XC Fun Day

XC FUN DAY
29th June 2008
Moulton College

All week the weather forecast for the Sunday looked bleak, each day I check and the black clouds and rain threaten a wet day. I get a couple of emails saying "Dawn, have you seen the weather forecast?" "Yep! We are gonna get wet lol" I replied. Sunday morning I wake up and I'm amazed, I check with BBC Weather and all I can see forecast is sun, sun , sun. whoopee..
Forward planning was heeded and the day before I decided to leave Kyle in the small paddock. After spending over an hour trying to catch Kyle for the David Zúnd course the previous week, I certainly did not want a repeat performance. It was just as well I did put Kyle in the paddock as even in there he was tense and looking to not be caught.
So I arrive at the venue early and go for a coffee, Julia with Maverick and Carole with Rocky arrive and we headed to the XC course not sure what we are actually gonna do. Dunno why as there are now so many jumps of all shapes and sizes that there is heaps of play to unfold.
Now I am not into XC so I have no idea what these jumps are called so bear with me if I get the names wrong.

I take Kyle into the field so see the college has built loads of new XC jumps, far more than I expected. There are Pheasant Feeders, Post and Rails, a Coffin, A bank with many tiers to it, a combination which was a jump a ditch then another jump with no strides in between each element. Oh gosh many others but I don't know the names to them. They were of various sizes as well some just nice but others way to big for me. Carole Plays with Rocky and Julia is playing with Mavarick making good use of the jumps. It is great fun as you don't just have to jump the jumps, we can play all of the seven games using various distances and phrases.

We played all morning and I was shattered, running is not good for me. Well running in a fashion anyway. lol At one point Kyle was cantering, on his hocks and looking straight at a Pheasant Feeder, I was running along side at the end of my 22 ft line. We got closer to the jump and Kyle looked all set to soar over it like an eagle, but instead came to a quick halt inches away from take off. Hmm! Looks like your not jumping that one then I say to Kyle in between gasps of breath as we wander off to play somewhere else.

During this time Carol Bussey arrived with her horse Mac who was being a bit of a handful for her. Taking no notice, bolshy, ignorant and very extrovert. Later I was asked to play with him for a bit as he was just not settling but after 20min of playing games so that he had to think he was soon more relaxed and happy to cooperate as a partner rather than an individual.

Trudy limping after one dance to many the night before and her sister Jodie came to watch and have a natter and help Carol where they could. Just before lunch Carol Bussey decided to call it a day and set off home. Carole, Julia and I played till lunch which we ate outside even though the café was open, it was too nice a day to be indoors. After a long lazy lunch we started playing again but soon we seemed to amble together on the Bank where we moseyed with the horses. Hence the majority of photo's taken there.

I was told about a jump near the bottom of the field called a coffin, I took Kyle over to it expecting him to just jump it without a flicker of hesitation. I let Kyle play around the coffin so he new it was there and then played some circling games etc. when I asked him to jump the coffin he put the brakes on and wouldn't go near it. Well that taught me, we played more games away from the coffin doing other things and every so often I'd head back to the coffin, as you can see by the photo below Kyle wasn't only jumping it but happy to stand in it as well.

Nathaly and her partner came for a time which was great and I noticed that the people here for the dressage that was going on at the same time kept giving glances over to us. Though from the clouds it looks a cold day it wasn't at all, it was windy and I had to chase after my hat a few times until Carole pointed out the obvious "Why don't you tighten up the cord". Der!! Why didn't I think of that? But the day was great and us humans and horses seemed to have a great time. We finished the day with a little liberty; Carole was playing great with Rocky so I decided to go at liberty with Kyle. The horses were fantastic and they seemed to enjoy the change of playing outdoors, having time to relax and mosey and play again.