Basically we tootled off to Bishop Burton for the Jump Training today. Now We’ve taken H there 3 times before and every time we have been eliminated due to accumulating stops. Basically he appears to stop at a fence 1st time and jump it second time. So we were hoping 4th time lucky.
Sadly though 4th time didn’t appear to be lucky and the same fate happened in the 80:
Now my dilema is should I keep entering events at Bishop Burton in their indoor? He defiantly seems to go 10 steps back from what he’s been doing at other venues/ courses. Don’t get me wrong he can and does stop but not like he did in the 80’s 1st round it just seems every time we go to jump in the new indoor at Bishop he goes like jelly/ back to being a total novice. But at the same time we sort of reached a Bishop Burton milestone by finally getting round a course in there indoor today.
The only thing we can think of is that this arena is probably 100% lighter than any other indoor he’s ever been in . He warmed up extremely well (didn’t freak out like normal- cow shed and all!) - Sue the BE trainer couldn’t believe we got eliminated and herself and Gary were in fact very complementary about him
Yes he is weak/ under developed still- If anyone has any miracle cures/ suggestions please let me know as he has improved but he just seems to take forever to develop just the tiniest amount of muscle/ topline but he’s been jumping bigger and scarier course than total with less freak outs/ pole bashing.
I know if I can get the canter working and his rear engine more engaged that will help a lot but should I just avoid Bishop Burton for now and reattempt it next year? Our only issue with this is that Bishop appears to be British Eventings preference for Local events now and alternatives are 3hours + so I do need to use but at the same time its not particularly local enough to travel to and from just to be eliminated
So just wondering what you would do? I’m scared if I push him we’ll go 200steps back - he’s really more mareish than my mares in his sensitivity but at the same time he is my baby I’ve been told to stop babying him before as he’s more than capable.
Arrrgghhhhh - sending myself my own kick up the ar$e as just read that and sound really whingey but really its more of serious bout of self doubt so any help from any one would be really appreciated!