Walked the Jumpstart Novice XC...

[tommygirl]

I walked the Jumpstart Novice XC this afternoon. It is BIG for Jumpstart, but straight forward. There is a ditch, 3 or 4 strides to a coop, or you can take the optional route (single fence elsewhere to the coop). Number 14 seems huge for novice, but it measures legal. I am excited.

There are a few big tables out there... Everyone have a great time!

[deltawave]

Any chance you peeked at the Training course??? Last weekend we did a MAX Training table at Bonnie's first outing, but that doesn't mean I care to do another one any time soon! :eek:

[Auburn]

I tried a move up to Novice at last year's Jump Start. It was not a move up course, which is why I went back to BN. I am very happy at BN, for now.

[tommygirl]

the training looked good. there were a few shared jumps with novice, and a few shared with prelim. mostly i was focused on novice. The training water looked good - big log a few strides to the edge of the water. prelin looked big...

[deltawave]

Ha! Bonnie may get to jump some fences with green numbers, what a hoot! Even if they're shared. :p Thanks for sharing the reconnaissance.

[Zephyr]

I walked the Jumpstart Novice XC this afternoon. It is BIG for Jumpstart, but straight forward. There is a ditch, 3 or 4 strides to a coop, or you can take the optional route (single fence elsewhere to the coop). Number 14 seems huge for novice, but it measures legal. I am excited.

There are a few big tables out there... Everyone have a great time!

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeek! *skeered*

Thanks for the tips. I'm walking it tonight. I hope it's not the big table that was on KY Classique - that looked HUGE! (saw it when i was walking BN there, and hoping it wouldn't be on our move-up to N!)

[Fence2Fence]

Yep, gotta agree. Just walked it. FUN!!!

[deltawave]

Training course looks fair, hopefully do-able. :) There is an option of a big rampy table (shared with Prelim) or a small rolltop with a turning approach, which is kind of cool and makes you choose. We're choosing the rolltop, LOL-- the table has a downhill approach and it's pretty wide. Fence 8 is a big square table (they call it a boat, phooey) in a fence line with a sharp turn to approach. That will be our challenging fence. The rest looks great, but we're going to take it slow and try for a good, happy, confidence-building round. :yes:

[Zephyr]

YAY! The novice course rode great!

The last jump was a GIANT upright table. I was quite worried coming uphill at an angle out of water at it. Saw the long spot and gunned for it; the photo shows an awesome snapshot of flying through the air - so of course i had to buy one :)

[deltawave]

Yup, it was do-able. But we still have lots of homework. :)

Bonnie was a good, good girl and for the first time all season was pretty impressed with the jumps on XC. The course had a very nice flow and lots of opportunities for a rider to use the terrain, turns, etc. to good advantage. Assuming the rider was on her game. :lol:

We galloped out to the first three and the normal "freight train Bonnie" moment that typically occurs after fence 2 happened right on schedule. This time, though, it was at a moment where you were going up a little hill and through a gap in the fence. Clever opportunity #1, thank you course designer. Gave a little "woah" and Bonnie stopped pulling and never really offered to pull again the whole way around. Experience? Or was the course backing her off? Probably a little of both. :D

Fence 4 was a log then 2-3 strides into the Duck Pond. Bonnie gave a BIG wiggle going in but jumped fine. She tiptoed down to the water, probably remembering the last trip when her leap into the water earned her a rider hanging off her withers and scrambling to get back on. :rolleyes: Anyway, cantered on through and up BIG over the rolltop out. Got two great pictures of that one--will post them when I get home.

Six was the big rampy green table with the rolltop option. She felt fine and would've done the table great, I'm sure, but I'd already mentally committed to the rolltop option so we did that. Opportunity #2, a little chance to tune up the turning, thank you course designer. :) On to seven, a little stone wall, then 8 was the biggish boat/table in the fence line. I hate tables, especially vertical square ones. :dead: She did it great, another Kodak moment. :D

My stupid mistake occurred at the coffin: coop, 2 strides, ditch, turning 3 strides to another coop. Should've ridden it like a drop, didn't, was entirely too lackadaisical about Bonnie not minding ditches . . . she took a bid at the coop, then saw the ditch behind and quickly slammed her legs back down. Oops. :uhoh: The photographer got shots of my butt about 15 times, waiting for me to fall but nope, I hung on. :lol: Circled around and she was fine, cantered right through the whole thing as if she'd done these 100 times before. :)

On around a few more straightforward ones, an up bank, skinny, big rolltop and downhill log (I was scared of that but she did it great) and a big ramp. Then we had another OMGWATER moment at the second water, another coop, 2 strides into the water. She just wanted to look, she slithered sideways and rather than taking out the flag I was forced to circle, at which point she popped on through and finished over the big plant bench like a little superstar. Two stops, but neither of them anything but green "HEY, what's this?" moments, and bravely and capably through the 2nd time. Didn't miss a single distance, and was polite and steerable and totally all business. :)

So now we school lots of combinations involving water and ditches and ditches and water and turning and ditches and water and turning, etc. etc. Mentally I felt like it was a lot for her and she was a bit wide-eyed about the course, but never acted sucked back or reluctant. SO PROUD of her! :yes:

Good weather, dry as a bone with hard, hard footing, but looked like almost everyone was having a good day.

[tle]

Lynn, you and Bonnie looked great! I walked (ok golf carted) the courses yesterday so I could get an idea before announcing. I liked all of them. I did think the final table on Novice looked big too...especailly in the afternoon when the sun was behind it and throwing a shadow... lots of folks took a long spot there. Overall things went well today. Prelim had quite a few problems today though. Not sure what was going on. BN does XC tomorrow so I'll get to see that. Wish I coudl see ya'll finish in SJ... best of luck!

[KBG Eventer]

I am curious to know which huge Novice table ya'll are talking about? Does anyone know if it has been on May-Daze, Champagne Run, or KY Classique this year? I wonder if I have jumped it...

[Mariequi]

Will probably miss you this time around, Tammy. Decided since everyone was there to selfishly have the barn to myself. Ha! BN friend was told this was a move up course and said she's concerned with a few jumps.

[CookiePony]

Yay Bonnie and Zephyr! tommygirl-- how was Max? Fence2Fence?

[tle]

totally understand taking advantage of the quiet time! Hugs to dublin.

[Zephyr]

I am curious to know which huge Novice table ya'll are talking about? Does anyone know if it has been on May-Daze, Champagne Run, or KY Classique this year? I wonder if I have jumped it...
It was dark brown wooden slats with about 1/2" of space between them; the top was about 3' wide and it was fairly square (definitely max height!)... i'll link a pic once xpressfoto posts them.

Yay Bonnie and Zephyr! tommygirl-- how was Max? Fence2Fence?
Thanks!

We blew our chance for a ribbon by having time faults on stadium. I was so determined not to have a rail that i let him chip in and crawl around the course, and took all the long routes. It wasn't pretty! :D But i'm super proud of him, and we have next year to work on everything...

[tommygirl]

The XC did ride excellent! Max, my new guy, was a star. We placed 2nd after dressage (6 8's on my test) with a 31, and finished in 2nd, out of 20 entries. We went double clear on XC. Max was so much fun... ran around very confident and happy, and jumped like an old pro. I could not ask for more from him in his first novice. He was great in show jumping too, only 1 second over time, no jumping penalties. He is coming along nicely. He really liked the victory gallop!!

Team Challenge is next, then some well deserved time off!

[RunForIt]

Max is adorable and looks like a lovely mover to go with that fantastic jump! The slide show on your website is really nice...congrats too to you and Tom on the new locale! :cool:

[LAZ]

re: problems in prelim--I think the first division had to have major challenges from the low sun angle. I walked it with my kid that was doing the course as her first prelim between 7:30 and 8:15 AM and I could not see several fences on the approach because of the sun. I think it would have been far better to have started at 9 rather than 8:30. Dorothy Crowell had a hard fall when her horse didn't see a fence (I heard this secondhand, I didn't talk directly with Dorothy) she was 1st on course and look awesome 3-9 and had her fall late in the course where I had trouble seeing the jumps 15 minutes earlier. I think the first bunch of horses had the misfortune to try to deal with that. The 4th fence, a log on the edge of the duck pond (old Fort Lexington bank) caused a lot of issues when people came winging around the turn too fast and didn't rebalance--I must have seen that stop at that fence 10 times. My kid ran around like a rock star, clear except for 4 time and double clear s/j today to finish 7th in she and her mare's first prelim.

All my crew had a great time and enjoyed the weekend immensely.

FYI--in novice I thought the multi-colored table/bench thing looked much bigger than the last table. That thing was maxed out!

[Fence2Fence]

This was our 'move up' to Novice. Three years ago we did a 'move up' to Novice at Jump Start, but then had to take a break (without any lessons either) for almost two years. So, this season I started back at Beginner Novice and in a way, it's been like starting over, but it's been really worth it.

I was expecting a move-up course like we did three years ago. Oh my, this was a big course!

I think the hardest questions of the course was 7a (ditch) to the 7b (coop). And then the up bank (11) to a right hand (maybe four strides?) bending line to another coop (12) which had brush on it that made it more of a narrow question.

Harry and I haven't schooled a lot of ditches, and certainly not with an element to jump afterwards. The only ditch we've seen on course was a very natural, partially riveted ditch at South Farm BN championships, which he was very brave about. Jump Start's ditch and coop had an option, but I didn't care for it. To jump 7B you had to canter between the two ditches, and I felt that could be more spooky than just jumping the ditch! I was aware I was taking a big risk, but I felt if I sat up, kept my leg on, and made sure I used my eyes, that he would jump. Well, I rode as planned, and he was completely game about the whole thing. I have a super brave little horse!

I thought the bank and coop was a tough question too; it's so easy to land in a heap on top, let the reins get too long, etc. I stayed organized and, again, made use of my eye, and Harry had no problems at all!

The other fences were straight forward and BIG. When I first walked the course, my eyes bugged out! Especially at the "little stone wall" that DeltaWave describes, as it was shared with her Training Level course! The other really big fence was that red and yellow table (fence 14). Yikes! That thing was big! Harry was a pro and so happy to jump everything.

I'm also really pleased that we completely nailed the optimum time. I didn't wear a watch (never do), and just found a pace that felt comfortable and appropriate. :-)

We moved up from 14th after dressage to 11th after cross country to 7th after show jumping. It was really fun to come home with a nice purple ribbon and participate in the Victory gallop for our 'big move up' to Novice.

Lovely weekend, certainly my favorite horse trial. I loved sharing the grounds with the CDE folks--loved seeing the handsome horses and carriages.

I'm glad everyone else did well too!!

Auburn, how did your weekend go?

[tommygirl]

It was maxed out, but rode really well. I think since it was #14, and had a good approach, the size was a rider thing :)

I agree with the prelim. It was an ugly fence to the duck pond and the stops I saw, the horses were really surprised, even the more experienced ones.

The CDE was amazing to watch. My dressage coach was competing there in the prelim division. I watch the 2-in-hand and the 4-in-hands go... very cool to watch.

[Hey Mickey]

Well this was our 2nd attempt at prelim..
Guess What....

I fell off my horse fot the 1st time.... (I've had him for 5 years) and Its been a good year since I've fallen off of anything. I'm not sure what I landed on.. could have been my feet.
I'll get to that in a minute.

Our Dressage test was probaly one of our best ever. My Tense TB had some really really nice moments. some not so pretty, but genrally it was nice for us. Our 10m. canter circles need some work, we need "more" in the medium canter, but its a work in progress that is really improving.

So. the XC looked like tons of fun, everyone I talked to said this was not a "Jump Start" course and that it was pretty challenging.
We had a small hiccup at the log into the water that LAZ mentioned. I trotted up to it, then dropped him slightly at the base when I got the bright idea to look into the water.
Other than that everything went as planned, and it was by far one of our best XC rides until I joined the dirt club and landed in the ground.
It was the coffin that got us... as we jumped the 1st part I looked into the ditch. I slowed us was down on the approach, the whole was I was like "look up, look up, look up, ride to the last log"
So then I proceded to look into the ditch as we jumped the 1st log. So I must have just fallen over his shoulder, because looking into the ditch makes you get ahread of the motion. (bad bad idea)
I was so so so mad at my self. because it was all me. and all I wanted from this weekend was a steady cofidence building round. And I know better

Then I realized. We made it through all of the hard stuff. He was fantastic. I have over come some as my biggest faults... staying on to well (by gripping and then having a eletric butt)
So I'm pretty pumped.

We went Xc schooling sunday instead of trying to see if I could go ahead and do staduim.
We played around. I went to go to the Novice ditch.
He stopped and starting shaking. Poor guy.
We were able ot jump it a couple times and we went and played on the bank on top pf the hill, jumped a prelim table and the skinny combination (that I didn't get too)
We jumped a hudge intermediate oxar (didn't realize it was that big until we got there)
Played over some novice jumps and in the water at the end of the course, and then went and did the coffin I fell off at.
Then we went and did that skinny house on top of the mound by the new water. Which was way coooool. So after that I decieded we were done.

So, it was a really good weekend.
I also have a chance to get a ride to the Virgina HT the every last weekend in october/1st couple days of november.
So, if I get to go, money is really tight right now, but its a good opertunity, then I would go and do training level.
So we just have to see how things play out this week.

A couple of pics:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v507/jump4joy/002.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v507/jump4joy/001.jpg

Also, I was helping out a girl in my PC, it was her 1st rec. HT and novice and they ended up in 3rd. So i'm pretty excited about that too.

[McVillesMom]

Chelsie, those are great pics! I'm glad for you - sounds like overall it went much better than Gemwood. Don't feel too bad about falling off - a friend of mine, who's gone Prelim a bunch of times, did the exact same thing a few weeks ago - only she landed right in the ditch! (Fortunately everyone is OK.)

Congrats to everyone - sounds like you all did well!

(Living vicariously through others, and avoiding studying for my Cardio quiz) :D

[RunForIt]

Hey Mickey - congrats...you're out there and it'll only get better...the dressage photo is stunning! :cool:

[Hey Mickey]

RunForIt, Thankyou! I was pretty excited there was dressage pics!

Nancy, thank you! It was a much much better weekend then Gemwood.
Hows vet school going?? I'm avoiding my homework... tomorrow is going to be no fun.

[Auburn]

Having ridden last years Novice course, which was not a "move up" course, I stayed at BN. Our dressage went very well. I wish that they would not use BN test A at the end of the year. However, I was determined to conquer that test. My new dressage coach helped me improve my score to 33.7 penalty points, which was a huge improvement. It put us in a tie for 3rd.

We finished on our dressage score and won the BNR -Div. 3. Tess was such a good girl! We usually have time faults for going to slowly, but have been working on our galloping. We were close to getting speed time faults. :eek: Now, I believe that we can make the move up to Novice next year.

Tammy, thanks for announcing and a huge thanks to everyone who volunteered to help! :yes:

[deltawave]

I saw that Novice table and was glad I was jumping the rampy Training bench next to it. :) It had a little slope to it, but . . . I hate tables.

Stadium went great--we had one rail at the triple bar because DW forgot the stupid course and had to haul around to it at the last moment. :rolleyes: Bonnie bravely jumped it crooked and tipped the back rail. Other than that it was one of her better stadium rounds ever: forward and steady and jumped well. Four time penalties, but my opinion of that is that it totally depends on the course designer and how they wheel it.

A nice flat tire on the trailer in Cincinnati traffic capped the day, LOL, but slp2 could work in a pit crew, she had the lug nuts off and ready to go before I could even muscle the spare out of the tack room! :lol: Other than that the trip home was fine and I'm happy to be sitting down this morning nice and comfy at work. :D

[Fence2Fence]

Lovely photos Chelsie!

I need to figure out how to work my scanner....

[tommygirl]

Max is adorable and looks like a lovely mover to go with that fantastic jump! The slide show on your website is really nice...congrats too to you and Tom on the new locale! :cool:

Max is the horse I have been looking for since I retired my advanced horse.... He will not be sold :)

I am off to build more xc jumps today - got a load of free materials

[Unprovoked92]

I love Jump Start. It was my second year going...first time was a few years ago, my TB first "real" event at BN. I brought my little Haflinger this year and ran around Novice. He was wonderful. There were definately a few good size tables that made him take notice...he trotted the red/green/yellow step thing...it looked HUGE galloping down to it. I'm fairly certain it was longer than the pony! I thought the course was fair, fairly straight forward, just some good size jumps. The bank combination was a little tougher, but it wasn't an A-B so if the horse landed in a heap on top of the bank you could loop around to get to the coop with out a refusal. I enjoyed the course.

I was impressed with the awards, not used to seeing more than a saddle pad for a win at most events. I got a nice "gold medal" for lowest dressage score in my division...now if only the yellow pony and I could be a little more careful in Stadium.......

[Tdeventer]

My paint did his first Novice it was great. He has only competed two BN and was moving up to novice. He had a very improving dressage score went from 48.5 usually to a 38 which was a massive improvement. Then was the XC which he was very brave and a lot more forward than I thought he was going to be. Never questioned a fence and even troted the 15 to 18 fence without questioning anything. On sunday my guy was just a little lazy and pulled two rails in stadium. Went from 12 to 9 and finished in 11. I am so proud of him. This was a great show.

[Auburn]

I thought the awards were especially nice, too. We got an engraved silver plate and a silver necklace. I don't need any more coolers, so really enjoyed something different.

[Hollywood]

I had a great weekend! We won the dressage, I was so excited and shocked b/c he got tense right as we were entering at A as someone in a golf cart came flying towards us from behind the judges box...it just caught his attention, he threw his head up, and then he seemed a bit tense for the first several movements, but apparently we recovered:-).

I will admit that I was extremely nervous going out to cross country b/c the tables looked huge! And I walked the course before they were able to set up the ditch a/b option, so I was not sure how that was going to ride. My horse has competed up to Prelim with his previous owner, and the KHP was his home turf. This was my first show with him at the KHP and he was keen and fresh for x/c! He just knew what was coming, and I felt like I had a horse I had never ridden before, he was not this lit at the other shows we had done. But he took every fence like a pro and compensated for me! The course rode fabulously, and once I was out on horse back, the fences didn't look so big...but I am sure I held my breath over the rainbow step table and the last table! But we went clear.

That kept us in first over night...but we were both tired and stiff for Stadium, I rode him like crap and we had a rail at the last fence! I was so disappointed, but it was my bad riding that did it...he tapped like 4 other fences and they all stayed up...until we got the last one! Oh well!

It just seemed like the rails were coming down left and right in the Novice groups...the jump crew was busy!

But I agree, the prizes were nice. I liked the dressage medals, and then for second place we got a wooden groom box...very nice!

[Hilary]

Lynn congratulations on Bonnie's second Training -See I think if we combined mares we'd have a force to reckon with. Star LOVES the combination/complex stuff - but a fence plopped in the middle of a field? That's were we have issues!

Her 2nd Training outing was foiled by a scraped up hock (pasture stupidity) but we have a Lucinda clinic next week and I'm excited to try the big stuff!

Go Bonnie!

[Zephyr]

I just realized our 2 time faults in XC were actually SPEED faults... makes me feel a bit better, as i really didn't think we were going all that slow! :D

Photos posted on XpressFoto... here's our final table, woo hoo!

http://www.photoreflect.com/pr3/orderpage.aspx?pi=00FD00DD0G0293&po=293

[deltawave]

Bonnie pix--she looks so calm and sensible and shiny and happy. I love my little baby horse! :sadsmile: They're not all great, but these are the highlights:

ETA well, those links are not working. :sigh: Anyhow, we are the first horse in the TH division on xpressfoto.com and the first part of page 6 of TH XC 51-59 (we're #57).

[Tdeventer]

Here are pictures of my boys first novice, he is growing up so fast

http://www.photoreflect.com/pr3/orderpage.aspx?pi=00FD00DD0F0165&po=165

http://www.photoreflect.com/pr3/orderpage.aspx?pi=00FD00DD0F0166&po=166

http://www.photoreflect.com/pr3/orderpage.aspx?pi=00FD00DD0F0182&po=182

[Zephyr]

Here are pictures of my boys first novice, he is growing up so fast

http://www.photoreflect.com/pr3/orderpage.aspx?pi=00FD00DD0F0165&po=165

http://www.photoreflect.com/pr3/orderpage.aspx?pi=00FD00DD0F0166&po=166

http://www.photoreflect.com/pr3/orderpage.aspx?pi=00FD00DD0F0182&po=182

Holy adorable Paint!! :)

[Tdeventer]

Thank you

He is doing his first training combined test Oct. 12 he is jumping 3'3 and starting to school 3'6 this guy has so much scope.