Sunday, 17 June 2012
Thursday, 7 June 2012
Eridge Horse Trials Report
Harriet Upton's photostream on Flickr.
Well we managed to get there without too many navigational problems, I slept, Mum drove and read the map and that seemed to work better than some of our previous road trips!
We walked the novice course which was challenging for Mum and her dodgy leg. I have not seen her struggle round many courses this year, but that last hill definitely put her leg to the test! Funny she never offered to come and walk the 100 course with me later on!
We had a few texts from Michael and Lisa to say they were stuck in traffic poor things it took them hours to get to us and they missed the dressage and the sj of the Novice, hence Mum's pictures on the blog. The professional ones taken by Michael and some of them are just stunning are on my website. www.harrietupton.com.
So my 1st Novice on Mulliagn and it was so much fun!
Dressage well it wasn't to our usual standard, just need to work on our medium trots! Lots to like but lots to work on!
Mulligan was great in the show jumping he popped round but he was quite spooky and backed off a few things, so my riding became effective and not very pretty. The rail came when we jumped too big into the last combanation and then I didn't shorten him enough, he took the pole out with his front leg, but this is where I am learning how he works.
Oh my goodness the cross country we flew round, sticky in places where we had controlling issues but mainly everything was smooth. He was a machine and he loved it and so did I!!!
BE100 on Yara
I walked the course with David and Michael, they seemed to keep up with me, but I did warn them before we went that I walked quickly. We were so quick in fact that we gave Mum, Lisa and Will a shock when we arrived back, they thought they were late to tack up!
Yara's dressage was amazingggg. I went back to basics and stop asking for so much and did lot of relaxation in the warm up, so she didn't tense over her back. This worked well, she went into test so soft and supple. The next step is to add the impulsion back in but keeping it relaxed.
She warmed up in the sj so beautifully!!!! We went into the arena and then she stopped at the first fence, ooooppps!! She then went and did a really good round. Thinking back to to the first fence where she stopped she just ran through the last stride and lost the jump in the canter.
And the cross country well whoooo!! Finally a clear and it was a fabulous clear! It was not an easy course, so I was chuffed to bits for her!
Had such a lovely day (and evening, we didn't leave till 8pm) with Mum, David and Will and Michael and Lisa, it just doesn't feel the same if they are not there.
See all the photos and videos on my website: www.harrietupton.com
Wednesday, 6 June 2012
Jon Pitt and his Fit To Ride Jumping clinic
Amazing clinic with Jon Pitt.
Gail Stephens and I both had a clinic with Jon Pitt last Monday morning at LMEQ, we both had very very good sessions.
Gail had a flat session which covered some of the things that I was taught in my first session so this was a great refresher.
I then had my show jumping session and this was amazing, Jon taught me about using my range of gears and what gear I should be using when riding a show jumping round to provide my horse with the right speed to approach a jump. When I am show jumping I get worried about missing the stride and burying the horse, but one thing that Jon paticulary tried to get across to me is that, its about the canter and all the problems I was having at the jump started way back when I turned the corner to the fence.Jon showed me where I needed to be in order to be in the horse's centre of balance, allowing Yara to lift her front end more and engage her quarters,
I really took this on board because once I started to slow the canter right down to a "gear 2" and balance her all the way to the fence, the stride was naturally there and the quality of the jump after I had done this was incredible.
Jon then set out a related distance and had me shortening and adding an extra stride, so I had to use the lower end of "gear 2."
What an amazing session, it gave me a lot of confidence in myself and Yara!
Thank you John for a cracking session!
and
Thank you LMEQ !
Gail Stephens and I both had a clinic with Jon Pitt last Monday morning at LMEQ, we both had very very good sessions.
Gail had a flat session which covered some of the things that I was taught in my first session so this was a great refresher.
I then had my show jumping session and this was amazing, Jon taught me about using my range of gears and what gear I should be using when riding a show jumping round to provide my horse with the right speed to approach a jump. When I am show jumping I get worried about missing the stride and burying the horse, but one thing that Jon paticulary tried to get across to me is that, its about the canter and all the problems I was having at the jump started way back when I turned the corner to the fence.Jon showed me where I needed to be in order to be in the horse's centre of balance, allowing Yara to lift her front end more and engage her quarters,
I really took this on board because once I started to slow the canter right down to a "gear 2" and balance her all the way to the fence, the stride was naturally there and the quality of the jump after I had done this was incredible.
Jon then set out a related distance and had me shortening and adding an extra stride, so I had to use the lower end of "gear 2."
What an amazing session, it gave me a lot of confidence in myself and Yara!
Thank you John for a cracking session!
and
Thank you LMEQ !
Thursday, 31 May 2012
Borde Hill. busy busy bee!
Sorry its taken so long to do a write up, been very very busy with 5 horses on the yard and exams its been none stop this week, but loving it!
Anyway Borde Hill... brilliant day, as usual most of my absolutely fabulous support team turned up to watch, help and support, this consisted of... (MDR) Michael and Lisa Rogers, (Yara:s owners) David and Will, my legend of a Gandad and of course my cracking parents Justine and Martin!!!!
Yara:
Yara has recently being a bit challenging but this was very much expected, she has been so easy I have been waiting for it, she is, after all in her teenage years!!. Even though she is challenging she is still very gorgeous.
Dressage: She warmed up beautifully but it was very unfortunate that our arena was on quite a steep slope, she found this quite tricky to deal with because she can still be very unbalanced, I think this is why the mark wasn't her usual standard. but I was pleased with the warming in!
Show Jumping: this has been her most challenging of phases recently but she was actually quite good, we had one pole where we just got a bit onward and another jump where we had a slight miss communication but I was still pleased!
Cross Country: now this was an interesting one! I schooled her round because I felt it was slightly stiff for Yara and I'm glad I did because it was sticky, I definitely needed super glue for that round, she had a wobble at a little log thing just before the water, she was just a little green with all the shadows on the jump and on the water, so she stopped but then she came round again and we scrambled over it! but hey ho I always knew this was going to happen, they always say you have to go backwards before you can go forwards. Just a waiting game now, Yara just needs to mature a bit but this will come with more outings and time.
Mulligan:
Dressage: 25.5 what can I say he is amazing!
Show Jumping: He did fly but again just a bit onward in the last line and he just clipped it with a back leg.
Cross Country: He flew round and I really tested him talking the tightest and the trickiest lines but he was SPOT ON!!!!!
Resulting in a 4th good boy the Mull Man!
You can see all the action of the day on the videos on my website: http://www.harrietupton.com/videos.html
Anyway Borde Hill... brilliant day, as usual most of my absolutely fabulous support team turned up to watch, help and support, this consisted of... (MDR) Michael and Lisa Rogers, (Yara:s owners) David and Will, my legend of a Gandad and of course my cracking parents Justine and Martin!!!!
Yara:
Yara has recently being a bit challenging but this was very much expected, she has been so easy I have been waiting for it, she is, after all in her teenage years!!. Even though she is challenging she is still very gorgeous.
Dressage: She warmed up beautifully but it was very unfortunate that our arena was on quite a steep slope, she found this quite tricky to deal with because she can still be very unbalanced, I think this is why the mark wasn't her usual standard. but I was pleased with the warming in!
Show Jumping: this has been her most challenging of phases recently but she was actually quite good, we had one pole where we just got a bit onward and another jump where we had a slight miss communication but I was still pleased!
Cross Country: now this was an interesting one! I schooled her round because I felt it was slightly stiff for Yara and I'm glad I did because it was sticky, I definitely needed super glue for that round, she had a wobble at a little log thing just before the water, she was just a little green with all the shadows on the jump and on the water, so she stopped but then she came round again and we scrambled over it! but hey ho I always knew this was going to happen, they always say you have to go backwards before you can go forwards. Just a waiting game now, Yara just needs to mature a bit but this will come with more outings and time.
Mulligan:
Dressage: 25.5 what can I say he is amazing!
Show Jumping: He did fly but again just a bit onward in the last line and he just clipped it with a back leg.
Cross Country: He flew round and I really tested him talking the tightest and the trickiest lines but he was SPOT ON!!!!!
Resulting in a 4th good boy the Mull Man!
You can see all the action of the day on the videos on my website: http://www.harrietupton.com/videos.html
Friday, 25 May 2012
Rocklodge Nasdaq coming to Upper Barn
| ROCKLODGE NASDAQ |
I have such exciting news. Just had it confirmed today that Rocklodge Nasdaq (Hector) will be coming to join Team Upton at Upper Barn on Monday. Hector is owned by Sarah Millard and is the sweetest, kindest horse and is absolutely gorgeous. All the information about Hector will be on my website, but here is a little picture of him.
More info: http://www.harrietupton.com/horses.html
Sunday, 20 May 2012
Tweseldown ODE Show Report
Emily and I relaxing after a hard day's work!!!
After all the cancellations it was fantastic to be out eventing again. My friend Emily Bennett came along as "show groom". Cutting it a little fine Dad dropped Mum and I at the entrance to Tweseldown, they went to park and Dad and Emily studded up and tacked up whilst Mum and I met Michael from MDR photo to walk the course. It was an old fashioned track with big, bold fences, which required positive riding and some thought out lines. It was a bit ditchy and they are not Mulligans' favorite obstacles with water coming a close second.
Dressage
After training a couple of weeks ago with Gill Watson, I was hoping that my dressage might be ok. Poor Mull after 2 years of hunting this dressage lark has been a bit of a shock. Its incredible how far he has come in 5 weeks since we have had him. My aim for the dressage was to get him more uphill and truly engaged.
Result: 24 dressage. He got a 9 for his halt and the comments on the sheet from the judge "I loved the activity of this test, well done".
Showjumping
Why was I worried about this phase? Oh yes because Mull has been very naughty with his jumping and his track record to be fair is not great. However he was on fire. I did lose my reins over the double, there is a very funny picture of me trying to grab them and we did catch a pole, not sure how. The pictures even show us clearing it by a mile. Mum said the pole rocked in the cups and just teetered over the edge, down it dropped. Hey ho. I was very pleased with the Mull Man.
Cross Country
Great for Mulligan we arrived at the warm up with only one other person there, so we had a quick warm up and off we went. He just pinged out of the start box. He went in a lovely rhythm all the way round, if anything i would say he didn't really show the jumps any respect. Could feel the slight hesitation coming at the ditch but I didn't give him a chance. We finished well within the optimum time.
Final position: We finished on a score of 28 in a very hotly contested section. 4th place. Yay!
Thank you to Emily for all her help and to Michael again for such wonderful photos.
Pictures taken by MDR photo can be found on my website. This link will take you straight into a slide show of the photos.
http://www.harrietupton.com/tweseldown---19th-may-2012.html
After all the cancellations it was fantastic to be out eventing again. My friend Emily Bennett came along as "show groom". Cutting it a little fine Dad dropped Mum and I at the entrance to Tweseldown, they went to park and Dad and Emily studded up and tacked up whilst Mum and I met Michael from MDR photo to walk the course. It was an old fashioned track with big, bold fences, which required positive riding and some thought out lines. It was a bit ditchy and they are not Mulligans' favorite obstacles with water coming a close second.
Dressage
After training a couple of weeks ago with Gill Watson, I was hoping that my dressage might be ok. Poor Mull after 2 years of hunting this dressage lark has been a bit of a shock. Its incredible how far he has come in 5 weeks since we have had him. My aim for the dressage was to get him more uphill and truly engaged.
Result: 24 dressage. He got a 9 for his halt and the comments on the sheet from the judge "I loved the activity of this test, well done".
Showjumping
Why was I worried about this phase? Oh yes because Mull has been very naughty with his jumping and his track record to be fair is not great. However he was on fire. I did lose my reins over the double, there is a very funny picture of me trying to grab them and we did catch a pole, not sure how. The pictures even show us clearing it by a mile. Mum said the pole rocked in the cups and just teetered over the edge, down it dropped. Hey ho. I was very pleased with the Mull Man.
Cross Country
Great for Mulligan we arrived at the warm up with only one other person there, so we had a quick warm up and off we went. He just pinged out of the start box. He went in a lovely rhythm all the way round, if anything i would say he didn't really show the jumps any respect. Could feel the slight hesitation coming at the ditch but I didn't give him a chance. We finished well within the optimum time.
Final position: We finished on a score of 28 in a very hotly contested section. 4th place. Yay!
Thank you to Emily for all her help and to Michael again for such wonderful photos.
Pictures taken by MDR photo can be found on my website. This link will take you straight into a slide show of the photos.
http://www.harrietupton.com/tweseldown---19th-may-2012.html
Sunny 20/5/12
Sunny 20/5/12, a set on Flickr.
Today we went to see Sunny, my old pony. It is two years since we sold him and it has taken this long before I could bear to go and see him.
He was a pony of a lifetime, every child should have a pony like Sunny to teach them the ropes.
Sunny came to us, unseen, through a friend. He was brought up on a farm and had been a fab pony for two people before coming to me. When we heard about him he had been happily grazing in a field in Cheltenham for 6 months after being a top tetrathlon pony.
He arrived whilst we were on holiday and went to Camilla Kear for a week. Both Camilla and Jenny said if we didn't buy him, they would!
I had many, many wins on Sunny, he taught me eveything and i remember it was also the time that I first met Ken Spencer and he started to train me.
A few highlights stick in my head but none more than at the age of 12 after only a couple of trainings with Ken our 26 dressage and win at Eridge. I actually cried when I read the dressage board and so did Mum. Sunny was type of pony that you could ride bareback through the fields in a headcollar one day and event him the next.
It was so lovely to see him so happy today. He has gone to the best family. At the time we sold him we had two people that wanted him, the other lady kept ringing and offering more money, but we chose the home over everything else and he leads a very happy laid back life, the best life a horse could wish for.
Instead of leaving him feeling sad, Mum and I left feeling very happy. Thank you Helen and Lizzie for giving him such a great home and and inviting us along today.
Today we went to see Sunny, my old pony. It is two years since we sold him and it has taken this long before I could bear to go and see him.
He was a pony of a lifetime, every child should have a pony like Sunny to teach them the ropes.
Sunny came to us, unseen, through a friend. He was brought up on a farm and had been a fab pony for two people before coming to me. When we heard about him he had been happily grazing in a field in Cheltenham for 6 months after being a top tetrathlon pony.
He arrived whilst we were on holiday and went to Camilla Kear for a week. Both Camilla and Jenny said if we didn't buy him, they would!
I had many, many wins on Sunny, he taught me eveything and i remember it was also the time that I first met Ken Spencer and he started to train me.
A few highlights stick in my head but none more than at the age of 12 after only a couple of trainings with Ken our 26 dressage and win at Eridge. I actually cried when I read the dressage board and so did Mum. Sunny was type of pony that you could ride bareback through the fields in a headcollar one day and event him the next.
It was so lovely to see him so happy today. He has gone to the best family. At the time we sold him we had two people that wanted him, the other lady kept ringing and offering more money, but we chose the home over everything else and he leads a very happy laid back life, the best life a horse could wish for.
Instead of leaving him feeling sad, Mum and I left feeling very happy. Thank you Helen and Lizzie for giving him such a great home and and inviting us along today.
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