Munstead BE100 23-03-14

Felt a bit surreal in the week leading up to this event as I've entered several BE100's over the last couple of years and not made it to a single one due to injury so was kind of waiting for something to go wrong.  We have only done two BE100's - one was a double clear round Munstead at the end of 2011 and the other was a rubbish trip round Pulborough a few weeks later leading to the only 20pens on his XC record.  Last time at Munstead we got a 39 dressage so was pretty hopeful we'd have moved on a bit from that at least but was worried about starting at BE100 after losing our BE90 warmup run at Aston.

So, Sunday morning came and fortunately the sun came with it.  He knew exactly where he was when we had to park right by the XC commentary tower and he came alive!  Dressage warmup was interesting - he was tenser than normal and I had a battle on my hands to get my trot-walk-trots.  Walk-trot became bouncy canter on the spot and he was fighting the contact.  Argh!  Took him over to the arena with his eyes out on stalks as the arena was right next to the woods that surround the dressage field and the wind was blowing pretty strongly.  Fortunately he decided to listen to me at just the right time and held it together for an ok test.  Nowhere near what he is capable of - he ignored my canter aids on both reins and only just made it into canter by the marker but otherwise he did everything required and I'm proud he managed a medium walk given his tension.  Came out and said it could be either a 25 or a 35 depending on what the judge was after.

So, next we went off to walk the XC course.  It all looked very doable which was a nice relief.  A skinny one stride double towards the end of the course, a chunky corner which looked tiny compared to how I remember it looking when I first did the BE100 there, a meaty trakehner, a coffin and the new step into water but otherwise all pretty straightforward. Got caught in a massive hail storm halfway round.  Felt so sorry for the people riding in that - they even held the course for a bit as it was so bad!  Watched a few people SJ - course looked quite small but lots having a skinny rainbow coloured vertical 5strides after an oxer so really planned how I would ride that.

Went to check my dressage score and was well chuffed to see we got 27 and were only half a mark behind the leader and even better 1.5marks ahead of Pippa Funnell on a very nice Billy horse.  Did feel the pressure then a bit - best not balls it up when you've made that good a start!

Onto the SJ - trainer had come to warm me up which was helpful - reminded me to keep him connected and he jumped every warmup fence spot on - I love this jumping stuff now we get it right most of the time - it's awesome!  Tried not to get intimidated by the afore mentioned stunning Billy horse clearing everything by miles.  And in we went.  He towed me into the first fence getting a little close but cleared it by miles:

Perfect 7 strides to fence 2 but forgot to open my left hand so he jumped a bit right and landed on the wrong lead, got disunited going round the corner and didn't get it back together very well so he got a bit long over the oxer at 3 and jumped out big, immediately tried to sit back and hold him off the skinny at 4 but he stuck his head up and towed me over and through it - argh!  Managed to hold it together for the rest of the course and made it through both 1 stride doubles (personal hatred!) and finish with just the 4 faults.  So frustrating.  Our jumping has come on sooooo much yet we just can't seem to stop having the odd pole.   Grrrr - more homework to do before Badders.  No point getting 27 dressage if you ruin it with a pole down!

Anyway, onwards and upwards to the best bit - the XC!  Aware that last time I did it I was only 8secs inside the time and really wanted to work on just taking all the simple fences out of my rhythm and not hooking so planned to kick on.  Had a napping attack getting into the warmup and had to get a lead in then we napped our way round the warmup as usual before trainer whispered in his ear and he made me out to be a liar by calmly wandering around the start box with no napping at all then mooching in with 5 seconds to go before bouncing out on "Go!" - don't think he's ever done that ever!  The next few minutes passed in a blur but it was utterly awesome - not one iffy awkward moment, he met every fence on a decent stride, I didn't hook him into the bottom of them and he felt like he was having a ball.  He made it feel so easy.  He bounded through the coffin, over the rolltop and down the spooky little BMX type track through the wood, launched up the steps, landing a bit right but I just opened my left rein and pointed and he made the 2 strides to the upright easily.  He did jump into the water like a gazelle but we soon left that behind and bounded over the Helsinki steps:

Had to really hold him to fit 4 strides in this combination:

XC combination

He barely took a second glance at the trakehner:

Then anchored him up for the corner, made the turn, got my line and let him keep travelling - did end up on a slightly long one, possibly not the ideal stride for an accuracy question but he was honest and up for it so we flew, over another oxer then anchored up again, got my line for the one stride double and he just ate it up, kicked on over the final 2 straightforward fences and he flew through the finish feeling full of running still.  So chuffed with him - he is just flipping awesome!

Bit of an epic hatcam fail - it ran out of battery filming the inside of the lorry when I decided to put it on my hat before the SJ trying to be prepared and accidently turned it on.  Here's the very calm start and first 2 fences - very sad to have missed such a super round:

Hatcam video

Collected my dressage sheet - chuffed to get an 8 for my riding, deserved the two 6's for his canter transitions - great score and I know we can do better!

So, this was the final scoresheet:

3rd place in our first event of the season, hot on Pippa Funnell's heels and a nice little qualification for a BE100 Regional Final later in the year.  Couldn't really ask for more (well, that elusive clear round SJ would be nice but still time to crack that!)  Won't mention our XC time too much - we were bang on the too fast time limit - shows how much time you can make up by not fiddling!  Will try and steady him a bit more next time but not too much as he felt comfy at that speed - too slow and I'll start to fiddle!  Next event is BE100 next Wednesday at Portman, a new event for us.  In the mean time have another lesson with Chris Burton to try and crack this SJ malarky!

Course photos - note the sudden appearance of white stuff on the ground half way round!: