I can't explain how nervous I was for this training session, I had a massive amount of mixed emotions going on and I couldn't work out if I was most nervous about the fact I was loading him and travelling there by ourselves, the fact it was the first time I was attending a training session with the riding club I recently joined or whether it was the fact I had yet to jump Carlos other than two teeny cross poles and I'm so out of practise! Whatever it was - it was worth it all.
The nerves of travelling eased once I was on the road with him happy in the back, my GoPro attached so I flick my eyes to my phone screen quickly if I was worried. When we arrived Carlos was at total ease, it's certainly a different experience to the ex-racers who would stress and dance around.
Once inside the arena, Will asked me having not seen Carlos in the sessions before whether there is anything he should know about him. My reply being 'I've only had him a month and he's done nothing' made me think what on earth am I doing here!! After a warm-up we were started with a simple exercise of trotting straight through two parallel poles - simple was not what Carlos thought! Will had to open the poles wider and I had to borrow a whip to get him just to walk through. Once through he went though with more confidence each time.
Next was a simple straight bar, again this was then simplified for Carlos down to a cross pole as he wouldn't go anywhere near it. At this point, I was starting to worry I was just going to hold everyone else up but Will was really positive after we got over the cross pole with a massive leap getting me to come around again over the cross then he popped it back to a straight which he went straight over.
Will kindly simplified all the challenges he had set, next being a double of oxers but Carlos decided to even be a pain for the cross poles Will had put it down to, although there was a lot of poles which is what I thought would be spooking him. However, as we approached for the second time Will had me change tactics after spotting that Carlos, in fact, wasn't at all scared of the poles and was totally taking advantage having been able to get away with it in the past. I was unsure if he was scared or not so now I know he's not and just looking for excuses I will carry on changing my way of riding.
After a few battles we got over the double and Will had all of us proceed to the next challenge which was a bounce set as a square so it would be rode around on a figure of 8. Again the poles were dropped for us but I thankfully got Carlos straight over after riding a lot more forceful knowing he wasn't scared.
The last challenge was quite complex so Will dropped the poles again for us, it was basically a set of about 6 bounces set on angles. Carlos again went to try his luck but I managed to keep riding him forward and got him over the poles.
In the end, we then completed it all as a course. I was over the moon that I got around the whole thing with Carlos, especially as Will set the double back up with spreads and the poles were put back on the square bounces and the straight bar. We had a pole on the way out of one of the square bounces but it was more due to tiredness than anything else.
Onwards and upwards now I know he's being a cheeky monkey.
Pole work lesson with Shelley Wilson next week!
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