XC Practice
Our first ODE is approaching more rapidly than I am ready for, so with a nice long Easter weekend requiring to be filled, I hired the cross country and gallops at Crow Wood in Lancashire. This is a fantastic facility right next to the M65. It has a 1 mile all-weather gallops with optional steeplechase fences, plus an all weather trail with a nice selection of xc fences including steps and water. As if this wasn’t enough, there’s access to bridleways and when you’ve finished, a horse wash-down facility and drying room, plus somewhere to sit with a drink to discuss the heart-stopping fences you’ve negotiated. (They somehow seem to grow to Badminton proportions in the telling).
I’d arranged to be there at midday, so planned to leave at about 11 so we could fill up with diesel and pick up some cash on the way. Why is it that with horses, things never go to plan? Nick and I were suited and booted and at the stables at 10.45 ready to start the lorry and load up. Unfortunately Nick has the same ‘too tight boots’ issue that I’ve been having. Once he’d actually been sick with the pain he decided to go home and get changed. A change to thinner breeches solved the problem and he swaggered back into the barn with his usual cry of ‘relax girls, he’s married!’. He think’s he’s Mr Darcy… no amount of sarcastic comments from those of us who are supposed to fancy him will persuade him otherwise!
It was then we discovered that we had left Puk’s reins at home, so Nick did another U-turn to pick them up, by which time we were running about 20 mins late. Finally we were ready to go and we drove down the road with the intention of getting cash to pay the hire fees from the ATM at the end of the road. But disaster, it was ‘out of service’! We decided to carry on to the local supermarket on our way and get cash there, but that one had no cash left in it! A quick call to Crow Wood confirmed that they would accept a cheque, but that meant turning for home to pick up the cheque book. We were finally on our way an hour late.
We arrived at Crow Wood with no further mishaps and parked up. We’ve got tacking up and getting ready at these venues down to a fine art, so were soon aboard and heading to the gallops. Jad always feels a bit over-excited to start with, and he hates the thought of losing his best mate Puk, so we have to work it so Jad is always just slightly in front. This can give Nick a few problems with holding Puk up. Half way round the gallops there are some walls and steeplechase fences. Jad being a brave soul feels that these are quite a lot more scary than the traffic thundering past on the M65 and would sooner veer towards an 18 tonne truck than get too close to the fences. This of course meant that he veered sideways and straight into the line that Nick and Puk were taking. He’s a complete dimwit sometimes.
A couple of laps of the gallops later, we headed to the xc fences with the super fit Puk still pulling and snorting. Jad gave the first fence (2′high) a suspicious look and wouldn’t entertain going near it. A cunning use of psychology sorted that out. If ever Jad won’t jump something we position Puk just the other side… he soon sails over it then in case he gets left behind. I wish we could do that in competition! With neither of us having even jumped a pole for nearly 5 months, we were a bit untidy over all the early fences. We didn’t really enjoy it until we got to the water fence and we all spent ages splashing through it. Water is Puk’s favourite because it makes a good noise and you can get really messy.
After that Jad got his rhythm and we were soon suffering from the same old problem… Jad galloping into his fences with ears glued forwards and launching into space over them, while I spend the bits between the fences desperately trying to get some speed off him. Brakes have never been our strong point. These days I find the best tactic is just to take as much speed off as I can until a dozen strides away, at which point I just show him which fence, let him sort it out and pray that we make it. Okay, so it’s not technical, but it’s only my job to get us to the fences, it’s Jad’s job to jump them when we get there.
Slightly breathless (me and Nick) and snorting (Jad and Puk) we cleared the final fence… Nick - “My god, we cleared that without reins!”… and walked back to the wagon. A quick hose-down for the horses (Puk’s favourite bit) and we were on our way home with tales of our bravery.
I’m still not ready for the first event and it’s less than a week away!