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April 20th 2013 Showjumping Competition With Bronze
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The weekend of April 20th saw my official showjumping debut for 2013. Since the South African Junior Championships in December, my horses were given a well deserved holiday, before slowly building back up to competition standard.
Finola already had one jumping show under her belt, and both she and Bronze had attended their first event of the year, but even with a foot on the ladder, this was the show to start the climb back up the grades.
I had Finola entered 1,20m and Bronze entered 1m, easing back into competition after the time off, and I have to say that I feel both horses performed exceptionally well. Usually, after a break, Finola gets careless in her jump, and Bronze looses so much confidence that we usually have to take him back to square one; so imagine my surprise when I rode into the ring to feel a keen and fearless horse beneath me.
In Bronze’s first class, I won’t lie, I was expecting a sticky round, but the big horse really came through. With big, clean jumps and a confident, forward pace – the course ended up being one of our best. The only hiccup came in a related line, where I had walked five and a half strides, and chose to ride forward for the five to make the long stride in the combination afterwards. Fortunately, I realized in the last few strides that the five would ride too long, and had to quickly change tactics and hold for six. Luckily, my collection exercises in the warm up paid off, and Bronze came back responsively to put in a beautiful, clean jump for the next.
With a good, neat clear, we progressed to the jump off, and the time came to plan tactics. Given Bronze’s tendency to lack confidence at his first show back, I decided not to take any angles too tightly, and rather to ride forward in between. Bronze is a careful jumper, which gives me the luxury to push him into jumps without worrying too much about him flattening and having a pole.
In the end, my plan paid off, and Bronze ended up winning the class with a fast but steady clear.
His next round was a speed class, and again Bronze exceeded all my expectations by boldly attacking the jumps, and cruising easily through dogs legs, and even taking a few jumps at angles. He had a good round, but sadly took the last pole in a long-strided combination, just flattening a little in the middle. In hindsight, I think I should probably have checked in the strides before it, but given that Bronze often backs off combinations and sometimes struggles with long strides, I decided rather not to alter his pace for fear of throwing him off. Still, with the fastest time and just one pole falling, we managed 7th place, and I was extremely proud of how my big horse performed.
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PonyBox
 MOD
Congrats for a good showing!
Congrats for a good showing!
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45 days ago
• 33,592 views
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PonyBox
MOD
Thanks for the update Polo, you did well!
Thanks for the update Polo, you did well!
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44 days ago
• 34,057 views
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Oct 25, 2016
• 30,419 views
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