December 2007 - Henderson Valley PC ODE - Pre Training

Decided that maybe I should back Flynn off a level & try & get him a bit more confident on the XC course. Entered the Pre Training class at Henderson Valley PC. Mel came out & took photos of the dressage for me, which was very good of her!! It started raining as soon as I took Flynn of the float & I was sorely tempted to go home as didn't want to spend all day in the rain, but Mel talked me into staying & to harden up LOL I also was not looking forward to the dressage part as we had to show some lengthened steps across the diagonal & I'd never even attempted that with him before. Oh well, its just a training/bravery exercise...
Warming up in the rain



Test Begins




Extended Trot! We got an 8 for this!!

In fact we got 4x 8's in this test & a 9 for the long rein walk!! We ended up on 83% which put us into 2nd place. Went back to the float & had lunch & the rain very nicely stopped & the day started clearing up. Went over for the SJing & managed to go clear, to hang on to 2nd. Then it was time for the XC. Pretty straight forward course, nothing was really worrying me too much, which made a nice change, so off to the start box we go. The first jump was a nice ramp in the fence line, followed by a steep hill we had to go down, to a box jump down the bottom. Simple. Easy. NOPE. Flynn came into the first jump & I honestly think he was taking the piss as he slid into it & stopped. I was so gobsmacked that I didn't even think to put my legs on or give him a tap when I felt him slowing up, I had completely taken it as a gimme & Flynn had decided that this was not good enough on my part. Which was true, but still! Snot rag! Then after a whack & a circle he flew over it like he bliddy well should have done in the first place LOL However now we have a slight problem in that Flynn's only ever lived on flat land before, no steep downhillls & there was no way he was going to go down it. After having hysterics at the top of the hill for a couple of minutes & getting his ass tanned, he eventually went down the hill. I could feel him wanting to stop the whole way down, I couldn't take my legs off once or he'd spin & stop again. What a wimp! Anyway, we got down the bottom & popped over the box & off we went. Cleared the next few jumps & then disaster hit again. We had to over a narrow bridge to get to the back paddock. Apparently that wasn't happening. I was well & truly peeved by this stage, so after a few hard smacks he decided to pull his head in & carried on over the bridge. Went beautifully round the rest of the course after that, over the corner, the big ditch & straight into the water. What a shame that we had a kajillion time faults as with only 1 stop, this was actually our best effort yet!!