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templars
Platinum Member

England

1852 Posts

Posted - 23 Apr 2010 : 8:38:18 PM

Heron and Evie had a wonderful weekend going clear at their first JRN of the season! Major achievement for them both because so far this season, Heron has gone clear every time out and they really are working well together as a team.

We should have done our first JRN a couple of weeks ago but it was cancelled, so this was our first one. Capt Mark Phillips was the course designer. It was an interesting course - first impression was that it was fairly straight forward - big, solid fences after good gallops. But as we walked it we realised that actually although the fences themselves weren't technical, their positioning was highly technical. The course is very twisty, up and down the side of a hill so that you can literally have three horses passing each other - two going up hill and one coming down hill. There were wonderful long stretches between many of the fences but then a nasty skinny or offset massive table which meant opening the horses up and then having to get them back on the bit and bouncy, followed by a sharp turn, back down the hill with a long gallop and then bouncy again.

So, here they are - at the water and then the barge.

Really pleased about this because Heron has had an issue with jumps into water and getting his stride on the step out. Here he had to jump a sizeable log with a drop into the water and then this jump out with a pallisade one stride later - technical complex - beautifully ridden - even the commentator said it was well ridden

This was a maximum dimension fence - you can see how big it is because Heron is 16.3!!!

And here is Harry (no Arab blood - sorry!). He had a brilliant day as well, going clear. He did the class below Heron - he hasn't qualfied to compete at JRN with Evie yet. He is a really stressy horse which is surprising for a horse that's done Gatcombe and Bramham. We've had some issues with him show jumping because he gets so excited, he just bounces on the spot. We actually withdrew him from his last two events just to practice more at home and try and build his confidence. It worked!!!! The main problem was holding him back - once he got on the cross country course, he knew where he was and he knew what his job was. It was more a case of "you sit there Evie and I'll get us round" It was a bit of a battle and Evie had to try really hard to get him going in a steady rhythm but they managed it in the end and Harry started to listen (again, lovely comments from the commentator about Evie's sympathetic riding)

Here they are at the trakhener

So, a really good day all round - we achieved everything we wanted to - clears with both the boys and Harry well on his way to being able to compete at Novice alongside Heron. Now Heron has gone clear at JRN, he can compete at normal Novices (which believe it or not are slightly easier!)

Off for more fun this weekend with Harry then both boys out next week

Happy Team Templars

www.eviepeel.com

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Fee
Platinum Member

2601 Posts

Posted - 23 Apr 2010 : 8:43:57 PM

Spectacular!! You must be so proud

Well done

Fee x

Edited by - Fee on 23 Apr 2010 8:44:56 PM