Left him in overnight all plaited up so minimal work to do in the morning. Awoke to light, misty rain and thought this isn't too bad so off we went. Stopped off on the way to pick up another which added an hour to the journey.
Off to warmup for dressage and he was beautiful from the word go. The warmup was on the side of a steep hill but he felt really balanced and he was soft and forwards from the off. Perhaps keeping him in the night before suits him. It didn't suit his legs though - they filled up like tree trunks and he was coughing a bit. If I do it again I'll bandage his legs. I did some counter canter in the warmup and some transitions but missed out the walk lateral work so as not to make him too wobbly. Test was on a flat arena at the bottom of the hill and they'd moved them over from the day before but did mean you had the old centre line just off to the side of the new one which was a bit off-putting. Cantered round the edge of the arena then in we went for BE95 and he was lovely - really forwards. Only little mistake was him cantering slightly early in the first canter - he went off before C instead of after C so corrected him back to trot and asked again. Lovely square halt to finish - so chuffed with him - huge improvement on BCA the other week - ground was much softer so sure he appreciated that. Judge gave me a big smile at the end so that was nice. Big pats for Monts.
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By now the rain was chucking it down. Went off to see if they would let me go early in the SJ and learn the course. Shame I didn't get to walk it as there was a dogleg and some related distances and curved lines and could have done with knowing the striding. The warmup was already looking horrible but I figured we didn't need to do too much having just got him going nicely for SJ. Got him into the warmup and he was just not impressed - felt like he was tip-toeing around as the ground had broken up and got lumpy but not gone to slush. Had planned to do similar warm-up to what we did in the SJ lesson on Wed but I couldn't do any on and back as too slippery. I did a few 5m circles in walk and walk to canter but couldn't collect him enough to do canter to walk. Popped over the x-pole and he flew it so thought I'd go in on that.
SJ warmup:
Got a good stride to 1 but landed on wrong leg and then he went disunited so tried to get back to counter canter and got that back on the way out of the turn. Looking at photo he jumped way off to the right again which is hardly going to help with landing on the left lead so really need to work on that in next jumping session. Jumping right over everything is not good. 2 was ok but he jumped off to the right again and I knew 3 should be on 7 forward strides but instead I strangled the canter to fit in 8, he got a bit close and booted out the top rail in front. So annoyed with myself - totally against all the forward riding I've been working on. Rode forwards round the corner and met 4 nicely then round another right turn to 5 which we got in too close to - I knew 6 was on a forwards 4 strides and I know that 4 is his worst for getting if he's not forwards enough and knowing he'd landed short from 5 I decided to hold for 5 strides which meant he got in short to 6 as well but cleared it, round left bend to 7 and keep curving left to 8 and 9 - I think we met all of them a bit close because I just didn't have him going forwards enough. Fence 10 was a one stride double still on the left curve and gave myself a mental kick to ride forwards into it, met it perfectly and flew through it. So annoyed with myself. I knew we were likely to have a rail down at some point as his record has been immaculate but that was totally my fault and I'm lucky we didn't have more. Lack of any decent warmup didn't do me any favours as wasn't thinking forwards.
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Fence 9:
Fence 10a:
Fence 10b:
Fence 5:
Fence 6:
Fence 4:
Fence 2:
Fence1:
At this point had to decide whether to go XC. It was still hammering it down. My dressage score wasn't up yet. I had a feeling it would probably be quite good but thought a rail down would likely put us out of qualifying places. Besides all that I was really worried about how he would cope with the ground. He is ok in mud having hunted plenty but he doesn't like slippery and I was hearing reports of horses losing their back ends. His jumping confidence is fairly fragile and I knew that if he started losing his footing he would start chipping in short ones which we really don't need and from past experience it takes him a long time to get out of that habit once he's had a bad round. I also knew if I was to come anywhere I'd have to ride for the time and I wasn't feeling the love for that given I knew it was slippery. So I made the decision to withdraw :( Walked over to tell secretary to see I'd got 26.5 dressage and was 3rd after dressage, about 5th after SJ. Gutting to be withdrawing but my support team also felt it was the right thing to do for him. He doesn't need to run and I have to look after him thinking of Badminton and all we've been through this year and last with injuries. Ever since getting home I've been in a right grump and thinking I just should have manned up and got on with it and run him as would have been nice to get another Regionals in the bag for next year but I'm sure it was the right decision for him and he certainly thanked me for not running him in that. It was a very expensive combined training outing though and so frustrating that the weather was perfect the day before.
Dressage sheet - he gave me an error of course for the canter transition which whilst it was nothing to do with me worked out better than being given a 4 for breaking into canter when he should have been trotting. So, without that mistake we'd have been on 25.5 (his PB is 24.5). I am so pleased with how much his dressage has improved - we're talking 10% on 2yrs ago. I've worked so hard on it and it's so rewarding to see all that paying off. Judge was Steve Smith - list 4. 2 above me after dressage were on 21.5 and 22 so still lots more marks for us to pull up to 8's to match that.
So, theoretically we should be at Larkhill on Sunday but currently the forecast is terrible. There's no point me getting up at 5am to go all that way not to run him so will have to watch and wait. It's chalk there so will drain quickly if it's dry on the day but SJ is on a slope and I know he'll hate it if it's slippery. Please please let me get a last run in. I know I've achieved the most important thing this season but I've evented even less than last season so far and it's such an expensive sport to train for to only run a handful of times.
This week we have a SJ lesson at Parwood on Wed with Mark Corbett - I will be asking to work on course jumping and stopping him jumping right all the time. Terrible habit I've let him get into. Then we are hiring the indoor at Merrist Wood on Thursday to work on our dressage. Friday we have BD at Fairoak - 2 of my favourite tests for him - N27 and N38 so really hoping to get a couple of qualifying scores and net a few more points towards Winter Regionals - need 11 more by end of November. Sounds a lot but he can get 8-10 in a day on a good day so should be achievable.
Still trying to decide what to do with him next week. It's my SJ that needs work so thinking need to go at least once - there is BSJA at Crofton on Fri which has British Novice and a 1m Open and we really should be capable of those after doing 1m10 last Wed at MW but the thought scares the life out of me. Will also require very early get up as 1st classes of the day. Never done BSJA either so bit scary. Really ought to man up and get on with it. They also have unaff there on Sunday with a 3ft and 3ft3 class - could do that as well or instead of or just do Friday and do something different on Sunday. There is BE SJ training with Warren Lamperd near Hook on Sunday so could get another SJ lesson with someone different in. MC is also teaching at Parwood again on Wed. Oldencraig has DTM on Fri which we could probably get late entry for. Thinking I might take Llewi out with the draghunt on Wed. The thought of hunting Monty scares the life out of me at the moment - much as I would adore to take him out jumping hedges he is soooo precious now and needs to be wrapped up in cotton wool until Badminton. I might take him a couple of times to the meets where I know there's no hedges with dodgy hidden ditches and good ground as I think he might go stale on me if he's stuck in an arena until May but we'll see. Really need to make some decisions about next week now though - so rubbish when there's so much choice!
Course photos of the XC:
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