Two very different types of ‘horsing around’
What can I say about Megan Jones...
Megan Jones. I truly am in awe of this amazing equestrienne! I mean, seriously, how lucky am I to be training with an Olympian! I was super excited to be attending my first official MET clinic as a team rider. All weekend I was flat out like a lizard drinking and today, Monday, I am back at work for a rest. I am absolutely exhausted, but it was worth every second!
The Targa Map
The Targa Tasmania
Firstly though, last time I blogged I was about to head to Tassie to compete at Targa Tasmania. I have been a co-driver in rally cars since 2001 and I compete on both dirt and tarmac. This year though, I am only doing two tarmac events so I can concentrate on my training with Billy.
I have been with my current tarmac driver, Max Warwick now for five Targas and two Targa High Country events. Max and I have an amazing professional partnership in the car and it’s actually very similar to the partnership I have with Billy. It’s based on trust and commitment.
Our car on the front page of the newspaper
Co-driver is the term given to the navigator of rally car in the sport of rallying, who sits in the front passenger seat. The co-driver's job is to navigate, by reading off a set of pacenotes to the driver, via an intercom due to the high level of noise in the car. The co-driver tells the driver what lies ahead, where to turn, the severity of the turn, and what obstacles to look out for. For example, we use a one to ten pacenoting system. A ‘one’ is a hairpin and if I call 150 after that, then that is the distance to the next corner (i.e. 150 metres). Then perhaps there is a ‘ten’ left. This means that the road goes left and it’s a long sweeping corner and the driver can go as fast as he can through that corner and doesn’t need to back off.
This is paperwork I read to the driver, so he knows how fast or slow to go
Targa is a great event. I love it. For the first four nights, we are based in Launceston and travel out to the stages each day. Typically there are around eight stages per day, over five days. It’s not a holiday for me, that’s for sure! It’s work and it’s hard work because you have to concentrate really hard and get it right. If you don’t, you could have a big crash and you could actually die and this year event started on a sad note with a driver passing away on the first stage on the first day of the event. It was a really sobering moment to drive past the car that was just a ball of metal and knowing that your fellow competitors were trapped in there and one hadn’t made it. It really reminds you of the actual danger of what you are doing when you’re racing around and having fun!
The fifth and sixth nights are spent in the beautiful Strahan Village and the final night and party is held in Hobart at the Wrest Point Casino before we drive back to Launceston and take the boat home.
This year, Max and I wanted to better our placing of 11th from 2012. We compete in a GT3 911 2010 Porsche, which we nicknamed Bumblebee. She’s yellow and black and fat and heavy. We are competing against the likes of new the new Audi, Mitsubishi and Subaru’s as well as a Lamborghini! So you can see, with a standard Porsche to even make the top ten is a huge feat.
I take some time out with ‘Bumblebee’
One of my ultimate favourite stages is the amazing Mt Arrowsmith, which is a wonderful 58.55 km of non stop action. Max and I love this stage and this year we were the sixth fastest on it and boy did we celebrate that! It was wonderful and we got up to speeds of 250kmph on the longer top section towards the finish. I love that stage! You can imagine our delight when we finished the event on the fifth day in eighth place! Yippee! I partied pretty hard that night at the after party!
Once I was home with my three awards, (A class win, a six year Platinum trophy, for successfully completing six Targas in a row, and a finisher’s medal) and had come back down to earth, I got back into my riding with BSP.
Megan’s Clinic
The Melbourne Eventing Team (MET) was holding a clinic with Megan on the weekend of the 18th and 19th May. I was very, very excited. It’s perfect timing as I have Woady Yaloak coming up and I’m a little nervous about that.
On Friday night I was called out to a local structure fire in BSP’s street. Fortunately our pagers tell us the full address and sadly it turned out to be a friend’s shed! She lost everything in the shed. Feed, saddlery, the lot. All she has is two halters and lead ropes but fortunately everyone (two and four legged!) were safe.
Saturday consisted of the following: Up at 6:30am for a 93k round trip to pick up a second hand Saxon rug for BSP. Flat lesson at Adult Riders. Fleeting visit to my friend who’s shed burned down the night before with a little pressie of dog and cat food for her. Then back down the road to take BSP to Megan for our cross country lesson.
I arrived to a chorus of greetings at Yarrambat and found that my good friend Katherine from Peninsula Pix had come to take photos and my mate Jayde had come to watch! YAY, the BSP fan club was out in force! I was riding at 4pm and began warming up around 3.30pm. The prior lesson went over time by about 20 minutes as a rider had a fall and Megan was working with them for a bit longer. That’s what I love about her. No matter where you are at in your riding, or what level you are, she treats everyone the same.
Finally it was our turn! There were four of us but one of the riders retired, as her horse was lame. We worked on a large circle at trot and canter to warm up and Megan told me I needed to support Billy as he was finding the slippery surface difficult. So I needed to keep my outside leg on and raise my inside hand a little. Once we’d warmed up we then moved to a small log and then progressed to a grade four water trough type fence. My job today was line and pace. As usual, I got a bit excited and over rode and had to just pull myself back and let Billy do his thing. I felt a bit tired and found the day very challenging and struggled to keep my lower leg still.
Megan reminded me of this a few times and then I began to find my focus. From this fence, we moved to a big mound that has several logs on it. We were to ride up the mound, over the log, down the mound and over a brush fence. I loved this but Billy was finding it very hard and was either throwing his head up or dropping his head right down after the fence. It made me rather nervous and I had to really focus on my confidence and push him forward. I said to Megan, after losing my balance but staying on thank goodness, that today, everything felt horrible. What Megan pointed out and I didn’t realise was that BSP was not being naughty as I thought, but he was losing confidence and balance as he’s so stiff. That was a real moment of clarity for me. I was then more conscious of how he was going and WHY he was doing what he was doing. After that it got a little better for us.
We progressed from that combination to the water trough fences and rode several of the combinations there. I did both the grade four and three fences and then Megan added in a barrel.
Here Megan explained how to find our line from the log at the top of the mound to the barrel at the bottom of the mound. This wasn’t as easy as it sounded and it was a fantastic experience to have to really look at the fences and see the true line that you needed and what you needed to line up for yourself in the distance. Going up the mound and to the barrel was loads of fun and I felt really confident, but Billy was knocking down the rail on the side, so he was bowing a little. I had to ride straighter.
Then Megan added in the water trough fence, to the barrel to the log on top of the mound in the reverse direction. We had to really ride the grade 3 water trough on an angle and then line the barrel up. The first time I did this I went too close to the next fence and used it as my ‘straight line’, which gave me the wrong line to the barrel. Megan then made me go back and do it again and again and the third time I nailed it. Up the mound to the log and BSP decides to go right and avoid the grade four log altogether! I was completely taken by surprise so off we go again and the same thing! Megan then told me to ride left after the barrel and pointed out that I was looking at the wrong spot for my line. Even more determined now, I headed off again and up we go. BSP tries to go right I am focused left and then I ripped into him with a massive growl of ‘Get up! Get up! Get up!’ and over we went. I don’t know who laughed more, Megan or me! 12 months ago I wouldn’t have done that!
Over the barrel we go
We finished and I asked Megan for some advice on studs and when to put them in and also if she ever did pace work in lessons. She then showed me an iPhone app that she has called Speed Check. She gave me her phone and said go for a canter, so off I went in the twilight and it tells you how many metres per minute you are doing! I am definitely downloading that so I can train and get my pacing and time right on course. We headed back to the yards and I packed up in the dark and took BSP home at 6:30pm. I unpacked some things, fed him, had dinner with his family as I recounted our day and then went home to bed.
Sunday, I was up at 6.30am and headed to Coldstream to judge PCAV team’s dressage ‘til 12.20pm. I flew home, collected BSP and took him to Nicole Stewart who was clipping him for me. Once that was done, I loaded him up again and went to Yarrambat again for another cross country lesson. I got my finger jammed in the gate and lost half an hour of my lesson as the lessons had been brought forward but that was OK because ANY time with Megan is valuable.
My group were out the back working over ditches and wine barrels and Megan sang out ‘Hello Miss Jenna’ and we were then working on the ditches too. Megan asked me to ride the grade 4 ditch at the walk and here I was, full of confidence and thinking, ‘Ha! Easy!’ And BSP goes and balks! Ha-ha! How funny are horses? Normally he won’t even hesitate at that type of thing. So we did this back and forth about four times and then trotted it and then did a grade four combination of a fence over a ditch with three strides to a grade four raised log.
From there, Megan asked me to ride the biggest ditch and add in the grade 3 wine barrel that was on an angle. Yep! We were building on yesterday’s lesson. So off we go at canter and I’m breathing in time with BSP’s strides and there’s a moment of hesitation and then we’re over it and then over the barrel. I was filled with relief. However, it needed to be done again of course as my nerves had kicked in and my eyes had focused on the ditch and my elbows had come out and I was throwing myself forward. The second time, I did the same thing, but to a lesser degree. The third time Megan reminded me to keep my eyes up.
Now, I don’t know about you guys, but sometimes I wonder how you keep your eyes up when you don’t have a ‘feel’ for when your horse is going to take off? I tend to glance down at the fence so I can work out when to fold and then I look for the next fence. So, I am cantering to the ditch and I am refusing to give in to my urge to look at the ditch (Megan says ‘If you can’t not look at it, close your eyes!’) and I am thinking, ‘eyes up, eyes up!’ and Megan’s saying the same thing and we’re over it and then we’re over the grade three wine barrel and it felt AMAZING!!! WOW!! I guess that kind of riding comes from experience and confidence, but what a difference! I really must just let BSP do his thing. He knows what he’s doing and I must trust that!
I just love BSP!
Then we moved on to another grade 3 ditch with a log over it. Megan wanted us to ride from the mound we did yesterday, over the brush fence to a roll top and then over the log/ditch. I was second to go and on the grade three fence I had again, been too straight in my position and my elbows had snuck out and BSP stumbled and dropped his head right down and I almost had a heart attack. LOL.
Megan sent me off again to ride the roll top and the ditch and this time she was saying ‘Duck bum!’ which reminded me to fold and slightly stick my butt out and BAM! Nailed it! It’s amazing how something SO small can make such a HUGE difference! I was smiling so wide I have given myself stretch marks! I was so happy. BSP was much happier today as well as the ground was better and despite me not feeling like I was in the best head-space today, I was super pleased with jumping Intro fences! I was very proud of us. I love that horse, so very much!
Our next outing is Woady Yaloak and this is my first MET Team competition. I am hoping beyond hope to do really well. I am excited and nervous and have booked in a session with Nicole from Sports Performance Coaching this week to ensure I am as mentally prepared as I can be! Bring it on!
Until next time,
Happy Riding and believe in yourself!
Jenna and BSP xox
All horse photos with much thanks to Peninsula Pix
