Against all odds a successful outing at the Winter Semi Finals for Jo Barry

I took Freddie and Rafa down for four days training to Carl's mid february. It was a really good experience, especially for them as they had each other for company and meant that they ate on the journey down and settled straight into their stables. When they go seperately they won't eat while travelling and even when they arrive somewhere new it takes a few days to start eating their meals properly.

Rafa really blossomed over the four days, Carl worked on making him really supple over his back with long forwards stretching. He then asked him to maintain the softness and transfer his weight onto his quarters. Rafa moves extravagantly behind and it has given him problems with his balance previously but he is now opening his shoulders and carrying himself better and is finding everything much easier.

Freddie, I am told looks amazing...I just feel out of control and like I am riding on a wing and a prayer!?! Carl rode him one of the days and I have to admit he does look amazing! Carl rode some piaffe and passage on him and I felt very proud seeing my boy starting to get to grips with these difficult things. Carl got off and said he was really quite excited about him and that I had to stop worrying about now and tomorrow and start riding him with a year and beyond in mind. Was Stephen Clarke saying a similar thing to me a month before??! I think I was panicking that I had the Winter Semi-finals the next weekend and I was feeling my half passes weren't as good as they had been in December! ...keep thinking of the bigger picture!

I got home on the Saturday and the boys had a day off on Sunday. I stretched them on Monday and Tuesday and they also had physio. The preparation for the semis at the weekend was all going according to plan - then it snowed...aaargh!! No riding Wednesday, no riding Thursday and yikes no riding Friday and the semis were upon us. The snow was nearly away on friday night but we woke Saturday morning and opened the door to 6 inches of fresh snow. Thankfully we didn't have to leave till lunchtime and so after a few phone calls we managed to get the local farmer to bring his tractor and snow plough to clear the road into the farm. My Dad then shovelled and salted the worst bits and we held our breath, crossed our fingers and headed out in the lorry. We made it out and couldn't believe it that 20mins away there was no snow!!

The Saturday classes were the freestyle. Rafa was brilliant, he went the best he has at a competition in the Novice Open. He won with 76%. Freddie competed in the Elementary and medium Open Freestyles. He was very fresh due to the lack of the work and I felt very much the passenger. I made a huge mistake in the Elementary, I leg yielded the same way twice and so missed out a compulsory movement. It meant that I received my first zero and that multiplied by 3 as there were 3 judges was very expensive. It also effected my choreography marks and in total I think I lost about 40 marks. Luckily the judges thought the rest of the test was very good and he still gained 71%, was second and qualified. I gave myself a kick up the backside and I performed better in the medium and didn't let Freddie down this time, we won with 74%.

Sunday was back to the normal format of tests. Rafa had the Novice Open and Freddie the Medium Open. The both made a couple of mistakes but I was pleased with their way of going...Freddie was much more responsive and Rafa despite being tired really tried had to do his best. Rafa was 2nd with 69% and Freddie won with 72%. So all in all despite the weather and a stupid jockey moment we had a great weekend and gained qualification in all 5 classes!