Not been to Frensham for a few years now - nice, local venue with indoor school with lots of mirrors for warmup which is always handy! Bit of a last minute decision to attempt to qualify for Advanced Medium Area Festivals after our half decent score in our first unaffiliated one a few weeks ago.
First test was 85 which I haven't ridden in competition before and just once in training. In the warmup worked on hotting up the canter as we did in our lesson the night before. In the test I tried to concentrate on getting the more forwards trot we worked on in our lesson a few weeks ago. As a result we did lose softness a little bit at times but this is all part of the journey towards a better quality trot. I was also struggling with a sore back which makes sitting trot rather more of a challenge. He got a bit confused in the canter HP's and I think he was anticipating changes so they were both a bit messy which is a shame as the right one has been coming on nicely recently. The first simple change from counter canter to true canter at C was lovely. The second one was spoilt by him spooking in the counter canter so losing the rhythm/balance and rather falling into walk. Both flying changes happened on the aids though and I didn't forget where I was going!
Very chuffed to see a score of 63.824%. He got 7.5 for his medium walk, 7's for walk to canter, medium canter, first simple change, transitions in and out of extended canter and the final down the centre line/halt. 5.5's for the canter HP both ways and the 2nd flying change, otherwise all 6's and 6.5's. 7, 6.5, 6.0, 6.5 for collectives. "Paces regular. Horse needs to work in a more uphill self carriage for more engagement of the hindleg" - Mary Robley. Video shows he jumped together behind in the second change which is something we are working on but generally very happy for a first attempt.
Had just over an hour before 2nd test so he chilled out with some grass and then I went to watch a friend's test. Quick warm up reminding him to take me forwards and in for AM92 - second attempt at this test. Again, the forwards trot was essential. Kept him a bit more on the bridle in the extended walk. This time I pulled off the canter HP's but royally messed up all the changes! So hard to get everything right, especially when it all comes up so quick. First change he launched into, then need to quickly get into the HP to centre line, round the corner and across the short diagonal for a change right to left and he just launched in the air and didn't change at all so had to walk to get the correct lead in order to have a go at the 2nd change which was clean but hollow and same with the final one. Once one goes wrong, the whole thing kind of falls apart!
Considering the mistakes pretty chuffed with 63.243% as so much more to come once we get it all more polished. Managed another 7.5 for medium walk with 7's for the extended walk, the extended canter and the transitions in and out of the extended canter. 5's for the 3rd and 4th changes - late/close behind. Amusingly the first two got 6's which is impressive considering I walked through the second one as it didn't happen at all! Everything else 6/6.5. A generous 6 for our extended trot which we don't actually have. 7.0, 6.0, 6.5, 6.5 for collectives. "Horse has regular paces but needs to be more engaged from the hindleg to develop more balance and self carriage" - Mary Robley.
So, that's a shiny 4 Advanced Medium points on our record now. Half qualified for Winter Regionals and qualified for Area Festivals in one go. And loads more to come with more practice. Go Monts!
Next up, back to basics for the BE100 dressage champs at Blenheim on Thursday. Hoping my back holds out for the arena eventing champs on Sunday too.
A lesson based on the moves in AM85/92 that I was doing the following day. Explained have been having issues with the counter canter not being balanced and so the simple changes proving challenging. Worked on hotting up the normal canter and his response to upwards/downwards aids so walk to canter, canter to walk on a 20m circle keeping the canter collected and his responses quick. This really helped as meant I could collect the counter canter, keep him balanced round the corner and get the simple change back to true canter at C. Before, the counter canter was getting long and unbalanced so he was on the forehand and couldn't sit to give me the transition to walk.
Having difficulty getting him straight across the diagonal for the flying change right to left so worked on leg yielding from the corner to the 3/4 line and back again to get him used to changes of bend without changing the leading leg. Then try to leg yield a step before asking for the change. This one needs homework.
We did manage some nice changes though - here is a 3 loop serpentine with good changes both ways:
Then some trot work, keeping the energy levels up - at the moment am losing the softness a bit from the increased forwardness but this should come back as he gets more used to giving me more energy.
Finally some canter to halt down the centre line - transition needs to be direct, not through trot or walk. If only they were all as good as this one!
Put my back out mid week lifting a bag of feed so Goring was a bit in doubt for a few days but quick visit to my sports massage guy on Thursday set us right again although was very glad of my Back on Track back support for a bit of extra help.
Started off with a nice mid morning dressage. They were running early so not much time to warm up but he doesn't need too much for a BE100 test. Felt it was more forwards than last week. Shame he just tripped on one of his trot circles and his halt at C wasn't great. Also I was paranoid about him dropping back to trot early on the canters across the diagonal after last week so kept the canter more forwards which meant he just tipped on his forehand a bit in the downwards transitions. Lovely final centre line and square halt to finish for an 8. Bit disappointed with 31.5 - 6,5marks worse than last week's effort in the same test but that's dressage for you. Still top ten after dressage and XC causing plenty of problems.
Went off to walk the XC. Much the same as last year. They had changed the corner at 6 from a left one to right one which made me happy. 4 strides from a chair to the corner. Causing lots of probs for some reason. Then onto the trakehner which was also causing lots of probs. Two skinny houses at 8 and 9 which walked on 4. The double of tyres had become a single fence but a big patch of orange sand/gravel was left where the second one was so planned my route around that as know Monts well now and that's just the sort of thing he'll look at! Step to arrowhead on sharp right turn at 10 as per last year. Then up a steep hill to a combo of big brushes on 3 strides on a left hand curve before heading down to the water which included the step down this year. They had taken out the fence with a roof under the trees so just onto the final one after. More than a minute shorter than last week at Firle but quite hilly.
On to the SJ. Had time to watch quite a few as no chance to walk it. Looked quite small compared to Firle last week and much less technical. Had a little blip in the warmup when he stopped at the oxer just before I was due to go in - it was uphill and I just didn't have the canter for it. After last week's mishap at the big oxer where I killed the canter and he tried his hardest to clear it but landed on it he has clearly remembered and doesn't fancy that happening again. I was going to have another go but someone else went to jump it and did the same demolishing it so I just popped the upright downhill and then it was time to go in. Made sure to ride all the oxers nice and forwards. Mostly it went nicely, he just spooked coming to fence 7 and lost the rhythm so ended up in deep and landed deep -with fence 8 being quite a small upright I sat and waited for 5 strides rather than pushing him flat for 4. Then round and jumped the final double nicely for a clear round. A little bit of confidence rebuilding to do at oxers for both of us before Blenheim I think as they will definitely be bigger than these were.
Fence 3:
Fence 4:
Final double fence 9:
Quick change and on to the XC. Little bit sticky over the first one, this year the hay cart at 2 looking much less scary and he jumped that and the next few nicely. Got a lovely stride to the chair to corner at 5 and 6 and flew the trakehner at 7. For some unknown reason I didn't ride the 4 strides between the 2 houses at 8 and 9 despite a good shot so he cleverly stuck another stride in there. Flew the tyres and avoided the gravel patch. Galloping on well he popped the chair then the left side of the step which he ballooned making the right turn to the arrowhead a little dodgy but just kept kicking forwards and he responded. On up the hill and try to get a wide turn to get straight for the 2 brushes so avoid having to turn between them but again neglected to ride forward enough between them and fortunately with the second bit just being an upright brush he could pop it from being quite close. On to the water. Got a great shot in and popped down the step then didn't ride forwards enough so ended up on a half stride up the step, tripped a bit and slotted in 4 strides before the final part. Clever horse.
The wave before the water:
Up the final hill:
Up the steep hill, through the woods and over the finish before we knew it. Monts barely out of breath and didn't even break a sweat. Bit annoyed with myself for making him work harder than he needed to by adding strides in everywhere. For some reason SJ I normally ride forwards for my strides now but XC I seem to want to add strides everywhere. Must sort this out if we're going Novice any time! I do think part of the issue now is that BE100 is seeming small and without the fear factor I'm forgetting to use my legs and attack. Perhaps it is time to push on to Novice and find that fear factor and the buzz again! Went back and checked out the Novice SJ which looked very much like the heights we have been jumping recently and nowhere near as terrifying as last year.
We ended up finishing 4th in a competitive section with lots of pros - won by Bruce Haskell followed by David Doel and Colina Pickles then us. Lucinda Fredericks and multiple other pros in there too. Another double clear inside the time for us. Sixty top five finish in a row since Badminton! Quite a record. Quite a horse!
Next big outing for us is Blenheim in two weeks time - bit of SJ practice to do before then. We have the dressage champs on the Thursday and the BE100 arena eventing final on the Sunday and lots of spectating in between. Staying up there for the four days so looking forwards to that.
In the mean time we've got a couple of Advanced Mediums to do next Saturday in a vague last minute attempt to get some sheets for the Area Festivals at the end of October.
Not sure where to start. Not sure it's sunk in yet as was a bit of a manic day. The short story - we're off to Badminton again after our first Regional Final of the year! Wow - didn't expect to do it on first attempt.
The long story follows here:
Good thing I planned in a fair bit of contingency time into the timings for the day. Had a bit of an emergency oil situation with the lorry - don't even ask! Managed to collar the yard owner to help me put in the 8L of oil I luckily had in the lorry (it's not easy to access and required a funnel and a nozzel and a thin bottle) - this all took time. Finally set off 45mins late. 8L wasn't enough though so had to find somewhere to stop on route. Had to be the one route without any handy petrol stations. Got quite close to the event and saw a sign for a supermarket. Signs then disappeared so had to ask someone. Two 3 point turns in housing estates later and we found it only to find it to be the only petrol station without a bloody shop! Chris ended up running into Asda while I started getting changed in the back of the lorry, got my stock and hairnet on etc. Fortunately found some oil and on we trekked. Then got stuck in traffic before finally getting to Firle with 50mins to go until my dressage - eek!
Chris ran off to get my number - secretary was miles away! I got Monts ready then Chris studded up while I got me ready. 10min walk down to the dressage warmup, I was 2nd in and they took the first person in 5mins early. I knew I could have said to wait until my time but I hate doing that and delaying things, especially early in the class so I went in after literally a trot and canter on each rein. Didn't really do us any harm - he did a very sweet test, just unfortunately dropping back to trot for half a stride as we came across the 2nd diagonal in canter. Was very pleased he didn't tense up and anticipate changes though.
Gorgeous photo from Indra Morris after the dressage. He is just such a beautiful horse!
After all the mad rush, we then had 3.5hrs to wait until SJ. Watched some 90 SJ, wandered round the trade stands, walked the course for the 100 SJ (nice to get to do that for a change!) - it was quite technical with actual turn backs instead of just a figure of 8. Hoped our recent BSJA would go in our favour. Then went to walk the XC - few interesting combinations - first hurdle was going to be persuading him across a muddy, water filled bridge that wasn't even a numbered fence after fence 3. There was lots of pale coloured sand/chippings down in the gateways too which is always fun with Monts! Fence 4 was humongously wide for a BE100 - tried not to look too close! Fence 8 was a skinny brush then 5 strides to a right corner (hardly a corner, more of skinny as not very wide but still a good accuracy question). Then there were two skinny houses on a right curve on very undulating ground at fence 12. Walked on 6 strides - could be fun! No xmas trees to keep us on track either. There was a wishing well into the water then step up to angled log out and then 2nd last fence was a log, one stride to step up, 2 strides to log that I thought he might look at. Lots of other lovely fences - a lot of them identical to those we had at Badminton given the course builders were the same. Beautiful course and perfect ground.
Back to the dressage - still no scores up after 3hrs!!! Overheard someone talking about the live scoring on bdwp though - checked there and our score was up - 25!!! Sounded fab but only one other score up which was 24.3 so wasn't sure if just a generous judge.
On to the SJ - he warmed up beautifully and they called me over, only to then tell me there was a course walk. 10mins later he had switched off, did another couple of warmup jumps, one rather badly and then tried to wake him up on entering the arena. He ballooned the first fence:
Easy 8 strides to the 2nd, met it perfectly. Then for some reason I totally messed up counting 10 strides to the next fence, didn't keep the canter forwards enough round the curve, was way off for 10, too close for 11 and totally buried him. He did his best to clear it but nearly jumped me off in the process. Headbutted his neck. Sat up quick and had to reorganise very quickly as tight turn right to fence 4. Kicked on for 7 strides to 5:
Wrong leg and the disunited round the corner to the double at 6 but got a good shot in
And good to the big wall at 7.
Another turn back to 8 then forwards 7 strides to big oxer at 9:
And on to the 2nd double to finish:
Felt like I'd really let him down by burying him to fence 3 as he jumped the rest brilliantly and put huge amount of effort in to clear all the fences. Apologised to him on the way out of the ring. Assumed that was our chance at qualifying gone.
On to the XC - still worth doing as you never know what can happen! Only a few scores up from other 100 section but time was looking potentially tight so decided to kick on! Loony toon lauched out of the start box clearing the first few simple fences no probs. Thought I was mad asking a hunter/eventer to go through a muddy bridge and had to growl and kick my way through that. Thankfully a good stride to the big, wide one at 4. A roll top combo at 5 and a simple brush at 6, table at 7 then anchored him back for the brush to corner combo at 8 - lovely 5 strides but something must have distracted him because he clonked the corner despite being on a good distance which is unlike him. Round the corner and away from the lorry park (slightly concerned he might nap here but no probs), flyer over 9 and 10 and onwards to the haycart - love this photo!
Great stride to the haycart at 11:
Then had to wrestle back some control for the skinny houses at 12 - met the first one ok but due to trying to keep control and steering I didn't keep enough power going so couldn't make 6 strides. I did keep riding positively forwards though rather than hooking back and despite feeling him think about nipping out to the left, he was clever, tucked in a 7th stride and over we went - phew!
On to a brush under some trees, trotted through the water, over the log out and another oxer then the final combo. I think he thought perhaps it was a coffin or something. He was really backing off so I kept my shoulders back and he launched in, not enough power to get one stride before the step so cleverly stuck in another (never good to launch at steps from way out - he is a clever lad) then landed steep with still not enough power. I had long reins so again just sat back and rode forwards and straight and he got 3 strides in before the final log.
Clearly very scary - look at the tucked up knees and pricked ears!
Last fence no probs and kicked on through the finish. Coming back from the warmup we passed super starter Chris Kirby who gave me the thumbs up - we had gone clear inside the time - woohoo!
Back to the lorry to sort Monts out and that gave them time to have updated the live scoreboard. Loads of dressage scores in the 20's so again assumed our pole down would have knocked us out, but more and more SJ scores went up all with penalties. Started to look in with a chance again. Finally, XC scores started going up and we went into 5th place. 27 starters so 5 to qualify for Badminton. Only one more could potentially go ahead of us. Suddenly they corrected his SJ score from clear to 12 faults and no-one else could beat us! Refused to believe it until saw it confirmed on the final scoreboard but there it was!
Whoop whoop! We won some lovely rossies and a shiny glass:
And a photo with Denise who totally deserved to qualify with her cracking little horse and also another lovely lady who came 4th.
We're all off to Badders!
Finally got home at 10.30pm and then spent yesterday helping at Wellington Horse Trials from 7.30am, writing for the dressage and then watching the SJ/XC. Worked today which was rather busy so now feeling quite tired!
Reassessing what to do with the rest of the season now. Have an entry in for Goring this weekend in the Regionals section which now can't do so have emailed the secretary to see if can swap to a normal section and have a nice, no pressure run. Our SJ clearly still needs work and XC is a good challenge at Goring. Had the other Regionals in my diary as never imagined we'd qualify at the first one but thinking we might just finish after Goring now. No need to trek round the country. We also have the dressage and BE Eventing Finals at Blenheim in a couple of weeks. Then he could have some chill out time.
So, 3rd time lucky at Badders??? Surely the weather can't be as bad again!
