Major Impulse (Magnet)

I had a very bad car accident was unable to ride for about 18 months. I started to ride again and eventually decided to buy a horse again. My target was to do affiliated eventing but I did not want to do it the easy way by buying an established eventer so I bought a BSJA show jumper in September 2004 who I considered had potential to event because he moved well and could jump. Magnet had been a successful show jumper – from memory I think he had won a couple of hundred £s. After I bought him I took him for a gallop with a friend and discovered that he did not really know how to gallop let alone jump cross country fences.

I introduced him to cross country fences and once he realised that he could jump them he realised that cross country is fun. I took him to a local Hunter Trial in May 2005 and he went well with just one stop at the corner. Corners are my bogey fence – I hate them ! – but in this case Magnet had never seen a jump that looked like a corner and I don’t think it was totally my fault. After he had looked at I presented him at the fence again and he jumped it although he was looking at it. The photographer was at the fence and this is the second successful jump.

I was also competing in unaffiliated dressage and show jumping classes with weekly dressage and jumping training. I decided the time had come to enter an affiliated ODE. I entered the Intro class at West Wilts. Magnet went well – clear cross country and 4 faults in the show jumping. We had time faults cross country – I had forgotten just how fast you need to go !

The picture show Magnet at the drop fence at West Wilts. He had done steps down before but never a fence with a drop on the landing side. Its not ideal to be trying these things in competition but he took it in his stride. I like this picture because I am looking to the left which shows I was looking at the next fence while still going over this fence.

He had gone well at Intro – the cross country had gone well with no major dramas and he was an established show jumper so I decided that the next competition would be a Pre-Novice. I went to Urchinwood where the land is flat so the cross country is more straignt forward but as a consequence both cross country and show jumping are built to height. I was determined to get within the time cross country time. I remember being so determined to get within the time that we galloped at the last fence and even the commentator made a comment about Magnet’s speedy approach. We were clear and comfortably within the time. The only jumping fault had been a stop in the show jumping. My show jumping has never been great and Magnet needed to be spot on – as a trained show jumper he would not go for a big one – and if you asked he would stop!

I did a lot of work on my show jumping and headed to the David Broome at Mount Ballon centre for my next Pre-Novice ODE in September 2005. The show jumping was very big and causing a few problems. I was pleased with Magnet who just had one down. I went to the cross country. The ground at the warm up fence was rock hard. I was concerned about his legs so I decided to ride cautiously. A big mistake. Magnet wondered why I was being so cautious and stopped at the second fence. It was a very sticky round with several more stops. One to forget.

I needed to rebuild our confidence before our next ODE so I went to 2 unaffiliated Hunter Trials and had clear rounds in big and challenging open classes at both of them. Magnet was giving me a fantastic feeling cross country. A horse that had never jumped cross country or galloped at the start of the year was taking on all cross country fences that I pointed him at. The problem at Mount Ballon was that he is still new to cross country so he took his confidence from me and when I decided to ride cautiously I was not giving him the confidence to take on the fences so he stopped.

Our final ODE of the season was at Charlton Park. A fantastic setting for an Event – it felt like a mini_ Badminton. As usual we had one down show jumping ! He went clear cross country within the time. The cross country course was not particularly big but was very technical with some very interesting combination fences with challenging related distances. A fantastic way to end the season.

The accident on a fun ride a few weeks later was a tragedy. We went on a Fun Ride and had a fall in a ditch on the landing side of a big natural hedge. He never recovered from the injuries caused by the fall. Magnet enjoyed jumping and loved cross country and I miss him and I miss eventing.