Cross country clinic at Lynton – no stirrup but who cares – I probably couldn’t feel my feet anyway!
The last month has been wet, cold and a constant test of my sanity. I’ve become quite good at hitting the snooze button at 5.30am and coming up with several very valid reasons for not riding in the mornings. Up at the top is simply ‘it’s too cold’ followed closely by ‘Laura woke several times and I’m too tired’ or just ‘stuff that for a joke, my bed’s too warm’. However, I’ve made it out to ride on average three mornings during the week. Luckily, on some weekends, I am able to ride slightly later – or at least when I can actually see Astro to catch him.
My youngest helper
Since my last blog I‘ve had to deal with the school holidays and finding ways to entertain three kids when the outside temperature struggles to reach double figures. We rugged up and went outside to one of the new playgrounds thinking that it’s so cold no-one else would be there. Seems Canberrans are made of tough stuff (or they’re all as mad as me) and the place was packed. But they all enjoyed being there and queued quite happily to have their turn. We also did other standard stuff like the movies and Questacon - with the added bonus of dealing with a vomiting 5 year old – something I’m not in a hurry to repeat. I’m now glad my boot is full of random things like buckets, so it goes to show that being too lazy to clean out the boot has its benefits.
Sam Lyle was teaching up at Lynton in July, and about 20 of us braved the incredibly cold and bitter conditions. Never have I been so close to admitting that I am stark raving bonkers. Saturday was hailing and raining pretty much non-stop throughout my lesson – luckily for Sam it was the last lesson of the day – can’t imagine him wanting to put up with getting saturated and frozen for the entire day.
Training with Sam
Sunday was very fresh, with the wind chill making the temperature barely above zero. Goulburn is about an hours drive from Canberra, but we stayed overnight with friends, and was in the first group on Sunday, so all up I was away from home for 25 hours. When I got home, I was told that I hadn’t actually received permission (from Abby who is 5) to do so. Seems like I have some work to do there!
Astro behaved like a complete idiot on the Saturday, expressing his utter disgust at the idea of me taking his warm rugs off and saddling up (I could hardly keep the saddle blanket on while trying to put the saddle on with him spinning around and him being about 16.3 but doing his best to be about 18hh did alert me to the fact that things were going to get interesting). Needless to say, just leading him away from the float he did his best impressions of a bucking bronco, so the lunge rein came out and I was holding on for dear life while he bucked and kicked his way around in a circle for at least 10 minutes. Eventually he calmed down enough for me to brave actually getting on – I really have turned into a grade A wimp when it comes down to it. I just don’t fancy the idea of falling off particularly much, it’s such a long way down! Such that when someone comments – didn’t you fall off at blah blah blah, and I indignantly reply … I haven’t fallen off since July 2012 when Astro fell over, which probably means I haven’t been riding hard enough. Jumping wise Astro did very well and he even got fed when we got home!
The pile of cleaning that had to be done as I was driven to the event
The following weekend was SIEC. I hadn’t been there since we fell over coming out of the second water and I was slightly apprehensive about the cross country as I remember it was MASSIVE that year. I was extremely lucky enough to manage to escape away without ANY children again! (don’t worry – this costs me in fishing weekends) and I enjoyed spending some time faffing about getting ready for my dressage – you know, doing things you never ever can find the time for, like trimming their tails, or attempting to trim their bridle path but never can because they hate it so much they chuck theirs heads up really really high – or maybe that’s just Astro? Anyway, I warmed up and everything felt pretty good and I was happy enough with my test. I walked out thinking ‘yep, mid field’. Nope, third last. So then I watched the video. First time – oh come on, that was good. Second time, - you really must lift your hands up off his neck. Third time – oh please - MORE canter. So quite frankly, by the time I’d watched it four times, I thought the judge was being generous! So I’m not sure if having lots of spare time is beneficial or not now!
Astro enjoying his liquorice at SIEC
Sunday dawned and with it the reason we all event – cross country! I walked the course again and really felt that there was no reason we couldn’t go clear – and we did! Time penalties of course, but I’m trying to ride him without having to fight in the last four strides before each jump, so we are going around a lot slower than we should. I’d rather be clear with heaps of time than flipped over a jump!
Here is our sunny cam footage from SIEC
We show jumped next and it was great, partly because the arena we were jumping in was really close to my stable. The committee have worked hard to try and reduce the distance between the parking/stabling and the rings and it’s proved a success. I was able to watch a few rounds and give myself the heeby geebies as there were not many clear rounds at all. John Vallance had designed a really tricky course, with 6.5 strides between 2 and 3. I was talking to Mrs Brook about it afterwards and of the 64 rounds, 32 horses had number three down! Probably more by good luck than good riding, my round was one of the 13 clears of the day – talk about chuffed! The drive home to Canberra was very enjoyable, given I didn’t have to berate myself for some silly little mistake and I could enjoy a well-earned treat!
Show jumping at SIEC
I’m in the process of organising another clinic here in Canberra with Sam Lyle, and hoping that we have lovely weather for the next few weeks. This weekend in the ACT Showjumping Classic and in a moment of stupidity, I’ve entered the 1m and the 1.15m so time will tell if I actually ride them both – but when you see entry fees of $8 when you are used to $140 you just can’t help yourself!
My treat for going clear cross country at SIEC!
Upon re reading this I’ve mentioned my mental status no less than four times and that’s only in reference to riding – don’t even get me STARTED on the stresses of trying to get three children out the door and at school by 8.45 every day. That right there is a recipe for disaster and a trip to the funny farm.
Hope you are all enjoying the longer days now, and looking forward to your next adventures with your equine friends.
Kate
