Walked the course for Tweseldown yesterday and all looked good. They had changed the nasty combo at 6 from 2 big boxes on a curved 3 strides to 2 big box brushes on a 90degree angle with about 6 strides between them. Right hand bends not my fave so thought this could be interesting. They had moved the corner slightly and the most obvious line to it was going to be a problem as knew he'd spook at the jump you had to go past to get to it and then we'd end up on a left pointing line to a left corner on a horse who likes to run out to the left and with a rider who hates corners! So, I designed myself a new line going up across the grass and round the left of the spare jump so even after a spook we could be pointing right at the corner! Water was improved with a trip round to the other side, a house and then straight in and back out again the other side instead of wiggling through it twice. Last 3 fences same as ever.
This morning set off with a nice dressage time of 12.30. Walked the SJ which was causing plenty of carnage. Nice planks, road closed jump and skinny bright thing to finish. Nothing that should really trouble Montster on a good day though.
Warmed up for dressage and he was just like yesterday in the school. Mental. Seriously taking offence to my leg aids. Kept getting walk to bounce, walk to canter, walk to hop in the air, anything but walk to trot. Not good at all. Perhaps hunting wasn't such a great idea after all! Or maybe all the rocket fuel food was finally kicking in. Either way it wasn't going to be pretty. Took him and after what seemed hours trotting round the outside (daren't walk as feared we'd never get back into trot) and we managed to nurse our way round BE102 (using higher level test for the champs). Was expecting 40 or worse as it was so tense it was ridiculous. Damned dressage. I used to love it, but recently it's become my nemesis.
Quick change to the SJ, got over there and found that play had been stopped for nearly an hour as someone as come off in a big way. When I got over there they had her collar and boarded and were just loading her into the ambulance. Cue major wibbles from me - I hate seeing people injured especially when I'm about to tackle what they were. So I got a chance to actually walk the course although it doesn't really change what I do but it killed some time. Hung around a bit longer and then they finally got going again and rattled through them. Went in and jumped another lovely clear round. 4th eventing clear in a row now - feel like we're getting this SJ lark cracked finally. The Champs section had an extra fence compared to the normal Intro sections - final rainbow skinny but he popped it lovely. 90 looks so small now we've been doing 100. Never thought I'd say 3ft jumping looked small! No video today as my youtube gone up the spout but v pleased with him. They announced my dressage score on the way to fence 1 which was 35 so pretty chuffed with that.
Another quick change for XC before trekking half a mile round to the warmup. We were last to arrive in the warmup so last to go round. He was in firey mode and I sensed we might have fun today! Fooled his naughtyness around the start box by walking him through it forwards and backwards which really confused him and we had no rearing. Set off on a right mission, spooking at nothing on the way to fence 1. Had all the advice from on here in my head - do not kill the canter, set up then ride forwards etc. Made sure he knew I wasn't messing around today. Had put my reins onto the top ring on my 2 ring snaffle as didn't want him backing off at all but it meant I had zero control! We absolutely hared around the first half of the course. He walloped the big box at 4, hooned around the corner to the house at 5 where I had seen loads refuse so made sure I rode that, took off with me across the grass while I frantically fought for some steeering in prep for the combo at 6. Got right in deep which was due to us fighting but made a nice turn to part b.
pic of 6b
vid fences 5, 6ab and 7 XC
Ok over 7, spooking like mad round the corner to the skinny log at 8, did exactly as I predicted on the way to the corner at 9 so v glad to be coming at it on the line I'd chosen, jumped the wider part but no thinking about running out. Regained small amount of control for the 2 skinny hanging logs on a turn at 10 and 11. Launched through the sunken road taking a stride out, spooked his way to the box at 13, spooked a bit more on the way round to the back of the water, jumped the house fab, leapt into the water, jumped out well, fought for some control coming out of the woods to the hanging log to step down, failed but stopped myself from hooking and kicked on to the log and just absolutely flew down the big drop (normally I come at these things at a trot but I have no idea why as he clearly loves launching into space!). Flew the chair and the last and managed to finish 9secs inside the time. They had wheeled it a bit tighter than the last event given the route was pretty much identical and in every other section hardly anyone managed to get the time. Obviously the champs was a bit more competitive and there were plenty of double clears. We finished on our dressage score of 35. Disappointingly not quite good enough to get placed but we managed 12th out of 31. Out of the other 4 Intro sections only about 10 managed a double clear so pretty chuffed we did as have to remember we are only 6mths after I first wibbled my way round the 80cm course back in April and had no idea about riding SJ, XC or getting inside the time. 35 in any of the other sections would have got us 2nd place. In some sections people were in the top 10 with refusals so it definitely caused problems.
course pics:
course pics
So, this is our record for the season - missed out are our win at the RC Area Qualifier finishing on our dressage score and our round at the RC National champs. Not bad for a first ever season's eventing I dont think. A winter of dressage (and hunting) is ahead of us after he has a bit of a holiday and next yr we will crack the bloody dressage!
| Date | Location | Cl | Horse | Rider | Dres sage | Show Jump | XC Time | XC Jump | Total | Place |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15.10.11 | Tweseldown UA 3 | Int | MARMALADE MONTY | Holehouse, Nicola | 35.0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 35.0 | 12 |
| 8.10.11 | Pulborough | 100 | MARMALADE MONTY | Holehouse, Nicola | 39.5 | 0 | 10.4 | 20 | 69.9 | 17 |
| 27.9.11 | BCA 2 | 90rf | MARMALADE MONTY | Holehouse, Nicola | 42.0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 42.0 | 29 |
| 18.9.11 | Munstead 2 | 100 | MARMALADE MONTY | Holehouse, Nicola | 39.0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 39.0 | 14 |
| 3.9.11 | Tweseldown UA 2 | ITO | MARMALADE MONTY | Holehouse, Nicola | 37.5 | 4 | 0.0 | 0 | 41.5 | 14 |
| 20.8.11 | Borde Hill UA | ITO | MARMALADE MONTY | Holehouse, Nicola | 32.0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 32.0 | 1 |
| 9.8.11 | W Wilts 2 | 90rf | MARMALADE MONTY | Holehouse, Nicola | Withdrawn | |||||
| 25.6.11 | Rackham | 90 | MARMALADE MONTY | Holehouse, Nicola | 30.5 | 4 | 0.0 | 0 | 34.5 | 7 |
| 11.6.11 | BCA 1 | 90 | MARMALADE MONTY | Holehouse, Nicola | 34.5 | 8 | 14.0 | 0 | 56.5 | 21 |
| 29.5.11 | Borde Hill | 90 | MARMALADE MONTY | Holehouse, Nicola | 31.5 | 4 | 0.0 | 0 | 35.5 | 2 |
| Date | Location | Cl | Horse | Rider | Dres sage | Show Jump | XC Time | XC Jump | Total | Place |
| 20.5.11 | Tweseldown 2 | 90 | MARMALADE MONTY | Holehouse, Nicola | 35.5 | 4 | 7.2 | 0 | 46.7 | 17 |
| 7.5.11 | Mattingley UA | ITO | MARMALADE MONTY | Holehouse, Nicola | 34.5 | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 34.5 | 2 |
| 15.4.11 | Tweseldown UA 1 | Pre | MARMALADE MONTY | Holehouse, Nicola | 39.0 | 0 | 10.8 | 0 | 49.8 | 6 |
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