Tuesday, 24 July 2012

We missed him - heeeee's ba-ack!

Well there you go - give Radar one canter and the next day will he settle to school? No. Will he walk again after trotting? No.  Did he get calm enough to canter at all? No. Did he ever do a circle in trot right? Yes, but only after bolting for the gate about 15 times to try and get out of it! 

I was late turning them out tonight and he has just done something he's never done before. Instead of rushing out to find some grass, and in spite of having no food since 4pm, he stood and wanted a hug, as if to say "please forgive me, I know I was an idiot".

It seems pretty likely at the moment that once he hunts again, all hope of a sensible schooling session will go up in smoke. Oh well, we tried :-)

Ace was on good form today, with no sign of any stiffness. So we are off to do P7 and N30 tomorrow. I have also affiliated him, though tomorrow is unaffiliated, because I have found a venue that does one Wednesday a month through the winter with a covered warm-up and a covered arena. At the moment he is an Advanced horse with 450 points, but that will change once they get his papers to show he was 4 when he was imported. I wonder if he'll ever get back there? It wouldn't surprise me, if we can keep him in one piece.

C


4 comments:

  1. You seem to have many more tests and levels than we do here in the US. So, I'm not at all sure about what all the levels mean. "Affliliated" too escapes me. We have what are called, "recognized," and "unrecognized" shows. Points won in recognized count towards year end awards with the national organizations.

    Glad to hear Ace is OK and that Radar at least seems to recognize the "error of his ways." Give him time. His heart is in the right place. *S*

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  2. Affiliated is "recognized". I have had to pay an affiliation fee for me and for him and the tests are £18 instead of £22 for 2, £12 for 1 but his results will be recorded when he goes affiliated. I haven't done it yet because of the cost, but the new venue that I will go to in mid September is affiliated only. And as soon as he starts to get point-winning scores at Novice, I will do affiliated so he can have his points :-)

    Our levels are about the same, I think.

    We have

    prelim - level 1 ? nothing complicated at all

    novice - level 2? introduces 15m canter circles, 10 half trot circles, lengthened strides in trot and canter, walk to canter

    elementary - level 3? can use a double bridle. Medium trot and canter, leg yield, simple changes 10m trot circles

    medium - level 4? shoulder in, half pass, 10m canter circles

    advanced medium

    advanced

    Prix St George - tempis

    Intermediare

    Grand Prix

    We also have Intro tests now, walk and trot only, though why anyone ever pays an affiliation fee to do those I do not know!

    Points start at Novice and are based on your score, not where you came in the class.

    Qualifying for regional and national classes are based on wins, so people pot-hunt easy competitions to win!

    C

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  3. That is more levels than we have.

    Intro: walk/trot only
    Training: W/trot/canter, simple. 20 m. circles no lateral work
    First: Add leg yield and trot lengthening, 15m, 10m circles
    Second: simple changes, reinback, trot lengthening, shoulder in
    Third: Single flying change, collection, haunches in, half pass, extensions
    Fourth: tempis, pirouettes
    FEI: same as all the international levels--

    There are three or four tests at each level.

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  4. Gooly gosh, we have around ten at each level, except Intro where there are only two.

    That's a heck of a jump from 3 to 4 and 4 to 5 !

    C

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