Everything was going great in this helmet cam video…until it wasn’t. Horse and rider appeared to have an excellent day, schooling banks and combinations with ease. But the keyhole brush caused a bit of a problem; from the video’s explanation:
So Pigeon and I headed back up to Washbrook Farm for a lesson with Nigel Taylor over the weekend (Aston le Walls, Daventry, 05.06.12). Really great experience that I would recommend to all regardless of what level you compete or ride at. Pigeon was her usual amazing self – she jumped everything first time and really showed her boldness and agility over some pretty big and technical obstacles! There were issues with the owl hole… She jumped it first time but dropped her right shoulder on landing (and I came off). She then refused to jump the fence again (I came off a second, and nearly a third, time). At that point I had to admit to having lost my nerve with it so we sensibly decided to leave that one for another day. It was only afterwards that I discovered Pigeon had scraped a chunk off skin off her belly jumping it the first time – no wonder she landed oddly and was so reluctant to jump the owl hole again! So many lessons learnt in such a short time… Uppermost I think is, ‘do not get ahead of your horse!’ 🙂
I think we’ve all been there– having a lovely round, until suddenly you’re on the ground looking up at the horse wondering what the hell happened. And further instilling the ever-important xc lesson: Do not jump up the neck!
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