Very civilised times - arrived at Tweseldown just after 10am. Decided to only put hind studs in him as ground didn't look slippery in any way and wanted to do anything possible to avoid extra concussion to his front feet. Decided to take each phase as it came and see how he felt as ground was on the firmer side than I would like but I know it's a sand base and it does seem to have more give in it than it looks. Main worry when I walked the XC was all the loose stones in the sand as he seems very sensitive to bruising at the moment.
He warmed up beautifully for the dressage - I swear he just likes showing off at events - he is much softer than he is at home! Certainly didn't feel like he was feeling the ground at all and it didn't give me the feeling of being too hard. He will go pottery and short if he feels it's hard so can trust him to tell me if he's not happy. We did walk squares alternating SI and travers followed by canter squares. Then some trot-walk-trots and I could actually sit to his trot he was so soft. Didn't do much as it was about 25degrees. Gave him a 5mins break then off to do his test. To me it felt a little lacking in sparkle but it was very obedient. Depending on the judge it was either gonna be a winner or a loser! Who knows how it works.
Bit of a break while got changed for SJ then the long walk down to the SJ arena. Looked at the board and thought there weren't that many before me so cracked on with warming up. He was quite sticky over the vertical for some unknown reason - it was uphill but he just kept chipping in and we had some uncomfy jumps. He pinged the parallel no probs though (on the same uphill slope) so not sure if something about the ground with the upright? Suddenly realised they were taking a load of people before me who hadn't jumped in order so stood around for 10mins while they jumped then tried to wake him up again. Came at the vertical and got another sticky jump so came round again and held for what seemed to be like a good, sensible uphill stride and he slammed on the anchors last minute. Was totally not expecting that so when he then reversed and spun I came out the side door twisting my foot at some ungodly angle in the stirrup before sliding down his back legs, landing on my spur and collapsing in a heap in the dirt.
Picked myself up, ankle was just about in one piece - bit sore and spur a bit bent but ok. Got a quick leg-up, gave myself a serious kick up the bum, popped the x-pole a bit stickily, but then he popped the vertical nicely so decided might as well go in on that! Went in saying to my friend if he felt like he was hating it we'd come out but he settled into a nice rhythm straight away and considering most of the fence was on the right rein which would be our worst one he did a lovely round. Might have ridden a little too forward down the related 5 stride distance but he flew the oxer, perfectly trusting me to go on the long one. Next fence was a vertical on the same uphill slope as the vertical in the warmup plus a few inches bigger but he jumped it beautifully. Double went well despite a low flying jet coming right over our heads! Next fence was a big oxer and as usual I let that get to me and he got in close but never thought about stopping. Good stride to the last and he just tapped it but fortunately it stayed put! Then they announced my dressage score of 24.5!!!! Woweee! I had been tempted not to run him XC if wasn't in with a shot as he has nothing to prove round there but given he had just jumped a completely normal SJ round for him and I knew the XC was on the deeper sand I felt happy to run him.
Waiting to go in:
Fence 2:
Fence 4:
Fence 5:
Video:
So, quick change into XC gear down by the SJ arena as far too hot to be trekking back up to lorry.
Quick warmup and he jumped well. The XC course didnt worry me at all but they had made it even more twisty than usual and utilised the few hills they have so it was a bit uppy-downy and a complete maze of narrow, sandy tracks. Major nap attack at leaving the warmup (as per normal for him) so trotted over to the start box being led! Once in the box we had a couple of mini rears but it was all about wanting to go rather than trying to run away. Great shot to the first but then it got a bit hairy as we twisted around the place with poor Monts constantly getting surprised by fence judges sitting on deckchairs round each corner! He hates anything out of the ordinary. So, it was a bit wild and not as smooth as it could be but he never hesitated and took a few strides out here and there for fun. The photo fence is quite funny as he took a complete flier and took me by surprise so have proper hunting safety seat going on.
Last fence:
Last fence:
Coming towards the finish:
And the fabby hatcam video:
So, we finished 8secs inside the time on our dressage score of 24.5 which led the section. De ja vu! I hadn't dared hope it would go as well as March and when I arrived and already there was a 26.5 on the board with clear SJ I just relaxed and thought what will be will be. Never imagined he'd get 24.5! Nearly fell over when I heard that! Soaked his feet in iced water for 30mins after XC as well as ice on his legs.
Turns out dressage judge was List One judge Gill Drew which makes our score even better. She gave him an 8 for submission (that is one hell of an achievement given what he was like when I got him!) and me an 8 for my riding - even more yay! 8 for his right canter strike off (another never thought I'd see the day mark) and the whole sheet was just 7's and 8's with no comments. To think I was struggling to get sub 40 at the end of 2011!
Unfortunately following day he came up with a large purple bruise on his left heel so can only assume he landed on a stone at some point - I wonder if it was in the SJ warmup. He was slightly off on that foot for a few days but seems ok again now. However, I have decided not to run him again until the ground improves (whenever that may be) as I dont want to take any risks with him. He is seeing the farrier at Liphook on Wednesday so we'll see what we can come up with to try and protect his feet from bruising/concussion as much as possible. And for now we'll be concentrating on improving our dressage even further. He has the Area Festivals to aim for then hopefully the ground might improve enough that we can get to our BE Regionals. Another 24.5 and DC there would go down nicely! He has not been out of the top 10 in a BE90 since June 2011. Such a fab horse who definitely deserves to go to Badders.
Course photos:
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