Day 1
Just over 4 hours later we arrived at Taupo. Smile was quickly wiped off my face when I found out I had been given the wrong time for my group & was on in half an hour! YIKES! So much for the couple of hours I had given myself & Flynn to relax after the drive! Luckily for me Louise helped me get Flynn ready. Hopped on & headed out onto the XC course. We warmed up over a small log, which should have been sweet as but everytime we landed & cantered away, he'd do some acrobatics as he was just so excited to be there. Then onto the ditch & upright with boulders underneath it. In the world according to Flynn, boulders are scary & will eat you, however after a couple of stops, decided that flying over them would be the better approach. By this stage my nerves are pretty much shot & I have no lower leg to speak of. Which is not good, when you come into a ditch. A lovely little tiny ditch. Well thats what I saw, not sure what he saw, maybe something of the molten lava variety with horse eating monsters there too? Not sure, anyway, nearly came off a few times as once he stopped stopping at it, he then started jumping it, by going straight up in the air. It was then confirmed that he was not really jumping across it & with all that power coming from under the saddle, certainly lead for some very interesting jump positions on my behalf. Luckily I seemed to have a monkey like ability to cling on, so didn't come off. Just as well as I probably would have given up then & there! We then went off to do some other jumps around the place. Thankfully we both settled a bit & started to enjoy ourselve a little. Over at the Palisade I was thinking to myself oh dear mother of god, I'm going to fall in the ditch & hit my head on the wall & die. But Flynn had other ideas & thankfully flew over it. With no help from me as I'm pretty sure I near on tried pulling him up in front of it! End of day one & I'm still alive. But only just. Turns out the pony can tank a little bit, so decided to take him out of the KK Trainer & put him in the copper roller for day 2's effort. Nerves not helped throughout the session with various horses returning to camp riderless as their riders were out doing their own thing on the course.
Day 2
Got up & got Flynn ready. He thinks this dinner AND breakfast thing is awesome!! Threw on the copper roller & went off to find the rest of my class. Thank god for day 2!! Flynn decided that he pretty much had this lark all sorted & merrily jumped everything in front of him. Had one unexpected stop at an upright double out in the middle but I think he might have been wanting some leg on coming into it. Turns out I'm so scared out XC that my legs turn to jelly & become completely ineffective. We had to string together a few jumps so that it was more like a course today, with an upright 2 strides before the drop into the water, a nice big corner etc. Lucky for me, I like corners & Flynn seems to like them too, so no issues there & even went over the log nicely into the water. Flynn pulled up quite nicely in the copper roller too, so that was good as he was just starting to get a bit of a pull on, on the other side of the jumps. Turns out he's quite quick when he puts his mind to it!
Day 3 - Show Jumping Practice Day
Custard. Absolute custard. Flynn decided he was mortified that I'd dared use a single joint bit on him the day before & decided that the order of the day was to rush & jump hollow, with head in the air. Mmmm, sexy! Couldn't do anything with him & after having a disagreement about the speed necessary in a SJ ring, decided to call it a day. Gina had a quick ride on him & did her best to settle him but it wasn't really going to happen. Never mind, he actually went clear, just more like an inverted banana than the nice round pony he normally is...
Went around with the others & walked the XC course. Holy shyite! Its massive! & scary!! & had 2 water jumps! they had done all sorts of horrible things, like putting a kennel on the ramp to the bank, 2 strides off the bank, then 3 strides to a chevron which they then put brush on top of. 2 stride double in the trees with a long ground line filled with brush. Oh crap, I was definitely going to die.
Day 4 - Day of Death. I mean, Training Trial...
Woke up to the sound of rain on the roof & thought uh oh. Should have stayed in bed. Was towards the end of the class, so had plenty of time to muck about & get ready. Went in & did our dressage test, which was bollocks. Apparently, the best way to canter in a dressage test is to drop your belly onto the ground, disunite & go around with eyes on stalks. So ended up 20th out of 22 for that effort. Hehehe excellent start!!
Went over & did the SJing & got a nice clear round from him, albeit it very tense & banana like.
Then it was time for the death phase. I mean XC phase. Luckily for me, Sarah very nicely came down & stayed the night in her car the night before & was able to take photos of what was about to unfold....
We got called over to the start box. So far so good, we've even managed the practice jump without me throwing up. Left the start box & did the first third of the course beautifully, landed after the big corner & lined up the first water. He jumped into that beautifully! Photo courtesy of Take The Moment.
Then he bolted. Flynn's suicide mission had started. All I had was steering & even that was being a bit generous...Cleared the palisade by miles
We bounced down the 1 stride stair case
Then carried on at a flat out mad gallop, over the double with the skinny, up the bank & over the upright, then onto towards the double in the trees. Had a run out here, was going so fast, that as he ran out at the last minute, my head was left a tree level. Managed to push myself back into saddle off the tree as we swung past, complete with a collective gasp from the crowd. Very lucky I didn't break my arm on the tree. I have no control whatsoever & had gone from pleading with Flynn to stop, to doing some angry dentistry which was not having any effect whatsoever.
By this stage, I'm starting to feel a little panicky as we still had the dog kennel on the ramp to the bank, with the big drop & then 3 strides to the chevron with brush on top of it.
And then it was the beginning of the end. Little did I know it, but we were going to be finished veeeeeeery soon....
Came over the roll top before the water & then Flynn spotted the water jump & realised that it was a bit dirtier than the other one, so mum should really go & check it out instead, just in case he got poisoned from it or something...
SPLASH!!
Off I go! I landed on my lower back on the log in front of the water & bounced off that & landed face first in the muddy water. At which point Flynn scarpered back to the float & left me swearing & cursing (a lot!) It was freaking cold! They held up the course as they wouldn't let me get off my hands & knees (mmm attractive & COLD!) until they were sure I hadn't hit my head. They asked me where I was & I said "in the middle of the freaking cold water jump at Taupo" at which point they said I was obviously with it enough to move around & hop out. Thank gawd! My friend bought Flynn back to me & I was buggered if I was going to walk all that way back to the float, so hopped on & rode back. Still wasn't talking to him by this stage. Got back to float & Sarah very nicely untacked him for me while I went & had a very long hot shower. Decided then & there to pack up asap & go home as I wasn't going to cope very well with sleeping in the cold float that night with a sore back & was very glad I did, as by the time I got back to Meremere, I was quite stiff & sore. Stopped to let Flynn out for a walk around the Mobil service station (I was talking to him now) & thought for a moment that he was broken as he was doing a really weird moon walk around the car park. Until I realised he was scared of the white painted car park lines & didn't want to stand on them. This caused a bit of amusement & the evil side of me walked him over them for a bit longer so that I could have a bit of a giggle at his expense. Put him back on the float & carried on back to Auckland. Got home about midnight & fell asleep thinking how much I hated eventing! LOL
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