Monty Borde Hill BE90 29-05-11

Alarm went off at the ungodly hour of 5am again this morning.  At least having not walked the XC course I got some sleep as was blissfully unaware of what lay ahead.

We got to Borde Hill at 8am.  Dressage not till 10.30am so plenty of time to walk the course.
Link here to pics of the whole course:
http://community.webshots.com/album/580268898Lfoaot?vhost=community

Few things to concern me - 1st in the SJ the final line consisted of oxer then related distance to a 1 stride double then a short related distance to a final upright - could forsee this causing problems (how right I was!)
Then XC - all was fine until fence 9 and 10 - 2 brush fences full up 1.10m including the brush on top - they came up to my chest and I'm not short!  To make matters worse they were on an angle inviting a left hand run out (his favourite!) and they were on a very short 2 strides or an incredibly long one stride.  Following that there were a few twisty turny fences, a big wide one with another max height brush on top following by 90degrees left to narrow log then 90degrees right to another log.  The narrow log was flagged back to front when I walked the course - pointed it out to the steward who swapped them round - that could have caused some confusion!  Then there was a little narrow hedgehog fence followed by sharp 90degrees left to a narrow log then right into the water.  2 loops went close to the collecting ring - not great on a orange monster prone to napping!

Anyway, onwards with the dressage.  He did a very sweet test and at the moment I couldn't have asked for anything more.  I have worked damn hard on his dressage over the winter so was overjoyed to hear a score of 31.5 when I went into the SJing - didn't half put the pressure on though!

That was, once we made it to the SJing.  Apparantly having to walk past portaloos and marquees is so scary we had to have 5minutes of napping and leaping round the car park first.  I apologise to the group calmly enjoying a picnic who I may have nearly sat on as well as multiple other people and cars.  Little bugger.  Ended up shoving him up someone else's bum to get him out of there.  Anyway, once we made it there all went well until the dratted final line when he didn't come back to me enough to the last fence, got too close and took it out with a front leg.  Should have asked him to go longer, not shorter in hindsight but there we go.  It turned out to be an expensive rail.
Video here:

Pics:
fence 4:

fence 8b

So, finished kicking myself over the rail down and went up to the XC - went over the first warmup fence and pony promptly tripped on landing and we both nearly ended up on the floor.  Thankfully he managed to pick himself up but on glancing at his legs I realised I hadn't changed his boots to XC ones!!!  Had to despatch helper to leg it back to the car park and collect them, put myself back several places with the steward and then jump off, reboot, jump back on, pop over a fence then got sent to the start box.  Fortunately course then got held (it was causing carnage which was really reassuring - not!) so we got a little longer to chill out again after rush to get boots on.

Finally set off, serious determination to make the time after Tweseldown last week.  You can see by the getaway from this fence I meant business!

So, away over 1 no probs, huge amount of spooking about fence 2 which to me seemed completely innocuous.  Got a slap on the shoulder and a big growl after that one - plenty more troublesome things to come!  Fine over the log at 3, roll tops at 4 and 5, down a steep hill then back up another one and straight away faced with wall of people, motorbikes, commentary tower and the collecting ring - had to work hard to get over 6 then right turn and got a good shot at 7:

another right turn, pop over the roll top then over the little ditch that wasn't even really a ditch, just a take-off rail but he was really looking at it - I think he was searching for the ditch that wasn't!

Then, onto those horrid brushes at 9 and 10, he's not a big horse so decided to go short on 2 strides, he locked on well, popped in 2 strides and hopped out over the 2nd part no probs, huge pats and good boys and on we went, next few big oxers that he flew then the sharp bends to the logs at 13 and 14 no probs.  Steadied up to a trot for the hedgehog at 15 as v sharp turn after to the log before the water - no probs to any of that though

And then it was just a case of galloping flat out to home over the final 2 fences.

Didn't hear the commentator when we finished so had to wait for results to go up on the board desperately praying we didn't get time faults as was =5th after dressage which is by far our best yet.  36 starters so not a small class!  Dressage sheet showed mix of 6's and 7's, but three 8's!!!  For our entry, FWLR and for his paces!  Gobsmacked!  Then his time went up as 4mins 13secs.  Optimum time: 4mins 13secs!!!!  So I went ahead of the other 2 on the same score as me as you cant get much closer to the optimum than that!  Someone pipped me to the win finishing on 35 (damn expensive show jump!) but we were 2nd!  Cant quite believe it!  We got a frillie and some prize money although have to say BE prize money is quite pathetic -- you could at least get your entry fee back!  SO, I do believe most importantly that gets us a qualification to a regional final and also a nice clutch of foundation points (no idea how many!)

Over the moon with the little orange pony (picnic squashing all forgiven!)

Next stop BCA (and some more dressage practice next week at GBEC too!)

I have strawberry smoothie and chocolate buttons to anyone who made it to the end!