We started off on the back foot having not managed to gain any qualifications at the end of last year due to his tendon injury. This year started amazingly with a win at Tweseldown in March getting us what I hoped would be one of a few Regional qualifications. However, ten days later he went mysteriously lame on his left fore. He took several weeks to come sound on it with vet/farrier investigations proving fruitless other than throwing a large spanner in the works when we discovered he was also mildly lame on his right fore. Further investigations showed he had pain in both his coffin joints so we changed his shoeing and everything seemed ok again. He ran again at BCA in June on perfect ground, although sadly his double clear finishing on 30.5 wasn't good enough for another Regionals qualification. Even worse, he was lame again for ten days after, again on his left fore and again blocking to his foot. MRI scan showed nothing much to worry about. He had some mild changes to his navicular bone, not to be unexpected in a jumper of his age, but most importantly no soft tissue damage. However, something in his foot was still bothering him.
We put him back into his previous shoes and all seemed well again so I ran him at Tweseldown in July and he won again qualifying for next year's Regionals. However, yet again he was lame for ten days afterwards. This time he had a huge bruise on his left heel and we concluded his heels were just too low and he had no heel support in his current shoes so we went off to see the farrier at Liphook. He shod him with Natural Balance shoes, bringing the shoe back on the foot by a whole nail-hole and giving his heel much more support. Immediately he seemed happy in these shoes. I didn't jump him for 5weeks, he just worked on a surface and hacked on sandy tracks. Went back for second shoeing and the farrier was really pleased with him so we started jumping on a surface and then finally some XC schooling last week after a decent amount of rain softened the ground enough. During this quiet time he managed to qualify for the Area Festival Finals at Novice Restricted and the Winter Regionals at Novice/Elementary Freestyle to music. Back again last week for a third shoeing and got the excellent news that he was sound as a pound, even on the lunge on a hard circle, and neither the vet nor the farrier wanted to see him again in a hurry!
So, that brings us onto today. My nerves have been building up for a good week or so. This has been a dream of mine since I started eventing this horse and realised what a superstar he was. Our first attempt at Regionals in 2011 was a disaster when we were last after the dressage but we have turned him around since then so I knew he really could do it this time which piled the pressure on. He had show-jumped clear at 9 of his previous 10 events and has never had a XC fault at 90 which also piled a bit more pressure on. I knew he could do it but we just needed a bit of luck to come our way on the day.
The day didn't start too well when my phone decided to switch itself off overnight and fail to wake me up this morning! Thank god it was a late start and I woke naturally only 20mins behind schedule. We then got stuck in traffic on the way to BCA so ended up with only 30mins to walk the XC which considering it takes 10mins each way to walk up to the XC start, was a fair old mission! Fortunately they hadn't changed much of the course and I sprinted round. Certainly warmed me up! I refused to look at the score board and see any other scores as just wanted to concentrate on doing my best.
Quick glug of rescue remedy (I am sure it doesn't work but the placebo effect is good enough for me!) and on for the dressage warmup. Worked on what we had done in our lesson on Sunday and he was going beautifully. He napped like a mad thing and had to be led into the dressage field but then settled down nicely around the arena. First few movements went well and then I made the mistake of asking for too much in the change of bend between the trot half 20m circles and he popped up into canter - argh!!!!! I could have cried then. You can't afford mistakes like that at Regionals. I thought it was all over. I then managed to forget when the canter to trot transition was and was nearly late with that and didn't balance it like I should have done. Pulled it together for the next bit of trot and then he point blank refused to canter when I asked for about 3 strides!!! Just about got it before the marker but was not amused with him at this point as he is normally ultra obedient and today was not the day to be a lazy git. We then fell into trot before doing a stonking walk because I was determined to claw some marks back. However, he then ignored my outside leg aids and nearly walked into the white board, wobbled around, ignored me again in the pick up to medium walk and nearly missed the centre line before falling in heap in the final halt. Honestly, it was god awful and I was ready to go home afterwards.
I only stayed to SJ as it was on a nice surface so I thought we might as well. It was quite tight in their new arena compared to a normal big grass arena so was glad we had been doing lots of practising tight turns SJ recently. There was a related 5 stride distance, a 5 stride dogleg and a series of 3 jumps on a curving line which I watched people ride on anything from 5-7 and 4-6 strides so had no idea what to aim for! Went in determined to ride forwards and just hope for the best! They announced my dressage score of 32.5 on the way to the first fence but at this point I'd given up hope of being placed anyway so it didn't bother me. He was being looky at the first even though the fillers weren't even completely under the fences so had to ride really positively the whole way round. Can't say it was the most stylish round but it worked and we went clear!
fence 3 on related 5 strides:
first fence in the dogleg:
after the dogleg:
Water jump:
Hatcam video - bit drunk sorry - put it on in a hurry:
Took him back, washed him off in nice warm water and stuck his feet in ice boots for 20mins. Sent friend to look at scoreboard who came back saying we looked like we were going to be 7th when top 6 qualify. Went into major sulk about carcrash of a dressage test. Phoned other friend there who was in other Regional section and over by the scores and found out she had qualified after initially thinking she had just missed out so got her to check my score and she said I was 6th - I made her double and triple check and check the number of starters but she was sure I was 6th. At this point I burst into floods of tears. I have wanted this so much for so long and especially after all his problems last year and this year. The nerves had been building, the adrenaline rushing and it all just came flooding out. By the time I'd composed myself and got over to the prize giving it was all over - I'd missed it! Probably not a bad thing given the mess I looked though. We won a lovely brown saddlecloth lol but who cares about that, we had something far more important than that!
So, here we are, 6th place and off to Badminton along with one of my best eventing buddies and her superstar horse. I simply cannot wait!
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