Bit of a trek down to the dressage arenas past the XC warmup so his eyes were out on stalks and his ears up my nose! He is such a good boy now though - as soon as we got to the warmup he knuckled down and was soft and obedient. Worked on lots of transitions to get him listening. The arena was chewed up round the track and he really isn't a fan of that kind of ground so was pleased that he listened to me and apart from falling from trot to walk and a silly spook in the free walk at a different coloured patch of ground he did a lovely test. Judge gave me a crazy big grin at the end which I figured must be a good sign! Clearly it was as we scored 31 which is not as good as our usual scores recently but was good enough for 5th place after dressage and we got a few 8's too :)
Onto the SJ. I walked the course and it seemed ok. There was a 5 stride related distance, a 4 stride related distance oxer to upright which is our worst, a 2 stride double and a 1 stride double plus some planks going uphill and it was causing utter carnage. Loads of cricket scores, hardly any clears. The ground had cut up and was riding quite deep but otherwise couldn't see why it was proving so tricky. He didn't much like the ground in the warmup and wasn't really in a big enough canter so was diving over the fences a bit. Got him a bit more forwards before we went in and he tried really hard. I let him down but not thinking about landing on the correct leads so he landed wrong after the 4 stride distance, got disunited round the corner and was then wrong into the 2 stride double, got in deep and had the first part down - gutted as otherwise such a nice round and he deserved a nice clear as he really is a careful jumper.
Onto the XC - didn't fancy an hour's wait, especially with rain forecast so got changed and over we went which worked well as only a few others in the warmup. Popped a few warmup fences, got him going forwards and all was well until it came down to going over to the start box. Silly pony. Had to be led around but once over there he wasn't too bad. The course was quite technical. Definitely the toughest BE100 we've done. There were a few things I was worried about. A big tyre jump, 2 strides to a ditch then right handed turn to a chair that I took my time to get my line too.
Then after a double of tyre jumps we had a big house, right handed turn to a left corner. I have always hated corners and his default is to run out to the left, let alone coming off a right hand turn where his default is to fall out through his left shoulder. I walked this a few times and planned my route carefully. I actually thought the Novice was an easier option with taking the house on an angle and then straight line to a right corner!
Having been bang on the too fast time limit at Munstead I thought I'd have plenty of time in hand to set up for the combinations so made sure to kick on between fences but wasn't overly concerned about the time. Made sure I really set up for everything and he was brilliant. Saw a long one to the house before the corner, he was 2 strides straight on for the gap before I sat up and pointed him right at the corner and then kicked on and he flew it on a perfect stride. So so pleased with him. He can be really cheeky with his left runouts so really impressed he listened and answered the question. Had a bit of a misunderstanding about striding to the fence out of the water which was our only iffy moment - otherwise he flew.
Gutted to find out we had 1.2 time pens XC. There are loads of places we could have made up 3 seconds but I thought I had loads of time and forgot to take into account the holding ground and how much time the more technical nature of the course would take up compared to Munstead when I just kicked on and we flew round. Still, I'm glad I spent the time to set up for the combinations and we both learnt lots from that course so I'm glad I chose to go and try somewhere different. Lovely, friendly, well run event - would definitely recommend a visit. Great old hunting type turf for the XC and good, meaty well built jumps.
So, we ended up in 9th place, just missing out on a Badminton Regionals qualifiying spot rather frustratingly. Without the time pens we'd have been 6th or without the SJ fence we'd have been 2nd. So near yet so far! When I've finished kicking myself for my own mistakes I'm still pleased with the day and especially with how he went and I must remember I've never evented at this level before and you can't expect to win everything from the word go!
Final scores:
Dressage Winter Champs next week then Hambleden BE100 the following week which will be another good challenge and I will remember to kick on!
Full course pics here:
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