Sorry for the big gap since the last instalment, we have had loads going on!
Firstly l’ll go back to the end of April. We went to Nurstead to put the demons to bed and that is exactly what we did! Woo hoo! We scored a very good dressage mark of 31.5 and then clear show jumping so were in a good position going into the cross country. Nurstead is a strong Novice with lots of inviting big fences but also some very tricky lines. It was here Timmy’s lack of experience last year showed up. The first difficult fence was three offset logs on a very short distance which he popped through like a pro. The next question came at the steps, with an offset skinny before you drop down the massive steps running down hill and then two hedges on an angle at the bottom with one stride in between! Again no problems there either. Then came the dreaded corner…. He was amazing and flew over without even so much as a wobble and finished full of confidence. We did clock up a few time penalties through setting him up so were not in the ribbons but had a very successful day.
The next event was not going to be until Mattingly so I had planned to get some dressage and show jumping practice in…. oh if only I had!!! The four weeks in between events got quickly filled up with taking Cairo and Gringo out to parties so they could be sold. Cario picked up a handful of placings at Royal Leisure centre and Pyecombe show jumping. Gringo also made his combined training debut at Felbridge. He was so chilled out given it was so busy! He did a reasonable dressage test but the poor thing was struggling in the deep sand. Felbridge had recently put down a new surface but it really was not ready to use so by the time I went in it was like a beach! Needless to say, he coped well and then went on to jump perfectly so although not placed, he was a superstar!
Before I knew it, Mattingly had crept up on me and Timmy hadn’t been to a competition for four weeks…. Well Mattingly was the most exciting thing ever!!!! My dressage test was in the long arena as we were tackling our first Intermediate novice where you do an Intermediate test and show jumping and then Novice cross country. He was so excited before I went in, he was foaming! I think we managed to cobble together vague required movements but it was not our best test to score 44.
After a full bath after dressage… again the show jumping was very exciting, as he was leaping into the practice fences I did wonder if I should jump…. I sent Nina back to the lorry to get the Evening performance spray to try and chill him out. It worked a treat so I started to get some control back. Our showjumping round was a little rusty but no leaping so I was fairly happy with eight faults as they were incurred coming out of the double and the combination where he was just getting a little quick. Lots of grid work needed!
The cross country course at Mattingly is amazing. My third fence was a sculpture of a cat, then coming out of the first water you jump a polabear followed by a double of offset ducks later on in the course. It was a strong course but after such a good run at Nurstead I was confident he would be fine. I opted to take all the straight routes so to test him and he was awesome, he didn’t waiver at anything. Woo hoo – well worth the trip even if the other two phases were not quite up to scratch.
Last weekend I had a fairly local event at Borde Hill and was again competing in the Intermediate Novice. Again Borde Hill is beautiful and they have an amazing setting and cross country course. I was a little worried as the cross country ran very close to the dressage arenas but after lots of work that week I had a much better behaved pony to score 33.6. The showjumping was on a slope so although he was a little strong, I was pleased with just the one down. It was a two stride double and I hadn’t managed to walk the course so didn’t realise how short it was so had the rail down coming out. He was amazing cross country and I was even able to put my foot down a little giving us our first clear inside the time to finish in 3rd place!!!! I was very happy with him.
We don’t have any events planned in June but will take him to Felbridge combined training and also to jump the Golden Cross Eventers Challenge at the end of the month. The next stop is Eridge to have a good run around the Novice and then the CIC1* at Brightling.
I’ll let you know how that all goes…..
x
