Wabanaki - Pine Top - ‘21 - Boyd Martin

This is a video intended for the the group that owns Wabanaki. Monty and I had our first competition for the year. We were in miserable conditions at Pinetop Horse Trials this morning. It absolutely poured with rain the last 24 hours, so it was very, very wet and muddy. And, you know, I wanted just to get Monty. We've taken him to a couple show jumping days just to get him off the farm, but this is sort of his first proper competition. Had a good week's training this week. Jumped him on Tuesday, and he jumped really, really well. I tried a slightly different bit which I used today. That seemed to keep him a little bit steadier in his mouth. And for the jumping, obviously, we're just in a snaffle here for the dressage, but it worked out quite well. Sort of a what they call a happy mouth bit, which almost keeps his. His frame up and up and out a little bit jumping. And I've decided that seems the most comfortable place to try and position Monty's head and neck as he's jumping. So this is obviously the dressage. I mean, to be quite honest, Monty can go a lot, lot better than this. You know, we're still. We had him going really, really well towards the end of last year, and we're obviously spending a lot of time with F and jumping at the moment. And I've got to improve him just a bit more in the dressage here by saying that the judges actually love, liked him, really liked him. I mean, I was a little bit disappointed with how he went on the flat. I thought he could have been a little bit lighter, a little bit more uphill and slightly more balanced at the end of the extendeds. But the judge gave me a 30, which was one point behind my other horse, Luke. And Luke is sort of two years ahead of Monty in his training. So it was. Yeah, I was quite impressed. Well, the judge was quite impressed. I think there's still five more marks to be made here. I think Monty presents a pretty nice picture to the dressage judge. He's a nice, big, beautiful horse. He's in good shape and good condition at the moment. And I was little bit brave starting Monty. First event, open, intermediate, but it worked out all right. Monty, obviously, he's been going intermediate for most of last year. He's still a green horse at this level. This is, you know, the open intermediate level, to me, is the sort of first level that it's the real deal, if you know what I mean. And I was quite surprised how difficult the cross country course was. And how long it was. It was. It was a six minute course. And I was thinking that the first intermediate of the year, they'd make it a little bit easy, but it was. It had everything. It had a couple turning questions, it had two or three corners, couple skinnies, coffin, three waters. Monty was a good boy. We got some footage of the cross country at the end of this video. So obviously the. What I've been working really hard at, Monty is trying to keep him round and soft, but uphill, you know, he either wants to get a little, little bit low and a little bit round sometimes with his frame, which is, you know, keeps him supple, but then he's a bit downhill. So it's sort of a catch 22. Yeah. Yesterday and the day before, actually, I worked him with FEI judge Peter Gray. Peter is one of the top FEI judges judging at the four star level here in America and internationally. And I had him up and he just helped me work through. I mean, he's a very. Peter's a good rider as well. So he sort of. The first day was sort of half training and some of the exercises to get Monty going well. And then yesterday was our main focus was the test work. And it was good, actually. There was a lot of things that Peter picked on me about in the test a little bit. The frame, the positioning. He wanted to see a little bit more bend and angle in the shoulder ends. And obviously trying to get him back after the extended can is a little bit more balanced. But saying that it was an exercise well worth doing, because I think I wouldn't have done as well today if I didn't work with Peter the last couple days, sort of priming up for this competition. You see in a moment, Monty did a good round of show jumping. There's still a couple of the fences that he could have a nicer shape to. And it's part me, I get a little bit nervous on him and pick him up a bit too much and it sort of lifts his head and neck up and he loses the roundness in his jump, saying that clear's clear. And it was a tough course because it was bloody muddy as well. Like it absolutely poured with rain last night and this morning and I was soaking wet. So it was testing cond. Take my hat off to Monty because it's so much easier jumping on beautiful white sand with fibre in it compared to the grass. But some of these big shows are running on grass, so it's something that is probably a good thing to practice now and then. Feel like Monty's a bit sharper and a little bit more careful. This year. He's a little bit spooky horse. He doesn't like other horses coming near him. So sometimes the warm up in the show jumping's challenging. But he was a good boy, to be quite honest. He was a little bit green in the cross country, greener than I thought. And sort of half of it was because it was the first event of the year. And then the other half is he's still a green horse. He's a little bit looking at the ditches in the coffin. He jumped everything clean and clear. But I could still feel that he needs more mileage and experience at this sort of three star intermediate level. I'm pretty happy with that round because he's the sort of horse that jumps really well. But I've often had one rail or two rails down on him, so it's good to go clear. This is the cross country. Monty is a great galloper. I mean, the conditions are a bit muddy and a bit wet and Monty was a good boy. He doesn't mind the mud. He's sort of the third horse that I rode around this course. About the third horse he starts sort of feeling which corners or turns are slippery and which jumps ride well. And Monty was a good boy. So I think what I'll do is I'll try and enter Monty for another compet, probably in two weeks time or three weeks time. I'll just give him a nice easy couple of days, let him make sure he's over this well, and then I think we should take him to a dressage show on Sunday. Just because I think that's the area I need to improve him and the jumping and the cross country is on the right path. And for him to be a great horse, I think I've got to work hard at trying to get this dressage just a little bit smoother. So at the moment everything's going to plan and I'm glad to get this first event under our belt.