Lots of xc!

So I forgot to blog for a week and so much happened where do I begin!? 
 Since my last blog, me and Sparkie have been xc schooling at Someford. He was super awesome, getting a lot more confident with stringing fences together and jumping more technical fences; especially ditches! At the start of the year he point blank refused to even consider looking at the ditch and now he jumps them first time with no hesitation! Good pony. 

Then on Saturday we did something we've been waiting a while to do... hunter trial time! The last time I did a hunter trial, it was... well a disaster, so I really did not know what to expect. It was SO much fun though and both Sunny & Sparkie were super, they were both so well mannered and had fab brakes which is really all I was aiming for. Sparkie had 3 stops in his individual class but I think it was just due to a slight lack of confidence on my part as I didn't really get after him enough, but for a first proper attempt I couldn't have asked for more, he gave me such a confidence filling ride, super happy with him! 

Sack the jockey

Well after Jack's behaviour a la trailer last weekend, I decided to take Sparkie out to Penkridge show instead. He's been out xcing and other bits and bobs but he hadn't competed since the start of May and he was SO happy to be back out, it honestly made me so, so happy to see that he really loves his job and I think other people could see that too, so that was really nice. He was really taking me into jumps and didn't feel like he was going to hesitate at anything... until the jump off when I put him on the most awful turn of all time ever and he had no choice but to slam the breaks on, poor pony, completely rider error; fair to say I was very cross with myself, it was a stupid mistake and I should no better by now! Even more frustrating that he still got the fastest time by about 3 or 4 seconds even with a stop. Never mind, mistakes happen and at least I can learn with it and remember to ride my lines properly in future. 

he's so perfect!

Then today it was a jumping day for all the ponies! All of them behaved great and we had big smiles throughout; even when, once again, Sparkie put me on the floor, what a little bugger he is! He's definitely a challenge that one, he does like to keep me on my toes, but he's so fun to ride, he's such a little pocket rocket you can't help but love him anyway. Sunny was fab, both schooling and jumping, his canter is so, so much better, his transitions are brilliant now! And then Jack was, as usual, a little bit half asleep- he's so laid back about his jumping! He really does put zero effort into smaller jumps so we just kept putting it up and he ended up jumping 1m10... and made it feel scaringly small, it honestly did not feel like a big fence. Such a cool horse! 

Birthdays & XC

Feel like I haven't blogged in a long time.. oops! Since I last blogged both Sparkie & Jack have had a birthday! Sparkie was 10 last Saturday and well... I fell off. The 2nd time I've come off Sparkie this year... excuse me!? In all fairness it has taken 6 years of dirty stops for him to get me off over a fence so it'd had been a long time coming haha. He's such a dishonest pony sometimes and he really did prove that to me cheeky moo! Other than giving me an unplanned dismount he was awesome, if a little bit crazy, bouncing down a one strid grid and making life rather difficult for himself... a stride would have been nice Sparks! Bless him, he's a funny one.

Then the day after Sparkie's birthday, I took Jack XC! He loaded great on the way there and was great to groom and tack up, probably the calmest he's even been out at a place. He was great to xc, I few mistakes here and there but I forget its only his second time, so taking that into account he was awesome, what a cool baby! He jumped a lot more fences without having to have a look this time and was a lot more confident and clearly was having an absolutely great time; it's so nice to see and feel that he really loves what he's doing! Unfortunately he then had to ruin his great behaviour by throwing a huge tantrum about getting on the trailer. Oh Jack. So we're going to take a step back and work on his loading again before I start to take him out again. Frustrating but he travelled and jumped great and we've got all the time in the world to work with him; he'll be worth it in the end!

could he be any happier?

ashdasSshkakA sexy

Team Ginger!

beautiful hoss

Then on Wednesday it was his 5th birthday... what!? Swear it only seems like yesterday that I met him as a 1yo so that's really really weird haha, it's been a pleasure to see the grown up horse he has grown into. Gave him a jump on his birthday which was fun, apart from the fact that he seemed half asleep and just stepped over everything... forever waiting for the day that he decides to put some effort in! Definitely need to do a chase me charlie with him one day soon and see what he's capable of!