After the Regionals our next outing was to Pulborough for the BE90. He did a cracking dressage test with just one small mistake to score 26.5. Sadly we didn't get much of a showjumping warmup due to the ground and so we had 4faults in the SJ and I decided not to run him XC as the ground was deteriorating rapidly. Onwards to Larkhill the following week. He did a nice test for 29, slipped his way round the SJ for one down and pinged round the XC clear inside the time to finish 8th.
In the dressage at Pulborough:
So, that was the end of the season but not having had many runs I took advantage of there being a couple of hunter trials at Larkhill. He skipped round the RC Open course which involved most of the BE100 jumps and a couple of Novice ones for 5th place and then again round the Army Intermediate course for 4th place. A nice end to the year.
We also cracked on with some dressage and managed to get him qualified for the Winter Regionals at Prelim and Novice, plus Novice and Elementary Freestyle. Back in September he'd also qualified for the Area Festival Finals at Novice. A new personal best at prelim of over 72%, some great scores at Novice and a win at Elementary on 68% finished off our dressage season for 2013. I think you could safely say that the ginger giraffe has been banished for good. A lot of hard work and he's turning out to be a cracking little dressage horse. We started training with Sara-Jane Lanning, a top level rider and judge and have been working on our half pass and flying changes. If he ever has to retire from eventing, he now has a decent back up career.
In January we started SJ training with Chris Burton. In only a few lessons he has started to change Monty's whole way of going for the better. Getting him to hold himself and connect himself. He had us jumping 1m20 in the first lesson. Last lesson he hopped on for 5minutes and had him looking like a 4* horse in seconds. I have really enjoyed watching him ride when I've been at the yard - he has a lovely soft way with his riding and I am really looking forwards to continuing to train with him and seeing what further improvements he can make to us.
Following on from this, we entered the JAS at Merrist Wood in January. Our first attempt at JAS and he aced it - double clears in the time in the 90 and 100. 6th place in the 90 and qualified for the Finals. 11th place in the 100, one of only 3 double clears inside the time. We've also made the leap into the world of BSJA and have really been building confidence round more technical tracks. Following on from that success I decided it was time to push myself out of my comfort zone and bravely entered the 100 and the Novice for February's JAS. The 100 went really well until I got a bit complacent at the arrowhead and he snuck out the side. A timely reminder with Badminton in mind that he is not invincible and he has a nasty habit of chucking in a left hand run out at the most inopportune moments - I will do well to remember that at Badders! Shame as otherwise he jumped clear and would have been placed. Onto the Novice and I had no intentions of riding for the time, just aiming for a safe clear. He got a little onwards bound and flat and just tipped a few poles in the SJ but he stormed round the XC section, taking our first bounce in copybook style and feeling full of confidence. Not the best results on paper but I'm super chuffed with how our confidence has improved over the winter. I'm really excited about this year - if only the rain would stop!
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