed him to the next jump, he picked up a balanced canter and sailed over. I was in ecstacy as we galloped over the finish line and everyone was cheering. Quinn has always been a favorite at Travis but last time he did baby jumps and never showed them that he can actually jump like that. Stadium jumping was another story. Quinn knows a little too well that these thin striped poles knock down pretty easily. The more substantial a jump is, the better he will jump it. So I knew this would be interesting when most of the jumps were single poles(!) hanging alone in the air at 2'6" or so. Add to that a horse that is still breathing after cross-country... and a rider that has finished most of her focus energy supplies... It wasn't too pretty, but we came around with only 3 knockdowns, although we touched at least 6 of the 11 jumps. Quinn took it all like a Sunday walk in the park, which is not necessarily good when the goal is jumping, and he happily knocked down pole after pole! The pole from jump number 10 was balancing on top of his knees for 2-3 strides (or that's what it felt like) but that didn't scare him from jumping the final number 11 with the same cheerful attitude! Oh well, not too bad, all things considered. Then, finally, someone (=the judge) had the guts to tell me that I had missed a jump at cross-country! When he threw the big buck, my mind somehow erased jump number 14 and went straight to 15. What a bummer. We might possibly have won, and in any cas
