IcarusGirl
27th July 2010, 10:31 AM
My dreams of hitting the WH circuit are no more, they are, in fact, a reality! :lol:
Our local show had a few WH classes on sunday so i thought i'd give it a bash. They had a 'Novice Working Hunter - 2ft' and 'working hunter - 2ft'. I rang up the organisers to ask what the difference was and she said the novice one wouldnt have fillers or water trays so i thought 'yup' thats the one for us - because Icarus isnt exactly famed for his bravery!:lol::rolleyes:
Well.... novice eh?! Novice my arse! The jumps were terrifying! The first jump was off a corner, over sandbags and brushes. So we stopped at it. Gave him a grumble and popped it the second time.
Dogs leg into the 2nd, a narrow fence with plastic feed bags tied to the wings. So we stopped. Jumped it the second time.
The third was a simple spread with rustic poles. We have rustic poles at home so i put my leg on assuming that he'd pop it. Did he? Nope. In fact, we stopped twice! I could feel his heart pounding, poor thing. Jumped it the third time and rushed away, cantered along shying at the bushes and the wings by the side of the ring.:evilgrin:
Came round to fence 4... a hanging gate. I didnt think it looked to scary. Icarus thought we'd better stop for good measure..
Fence 5 was a fence that we had to double back on, so he only saw it at the last minute, it had bright flowers and a brush underneath. There were also a few plastic pidgeons under there, just to terrify the last few wits out of him! Though to be fair on him, any horse with common sense knows not to jump over a bird, it might flap up into your face!:lol: So we stopped...
Double back on ourselves again, for a plain cross pole with bushes by the wings and, guess what! He jumped it!:scared:
Pushed him on to the 7th jump with a new sense of hope. It had fillers by the sides... so... you guessed it. We stopped. Can you see a pattern forming?!:pmsl:
Last jump was up a derby bank. Icarus stopped at the bottom of the bank. Obviously his mad rider must have mad a wrong turning at some point. Silly woman.:rolleyes: But no! I meant for him to go up the hill! So after almost collapsing from shock, and a bit of rather enthusiastic high pitched 'good boy'ing from me we agreed that it would be best to just get on with it. Only to find at the top of the bank ANOTHER jump! So, well, he stopped. Why change the habit of a lifetime!:pmsl::rolleyes:
Annnddd finish!
The thing is, you'd think he was completely unprepared but he wasnt. We've been jumping rustics, strawbales, bushes, branches under jumps and jumps with towels hanging over them at home etc etc, and he's jumped the all hunky dory - no probs!
He just thinks too much, his brain goes into overdrive. We did a clear round before the WH to get him in the jumping frame of mind and flew round clear!
The worst bit of all was i have NO pics or videos of it. We'll just forget it ever happened, it'll be our little secret! :pmsl:
Our local show had a few WH classes on sunday so i thought i'd give it a bash. They had a 'Novice Working Hunter - 2ft' and 'working hunter - 2ft'. I rang up the organisers to ask what the difference was and she said the novice one wouldnt have fillers or water trays so i thought 'yup' thats the one for us - because Icarus isnt exactly famed for his bravery!:lol::rolleyes:
Well.... novice eh?! Novice my arse! The jumps were terrifying! The first jump was off a corner, over sandbags and brushes. So we stopped at it. Gave him a grumble and popped it the second time.
Dogs leg into the 2nd, a narrow fence with plastic feed bags tied to the wings. So we stopped. Jumped it the second time.
The third was a simple spread with rustic poles. We have rustic poles at home so i put my leg on assuming that he'd pop it. Did he? Nope. In fact, we stopped twice! I could feel his heart pounding, poor thing. Jumped it the third time and rushed away, cantered along shying at the bushes and the wings by the side of the ring.:evilgrin:
Came round to fence 4... a hanging gate. I didnt think it looked to scary. Icarus thought we'd better stop for good measure..
Fence 5 was a fence that we had to double back on, so he only saw it at the last minute, it had bright flowers and a brush underneath. There were also a few plastic pidgeons under there, just to terrify the last few wits out of him! Though to be fair on him, any horse with common sense knows not to jump over a bird, it might flap up into your face!:lol: So we stopped...
Double back on ourselves again, for a plain cross pole with bushes by the wings and, guess what! He jumped it!:scared:
Pushed him on to the 7th jump with a new sense of hope. It had fillers by the sides... so... you guessed it. We stopped. Can you see a pattern forming?!:pmsl:
Last jump was up a derby bank. Icarus stopped at the bottom of the bank. Obviously his mad rider must have mad a wrong turning at some point. Silly woman.:rolleyes: But no! I meant for him to go up the hill! So after almost collapsing from shock, and a bit of rather enthusiastic high pitched 'good boy'ing from me we agreed that it would be best to just get on with it. Only to find at the top of the bank ANOTHER jump! So, well, he stopped. Why change the habit of a lifetime!:pmsl::rolleyes:
Annnddd finish!
The thing is, you'd think he was completely unprepared but he wasnt. We've been jumping rustics, strawbales, bushes, branches under jumps and jumps with towels hanging over them at home etc etc, and he's jumped the all hunky dory - no probs!
He just thinks too much, his brain goes into overdrive. We did a clear round before the WH to get him in the jumping frame of mind and flew round clear!
The worst bit of all was i have NO pics or videos of it. We'll just forget it ever happened, it'll be our little secret! :pmsl: