Sunday 23 October 2016

Norton Disney

Good Morning

It's a lovely morning here so thought I'd catch up with the weeks events whilst watching the girls sunbathing.

Things went downhill after our jumping session last Sunday, we all got pinned down and yucky paste shoved down our throats, apparently having zero egg counts all year isn't enough to get us out of this ritual torture, we've had bot eggs on our legs all summer and mum's a bit concerned about tapeworms with the girls both losing weight (maybe I should stop hogging the hay).

Monday didn't get much better, I got dragged in and groomed before the clippers came out, this took ages whilst mum fiddled around trying to work out why they were pulling at my hair but eventually got them working so now I'm naked and mum's orange. Apparently this process will be a lot easier once we get some stables built and can get out of the wind. This was followed by lots of banging and crashing from the shed while she tried to identify a suitable rug for me, apparently my usual one rubs my mane which cannot be allowed to happen this winter (bla bla badminton bla bla) so I'm in Emy's old one for now, seriously think it's about time I had my own rug rather then hand me downs from granny! The up side of this is Emy's in Islas pink rug which sooo doesn't suit her so we all get to have a good laugh. Oh yeah, I may have escaped into the garden after the clipping session.


Later on Monday we went for a dressage lesson with Tim and I was surprisingly good for saying I was newly naked, we did lots of going sideways (on purpose) and counter canter which I'm really good at but my trot work wasn't quite as good as it has been the last week or so however hard we tried, I just wasn't really feeling it you know? We did schooling at home on Thursday as well which was similar, not bad at all just not quite as good as it was last week, I've got a bit of an upset tummy the last few days so think I'm just a bit under the weather, probably that nasty wormer.


Tuesday and Friday we went hacking, just the boring there and back ride past the barky dogs as we had Isla with us (mum says we both need to do more roadwork to tidy our feet up so it's two for one hacking). We had a couple of nice breaks to chat to the neighbours and minimal spooking although we did cooperate to drag mum up one of the hills in canter, spoilsport quickly brought us back to walk though as apparently Isla's supposed to be taking it easy.


NORTON DISNEY BE90
Yesterday we went to Norton Disney for the last event of the season. It was a bit of an odd day, no early start and I actually got to go back out after breakfast and have a roll. This did mean I saw the ramp go down on the box so decided to have a quick game of chase around the field when it was time to be caught but eventually I did my best innocent "oh, you wanted to catch me" face and came willingly. Dressage went pretty well, came together just before we went in but lost my mojo in the arena, it's scary in there and I needed to go toilet, still got a pretty impressive 30.5 which I think is our best from that judge, plenty of 7.5s and an 8. 


Quick rest then show-jumping, mum was having one of those days where she needs her eyes testing, she tried to blame my lack of umph but really she just couldn't see a stride for toffee (and as she's trying to lose weight again she'd do pretty much anything for sugar right now, she's even steeling my polos). Luckily I was in a generous mood so we still went clear and I got lots of pats and polos for helping out. Talking of which polo lady's found my blog and decided it's even more important she provides a constant supply - happy days!


There was a long cold wait for the cross country then when we finally got on with it I was feeling a bit rough again so I stopped at the first warm up fence. This didn't go down well but after another trip to the toilet I felt a lot better and warmed up well. I was a bit quiet again at the start so no leaping around this time and didn't really like the first fence but once I realised what we were doing I got into my stride and started to enjoy myself. I have to admit when we first started doing cross country I found it a bit scary but I love it now, it's so cool just galloping around and it doesn't really matter if it goes wrong, you just climb over them and you still get a pat. The first half of the course was going so well mum said we had to slow down which meant we got a bit confused about where to take off a few times but we made it round clear and I enjoyed myself so much I didn't want to stop at the end to chat to the nice lady in the caravan (apparently slowing down towards the end is a bit naughty), so I practised standing on my back legs for a change.


We just managed not to get penalties for going to fast (who'd have thought it from a pony that couldn't gallop a couple of years ago, must thank Isla for the lessons). We finished on our dressage score of 30.5 but in a very competitive section to earn 8th place and a frilly.

Having a few days off with extra hay and tummy supplement so should be back to my usual cheeky self soon. Hope you're all enjoying what's left of the sunshine. Mango x

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