Biting the Dust
Clyde had two water buckets in his stable that were supplied as part of the fittings, and they were, to be frank, nasty. Although I would not go so far as to say that Clyde is a sensitive sort of pony who yearns for the finer buckets in life, it is no surprise to me that he refused altogether to drink from the one with crusty bits. So Pony-girl and I clubbed our dwindling pennies together and bought him two new matching flat-back buckets we chose from a tempting picture in a catalogue. Alas, owing to a little misunderstanding of scale, he now has two enormous mint-green waterbutts hanging from his stable wall, and a matching feed bowl the size of a canoe.
I’ve been watching Dressage to Music on TV and marvelling at those wonderful horses performing their complex and beautiful ballet in perfect time. This has prompted me to consider what might be a suitable piece of music for Clyde. De Sousa, perhaps? Of course this will make everyone think immediately of silly walks, rude noises and clowns, but that seems fitting for a comical pony like Clyde. Or, possibly, the gallopy-gallopy dash of Charge of the Light Brigade since he is perfectly capable of completing a 6 minute dressage test, in say, 3 and a half.
Showjumping is much more his thing and on his day he is always in with a chance of the placings, even given ever so many Arabellas and their speedy Sprinters out to best him. Last Sunday at Blade’s Hill he missed out on a place in the lowest class by 0.5 of a second, gained 4th place at 70cm, and we had high hopes of a higher place at 80cm. PG had the plan sorted in her head: ‘I’ll take it steady and just go for a double clear, hardly anyone goes clear at this height so we don’t need to rush.’ Cool, wise tactics! I thoroughly approved. So imagine my surprise when the bell went and off they shot like a rocket, zooming around the course, taking off, landing and galloping as if a fearsome pack of cows were at their heels! (don’t tell Tilly.. but..big bold Clyde is a bit wobbly about cows) They were cutting corners all over the place, shaving seconds off their time and making a very bold dash of it and we all thought we were looking at the winning round…. Two jumps to go -
Screeeeeeeeeeechhhhhhhhh! Clyde slammed on the anchors at the foot of the spread and PG took off, cartwheeling through the air in freefall till she landed flat on her back some distance past the jump: she had cleared it by miles. Clyde stood there on the take-off side tapping his hooves: ‘c’mon c’mon! If you get back on we could still make it!’ but alas it was elimination and a sad departure from the arena, to quite a lot of applause: it had been a great attack run, till it came to grief.
“So what happened to the tactics?” I said between clenched teeth, while smiling and beaming widely in a jolly-good-sport kindof way for the benefit of the onlookers. “’Take it steady', remember? Go for the double clear?’”
“I just lost my head,” Pg said sheepishly, “100% my fault. I cut too much off the corner and he just couldn’t make it.”
It was a bravura performance though and we couldn’t regret it. The thing is though, it’s getting near the end of the year and Darkest Braveheart is hanging in there in the running for Blade’s Best Pony while PG is in the placings for Best Junior Rider. It’s all very tight with several events to go, some which favour the Arabellas and Sprinters, not to mention the dread Lucinda Trophy-Tophat, though fortunately there are other calls on her time, and it’s only occasionally she comes to snatch rosettes away from the little people. Every point’s going to count… the invitations to the Award Ceremony go out in the next month. Will we be in…. or out?
I’ve been watching Dressage to Music on TV and marvelling at those wonderful horses performing their complex and beautiful ballet in perfect time. This has prompted me to consider what might be a suitable piece of music for Clyde. De Sousa, perhaps? Of course this will make everyone think immediately of silly walks, rude noises and clowns, but that seems fitting for a comical pony like Clyde. Or, possibly, the gallopy-gallopy dash of Charge of the Light Brigade since he is perfectly capable of completing a 6 minute dressage test, in say, 3 and a half.
Showjumping is much more his thing and on his day he is always in with a chance of the placings, even given ever so many Arabellas and their speedy Sprinters out to best him. Last Sunday at Blade’s Hill he missed out on a place in the lowest class by 0.5 of a second, gained 4th place at 70cm, and we had high hopes of a higher place at 80cm. PG had the plan sorted in her head: ‘I’ll take it steady and just go for a double clear, hardly anyone goes clear at this height so we don’t need to rush.’ Cool, wise tactics! I thoroughly approved. So imagine my surprise when the bell went and off they shot like a rocket, zooming around the course, taking off, landing and galloping as if a fearsome pack of cows were at their heels! (don’t tell Tilly.. but..big bold Clyde is a bit wobbly about cows) They were cutting corners all over the place, shaving seconds off their time and making a very bold dash of it and we all thought we were looking at the winning round…. Two jumps to go -
Screeeeeeeeeeechhhhhhhhh! Clyde slammed on the anchors at the foot of the spread and PG took off, cartwheeling through the air in freefall till she landed flat on her back some distance past the jump: she had cleared it by miles. Clyde stood there on the take-off side tapping his hooves: ‘c’mon c’mon! If you get back on we could still make it!’ but alas it was elimination and a sad departure from the arena, to quite a lot of applause: it had been a great attack run, till it came to grief.
“So what happened to the tactics?” I said between clenched teeth, while smiling and beaming widely in a jolly-good-sport kindof way for the benefit of the onlookers. “’Take it steady', remember? Go for the double clear?’”
“I just lost my head,” Pg said sheepishly, “100% my fault. I cut too much off the corner and he just couldn’t make it.”
It was a bravura performance though and we couldn’t regret it. The thing is though, it’s getting near the end of the year and Darkest Braveheart is hanging in there in the running for Blade’s Best Pony while PG is in the placings for Best Junior Rider. It’s all very tight with several events to go, some which favour the Arabellas and Sprinters, not to mention the dread Lucinda Trophy-Tophat, though fortunately there are other calls on her time, and it’s only occasionally she comes to snatch rosettes away from the little people. Every point’s going to count… the invitations to the Award Ceremony go out in the next month. Will we be in…. or out?
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