Badminton Grassroots BE100 Championships 2015

What an experience!  Definitely a more positive one than last year too.  I felt more prepared for what was in store this year but still when the photos of the course went up my self-doubts came to the top and I really wasn't sure this was actually something we could do.

Here we are before setting off:

And here is my lucky bear from super sponsors West Kent Saddles:

We arrived on Monday lunchtime, settled Monty in and headed off to the first organised course walk with Yogi Breisner.  This was very useful.  He gave us a lot of guidance on lines to take and how to tackle various types of fences.  My first thoughts were that some fences looked better than in the photos such as the skinny brushes at 9ab which had an obvious right hand route and the corner at 13b which had a lovely not too time-consuming alternative.  The coffin looked just as difficult as last year though - definitely the stuff of nightmares!  Had a little ride on Monty in the evening - he knew something was up and was pretty tense in the wind but did some nice work so off to bed to think over the XC course and visualise my dressage.

The one thing keeping me going was that surely the weather couldn't be as bad as last year.  Oh, how wrong I was.  It was worse!  Tuesday dawned with high winds and rain.  I worked Monty a bit in the morning.  He was wound up by the wind, napping back towards his stable and we had to be led over to the warmup.  Not a good start!  Tried to get him relaxed and listening but not easy in that weather.  Put him away while we went for another course walk, this time with Nick Gauntlett.  He was again very helpful, especially with the lines we could take for the skinny brushes at 9ab.

Course photos (taken before fully dressed)

alternative to 5a:

alternative to 13b:

Onwards to dressage - the weather was still bad - the rain had mostly gone but the winds were crazy.  Tried to do lots of lateral work in the warmup to get him soft and listening.  The test was hard work.  Going uphill into ridiculously high winds and I felt like I needed to get off and push him.  It was a safe test and he held it together doing every transition where I wanted, staying soft and round but he wasn't really taking me forwards and the judges hated that.  We ended up lying 40th overnight and not sure where we ended up overall but nowhere good!  Upsetting as I feel like his dressage is so reliable these days and that I should have ridden more forwards but I think I probably would have lost the obedience as the explosion was just simmering under the surface.

Time for dinner then off for a final course walk with just my one loyal friend who knows us both very well.  We made sure to walk all the lines, to make contingency plans for stridings but to aim for forwards.  I decided to definitely take the alternatives at the corner and the water as really just wanted my clear round and not so bothered about making the time so opted to play it safe.  Walked the SJ which was a full up 1.05-1.10m course - the biggest we'd jumped without a warmup class first but nothing I felt he couldn't do.

A very sleepless night ensued, just like last year really.  The rain beat down on the horsebox roof, I thought it must be bound to be abandoned in the morning and tried to hibernate and pretend it wasn't happening but sadly this failed and I was dragged out of bed to prep for the SJ.  I went to watch a few first and it was causing its problems but mostly when the lines weren't ridden forwards so the stridings didn't work.  It was dry when I walked over to the stables but as we tacked Monty up the heavens opened.  The rain was whipping across horizontally and it hurt when it made contact.  Monty was wired.  I had to be led out of the stables again, got him in the SJ warmup only for him to nap, spin, rear and refuse to do anything useful.  He stood there shaking and I really just wanted to go home.  I took him back to the dressage warmup to try and get him to settle a bit but had lost all hope of getting back to the SJ warmup and thought I was going to have to withdraw.  Had a bit of a meltdown and pep talks from friends really weren't helping much.  Thankfully then saw my boyfriend heading rapidly across the field accompanied by Chris Burton who had trekked over from the main site in the awful weather.  He made me get Monty's attention back on me, focus, got me over a few warmup jumps and then it was our turn.  Not the ideal warmup but we went in and bless him he jumped a great round, just getting a bit long and flat towards the end and being unlucky to rub the last two fences.

first fence:

fence 2

fence 3:

 fence 4:

fence 6a:

 6b:

fence 8a:

 8b:

fence 10:

Chris said to me he expected nothing less than a clear round XC and to crack on!  He text me 15mins later to say he hadn't trekked across in the pissing rain for me to withdraw so to get on with it!  Fortunately the sun had come out temporarily and I'm more scared of letting Chris down after all his efforts with us than anything else so I had a complete change of clothes and we got Monty ready for XC.  They reported over the tannoy that XC was running late so we tried to time it exactly to avoid the disaster of waiting around in the XC warmup for an hour that sent Monty off his rocker last year.  We got down there as the horse before me got sent to the start - perfect!  Quick warmup log, brush on a tight angle and we were ready to go.  Straight to start box and posted straight in and off we went.  Much better than standing around getting nervous!

He gave me an awesome round. I didn't try for the time.  The weather was horrid and we were out of a chance for a placing even finishing inside the time.  I just wanted my clear round.  We took the alternatives as planned at the water and the corner.  I'm sure he would have done the water, less so the corner, but wasn't worth the risk.  He popped 4 strides in the skinny brushes which walked on 3 but he got in close to the first so thought safer to wait for 4.  And best of all he aced the coffin, albeit with some verbal encouragement from me!  We came round the corner, I told him what was coming up, a slap down the shoulder for attention, sit back and shout!  It worked and after that it felt like a walk in the park!  That feeling of coming through the finish clear should be bottled and sold - I won't forget it in a long time!

Huge thank you to various friends who turned up in horrendous weather to support me and take wonderful photos and videos.  And big thank you to super sponsors West Kent Saddles for making sure everything fitted as it should in the run up to the big event and obviously the lucky bear worked his magic!

fence 2:

Galloping towards fence 4:

fence 4:

fence 5a alternative:

into the water:

5b:

5c:

fence 8:

fence 9b:

fence 18:

fence 19b:

post XC being interviewed by British Eventing - felt like a proper eventer!

with friends:

the skinny brushes:

the coffin:

start and finish:

another angle at the finish:

post XC love for the orange horse:

I am over the moon with Monts.  Difficult conditions, certainly not something he enjoys and in all 3 phases he tried really hard for me and did his best.  On the XC, he listened, focused and kept on jumping.  He really responds to positive riding and I learnt that more than ever.  I have to be confident for him and tell him there's no other option and then over we go.  I am so lucky to have such a horse - he really is one in a million!

So, after a couple of rest days I joined in with the others left still at the stables and we had a run through of the 4* dressage test enjoying practising our flying changes:

 and half-pass:

Then we had a go at some tempi changes - rider still learning to count!:

Then on Saturday evening after a fab day watching XC I joined in with a couple of the others for a hack round Badminton Estate testing out our Badminton purchases of a new Shockemohle breastplate and Le Mieux XC boots.

Before we left:

We did some posing in front of the house:

Through the ears shot:

And then went for a hack round the 4* course, sploshing in the Gatehouse New Pond, cantering through the hollow and galloping back up to the white garden gates then going off to the Savill's escalator and past our corner and coffin.  What an experience and in much better weather too!

It really was a most awesome week.  Monts is now enjoying a week in the field while I decide what to do with him next!  Booked a couple of dressage lessons for a start as really want to get out at Advanced Medium this summer - eek!

The video of our whole round: