41 – planning to go to the Nationals down South
Now the plan was to aim for the Nationals in the South Island at Hawarden… but that was a while away yet.
A month after the NI Champs was the Waitomo ride at Paemako. This is always a tough course and I don’t tend to race it, Lace ended up fourth once though.
I was back on Lace, Lisa was on Tigger, Kerry was back on Henry – all was right and proper!
Lisa and I had a lovely ride together, Lace was finding the ride a bit difficult though, hills are not her strong point and we don’t have many to train on to get better. You can always tell when Lace is tiring as it feels as though she is pulling her way up the hills with her finger nails! She doesn’t really power up them from behind. But a lovely day none the less for 8th and 9th.
A friend has since taught me that contrary to popular opinion it is actually better when walking or jogging up hills if you do not stand in the stirrups and lean forward. And if you think about it from a dressage/schooling perspective if you want your horse to use its back and hind end the last thing you want to do is put all your weight on their forehand. Since I have been sitting uphill both Lace and Tigger have improved in their hill climbing.
At some point between that ride and the next she pulled back, I didn’t think much about it at the time… until later.
The next ride was a 2* at Taupo being run by AWEC. Lace, Henry and Tigger were all in the 120.
It was a big weekend at Taupo, the Ironman was on Saturday, lots of cars and drag racing at the track… and the forecast was not good. In fact it was really bad, severe storm warnings, police advising people not to do stuff. The Ironman was reduced to half distance and postponed for a day, the Ground Jury debated long and hard and with the number of warnings being issued decided that they really had no choice, there would be no rides on Saturday, all rides would be run on Sunday. This of course meant that some people who were entered on both days had to choose which horse would miss out.
Saturday didn’t seem so bad down at the equestrian centre where it is sheltered. We went into town though and I have never seen waves that high on Lake Taupo before, they were huge. They were certainly right to call off the Ironman, there is no way you could have swum in the lake that day.
I wasn’t at all sure about Lace – I can’t remember exactly why now, but I know I got one of the vets to come and look at her at one point. Everything checked out ok, but something was off. I think she wasn’t eating as well as usual, so we spent a lot of time with her out on the grass. Nothing you could put a finger on so we went ahead and started the ride next morning.
One of the nice things about that ride was being in paddocks next to the road the Ironman was using for the cycle stage. Waving to everyone, all of us out there enjoying our sports.
All went well and by the third loop we were just a few minutes in the lead. But going up through the bridle paths she wasn’t her normal self through there… usually she loves it, twisty-turny tracks, always her favourite. We had done 100km already… but I wasn’t sure, paused on the road… keep going? Go back? I trotted her on the tarmac, she seemed fine. So continue.
We were just going quietly so the next rider soon caught us up, I let them go on ahead, still not sure about her. Then about half way around the loop on a stony track she’s definitely a bit sore… fine on grass, just a touch off on uneven or stony going. But by now we’re nearer home by continuing… slow down some more, forget about placings this is just about looking after my pony now. She still wants to go though and still seems fine on grass, so we trot a bit.
We actually vetted through no problems, the vet ring being nice flat smooth grass. Second. Tigger ended up fourth, although had lost the plot by the race track, the cars were really loud and it had upset quite a lot of the horses. Henry unfortunately had found a hole and had gone out lame.
Tigger’s first open season had been very successful – a 100km 1* and two 120km 2*. It was time for him to have a break.
I got the chiropractor out – sore in the poll (from pulling back) and that leads to being sore down the back and being lame behind.
Last ride before heading south was a Waikato ride at Pukeatua. Although a lovely course there is a lot of work in it. I wanted Lace to do a fast forty, the weather had been horrible, the ground would be slippery.
She had recovered fully from being sore at Taupo and was feeling great. I have never watched the ground as closely as I did that day, obsessing about picking the right track and keeping her balanced and safe. She did it in 2:15 which is probably a course record… she was ready for the trip to Nationals.
