Tilly Tillbrook's blog: What a difference a month makes

Wow, what a difference a month makes – after all the cold, crisp, dry weather that came after the snow, it turned wet in March, really, really wet. All the XC courses closed round us and I found myself early one morning setting off to Aston Le Walls without having set foot on a XC course since last October! Not the ideal preparation, and I was very glad I had only entered the intro as I had a suspicion this could happen.

Luckily some preparation had gone to plan – we’d had a dressage lesson the day before and got some really nice work, so I felt confident about that phase, although bouncing over to the dressage arenas did make me glad I’d opted for the crash hat and not the beagler! Boysie was extremely pleased to be eventing again, but he knuckled down, and we even coped with the 30 minute delay without too much trouble. I felt he did a really super test, and it is always a good sign when then judge gives you a thumbs up at the end of the test I think! I will treasure that moment – it doesn’t happen very often, and was reflected in the mark of 33 which left us 6th after dressage. We then went down to the showjumping, where we had just one down where I took an unnecessary pull, I must learn to stop doing that.

The XC was running massively behind, so we watched several horses go before starting to warm up. Boysie was looking everywhere but at the fence as we left the start box, however the reality of XC fences soon focused his mind and we flew round for a nice neat clear. I took it a little bit steady as he and I were both rusty after no XC schooling, so the time penalties pushed us out of the placings, but still a great start to the season I think.

The following weekend at Stockland Lovell things didn’t go quite so well and I withdrew after the SJ because the sun was getting low, we weren’t in with a chance of getting placed and I didn’t want to risk the run XC in that light. There is always another day and hard though it is, sometimes it is better to admit it isn’t your day.

I had a super experience at Aldon BE where I volunteered to help, arrived and found I was dressage writing for Jennie Loriston-Clarke. There really couldn’t be anyone better to learn what the judges are looking for from, and I made the most of it. It was incredibly interesting to note that Jennie is looking for where she can give marks, not where she can take them away – I think there are a few judges out there who could do with taking a leaf out of her book! Any horse behind the vertical did not get more than a 6 for that movement, which gave me pause for thought – no matter how well it did the movement this really pulled the mark down.

And so April arrived – and all my horsey plans went on hold because I get married on the 24th of the month! Just for once in my life my partner and the wedding have to come first and horses go on a back burner. I’ll make sure to include a picture with the next blog!