Well, this was meant to be Llewi's competition but made a last minute substitution after Sunday to give me more chance to think about things with Llewi.
So, Monty had to stand up and he did so in great style with my best mark ever at BD Prelim!
First was P15 - it was blowing an absolute gale and he was a bit spooky as it's so blowy in that arena but he held it together to do a sweet little test. He got almost straight 7's. Just a 6 for canter right 20m circle (falling in) and the canter left to trot across diagonal (on forehand), then the final turn onto centre line (stiff on turn), 8 for final halt, straight 7's for collectives "An obedient, willing horse working in a pleasing outline, now needs to develop suppleness through back to get the really high marks" List 6 judge. He got 69.13% and was just one mark behind the winner who finished on 70%. So 2nd out of 6 in the qualifier and 3rd out of 12 alltogether. so, that's one sheet for area festivals and we won a tenner too!
Wandered around for 20mins then picked him up again for N38 - quite a challenging one for him but was ever so pleased with him. Seriously spooky going round to start with and I lost the connection at the end of the first centre line so got a 5, another 5 for his first medium trot but otherwise all 6's and 7's with an 8 for his final halt! (have been seriously working on halts as he tends to halt with legs everywhere!) 7's for his canter right, his right counter canter but then no more 7's until his walk work and the trot down the centre line which was a little disappointing and he did another good counter canter left. More disappointed with collectives though. Only two 5's in the test but he got 5's for submission and impulsion :( 7 for his paces, 6 for my riding. "a steady test today, he now needs to develop greater swing over the back more consistently to your contact for better connection" List 5 judge. Finished on 60.96% which would have got us our first point if we weren't in training section so should be pleased with that as hard test for him at this stage. Just feel a bit disappointed as watched a couple of the people we beat in the prelim and one of them was all over the place - huge moving stunning horse but all her circles were the wrong size (not just inaccurate but she actually did them completely the wrong size, flying changed in the counter canter etc and she still managed to get 2% more than me! We were 6th out of 9 in total, 1st of 2 in the training section and ahead of one open and one restricted rider.
Anyway, onwards and upwards. Tempted to register him and let him start clocking up points but think we might just do a few more training section first. Next one is on the 27th - 2 Novices this time.
Eventing plans - Rackham this Sunday for the RC team, then a break until the Regionals at West Wilts on 10th Aug (one of the early ones but we cant really do the Sep ones at BCA so gonna be brave and go somewhere new - SJing is on a surface which I cant decide is a good thing or not and obviously XC will be brand new but he's good and consistent XC so we're going to really focus on improving the dr/SJ between now and then and have got lots of training planned starting with another John Smart gridwork clinic on Thur. There is dr at MW on Wed afternoon but cant be bothered to take him for rubbish judges - gonna stick mainly to affiliated now and venues that use decent judges. Not decided on next wkend yet - was gonna take Llewi to sponsored ride at Stratfield Saye but ruled that out now. There is SJ at Farnham Town showground so might take Monty there and do the 90 and 1m classes as not jumped a course that big in a while so would be good practice. Not taking him to a sp ride - since hunting he has turned into a loony in company!
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