Queeny Course Walk

For those of you who weren't there, but want a blow-by-blow.  Here's what I thought when walking cross country and how it actually rode.

Fence 1:

Quite an imposing first fence.  Its actually a very friendly shape but max height and width.  Its a great "Are you out here to play or not" question.  Plus at certain times during the day it had quite a bit of glare.  My plan was to get a good forward pace right off the bat and treat it almost like a steeple chase fence.  We came out of the start box and got right down to business.  This was probably one of our best jumps.  Nutmeg ate it for lunch!

Fence 2:

Pretty friendly fence although still substantial in size for early on a Novice course.  It came shortly after a heavily limed path through the woods.  I was more concerned with how Nutmeg would react to the dark path then this jump.  She took both in stride.

Fence 3: 

Not as big as the first two, but pretty upright.  This fence is actually a half coop.  The opposite side looks like a coop and this side is much more vertical.  The only trick here was to not get to flat and risk hanging a leg.  We got a little close, but jumped it just fine.

Fence 4 and 5: 

Both 4 and 5 were very straight forward fences, but the terrain played a factor with fence 4.  As you can kind of see from the photo, the approach to four makes it look like you're jumping off into a deep valley.  It is a slight drop but if you were quick you could bend to the left and follow the contour around to five and very friendly fence past the trees.

Fence 6: 

This was a perfect half circle from 5.  If you were trying to be quick and save time and cut the corner you would end up approaching 6 at an imposing angle with the Prelim jump messing with your focus.  If you rode well around the corner it presented a much nicer approach.  It is quite vertical, so even with the hay bales it is more of a bouncy fence then a gallop fence.

Fence 7:

The Ditch.  Enough said.  Pretty much as straight forward a ditch as you can get.

Fence 8:

An Unofficial Poll votes this as the "Most Beautiful Fence on Course."  A mini version of the hammock at Rolex.  Its a great forward galloping fence.  I was slightly concerned Nutmeg would give it the eye.  In the past when she's looked at jumps, they've been bright jumps like this.  My plan was to boldly ride forward and we did.  She didn't even blink.  We got a bit of a long spot, but I had already decided for this fence long was better then a chip.

Fence 9:

From fence 8 you had to cross the gravel road and then ride up a little bump to 9.  Sometimes horses can find the opening a bit spooky, but I wasn't concerned much about Nutmeg who is generally quite bold.  I did end up taking this fence at a slice.  We had such a large jump over fence 8 that I didn't get across the road as quickly as I would have liked, leaving me little room to wiggle and get straight, so we just rode the slice.  No big deal.

Fence 10:

This was both a light to dark question and a bit of a drop fence.  My plan for the first part of the course was to gallop right along, then before this fence pack it back together.  From here things got a bit technical then we had to go down the big hill.  I didn't want to get to backwards to this fence because of the drop.  I didn't want Nutmeg to back off so far we wouldn't go over.  She actually came back so well we dropped to a trot for a step or two.  Just enough to change leads then over we went.  Since she came back so well, we were able to turn quickly after this fence instead of rolling down the hill and needing to climb back out before the next fence.

Fence 11:

Dubbed "The Mushroom" this puppy was tiny.  But tiny doesn't mean you can discount it. There is a lot to catch their attention right here.  Plus the finish line is at about 10 o'clock so there is a lot of activity beyond the clutter of jumps.  This is also a very vertical fence with a down hill landing, six strides (I think, can't quite remember) to the up bank and then two strides to the down bank.  We got in a bit of a fight about getting bouncy before this fence and ended up falling to a trot, but it worked.  It jarred our flow a bit and Nutmeg got a bit looky, but on we went.

Fence 13 and 14:

Thirteen doesn't look like much, but fourteen was substantial.  Plus its all down hill.  There are eight strides between the two fences and fourteen was a pretty good drop.  I definitely wanted to be balanced headed into this so we didn't get buried at fourteen or jump huge and go somersaulting down the hill.  Thankfully Nutmeg came back well and figured out the question.

Fence 15:

Almost a carbon copy of fence one, but at the bottom of the very big hill.  After coming down the hill you made a hard left and had three strides to jump this half round.  I was concerned about balance coming down the hill, but was confident that if I could make the turn and could get the impulsion to jump the jump.  We did end up trotting the last bit of the down hill so I could get her together, but that made the turn easier.  We picked up our canter and over we went.  I will say that we are going to be working very hard at keeping our balance up and particularly down hill.  While coming back to a trot worked, it upset our rhythm enough that Nutmeg got a bit confused.  I owe it to her to be able to ride a steady round.

Fence 16:

The water jump was a gallop in, jump out question.  The out had some blue plastic tarping showing.  I'm not sure that's what caught Nutmeg's attention, but she wasn't entirely focused through the water and I had to work to get her straightish for the out.  That left us on "Plan B" for fence 17.  Plan A was to ride a bending line and get straight.  With her being a bit back, I decided to kick on and once again slice.  It actually rode quite well on the direct route.

Fence 18:

This is probably the fence that had me most concerned.  Not that banks are a problem for us, but this bank is on the way up a substantial hill and it isn't a small bank.  It was all I could do to climb up it when I walked the course and I was concerned that I wouldn't have Nutmeg enough on her hunches to power up it.  I shouldn't have been worried.  The hill actually really helped me get Nutmeg's butt in gear and she hopped up the bank like it wasn't even there.

Fence 19:

The final fence!  You had a choice in approaches, either snaking in from the right or from the left.  I didn't think it would really matter and the footing was a bit better on the left, so we took the left approach, drifted right, so we could get a slight left to right slice.  You can't really see it in the photo because it blends in with the grass, but just across the road there is a sign right in the galloping path.  I took the slight slice so I wasn't heading right for the post on landing.

And there you have it.  The whole Queeny Novice Cross Country Course.  Be glad you didn't have to walk it.  That hill is a killer!