The long story follows here:
Good thing I planned in a fair bit of contingency time into the timings for the day. Had a bit of an emergency oil situation with the lorry - don't even ask! Managed to collar the yard owner to help me put in the 8L of oil I luckily had in the lorry (it's not easy to access and required a funnel and a nozzel and a thin bottle) - this all took time. Finally set off 45mins late. 8L wasn't enough though so had to find somewhere to stop on route. Had to be the one route without any handy petrol stations. Got quite close to the event and saw a sign for a supermarket. Signs then disappeared so had to ask someone. Two 3 point turns in housing estates later and we found it only to find it to be the only petrol station without a bloody shop! Chris ended up running into Asda while I started getting changed in the back of the lorry, got my stock and hairnet on etc. Fortunately found some oil and on we trekked. Then got stuck in traffic before finally getting to Firle with 50mins to go until my dressage - eek!
Chris ran off to get my number - secretary was miles away! I got Monts ready then Chris studded up while I got me ready. 10min walk down to the dressage warmup, I was 2nd in and they took the first person in 5mins early. I knew I could have said to wait until my time but I hate doing that and delaying things, especially early in the class so I went in after literally a trot and canter on each rein. Didn't really do us any harm - he did a very sweet test, just unfortunately dropping back to trot for half a stride as we came across the 2nd diagonal in canter. Was very pleased he didn't tense up and anticipate changes though.
Gorgeous photo from Indra Morris after the dressage. He is just such a beautiful horse!
After all the mad rush, we then had 3.5hrs to wait until SJ. Watched some 90 SJ, wandered round the trade stands, walked the course for the 100 SJ (nice to get to do that for a change!) - it was quite technical with actual turn backs instead of just a figure of 8. Hoped our recent BSJA would go in our favour. Then went to walk the XC - few interesting combinations - first hurdle was going to be persuading him across a muddy, water filled bridge that wasn't even a numbered fence after fence 3. There was lots of pale coloured sand/chippings down in the gateways too which is always fun with Monts! Fence 4 was humongously wide for a BE100 - tried not to look too close! Fence 8 was a skinny brush then 5 strides to a right corner (hardly a corner, more of skinny as not very wide but still a good accuracy question). Then there were two skinny houses on a right curve on very undulating ground at fence 12. Walked on 6 strides - could be fun! No xmas trees to keep us on track either. There was a wishing well into the water then step up to angled log out and then 2nd last fence was a log, one stride to step up, 2 strides to log that I thought he might look at. Lots of other lovely fences - a lot of them identical to those we had at Badminton given the course builders were the same. Beautiful course and perfect ground.
Back to the dressage - still no scores up after 3hrs!!! Overheard someone talking about the live scoring on bdwp though - checked there and our score was up - 25!!! Sounded fab but only one other score up which was 24.3 so wasn't sure if just a generous judge.
On to the SJ - he warmed up beautifully and they called me over, only to then tell me there was a course walk. 10mins later he had switched off, did another couple of warmup jumps, one rather badly and then tried to wake him up on entering the arena. He ballooned the first fence:
Wrong leg and the disunited round the corner to the double at 6 but got a good shot in
And good to the big wall at 7.
Another turn back to 8 then forwards 7 strides to big oxer at 9:
And on to the 2nd double to finish:
Felt like I'd really let him down by burying him to fence 3 as he jumped the rest brilliantly and put huge amount of effort in to clear all the fences. Apologised to him on the way out of the ring. Assumed that was our chance at qualifying gone.
On to the XC - still worth doing as you never know what can happen! Only a few scores up from other 100 section but time was looking potentially tight so decided to kick on! Loony toon lauched out of the start box clearing the first few simple fences no probs. Thought I was mad asking a hunter/eventer to go through a muddy bridge and had to growl and kick my way through that. Thankfully a good stride to the big, wide one at 4. A roll top combo at 5 and a simple brush at 6, table at 7 then anchored him back for the brush to corner combo at 8 - lovely 5 strides but something must have distracted him because he clonked the corner despite being on a good distance which is unlike him. Round the corner and away from the lorry park (slightly concerned he might nap here but no probs), flyer over 9 and 10 and onwards to the haycart - love this photo!
Great stride to the haycart at 11:
Then had to wrestle back some control for the skinny houses at 12 - met the first one ok but due to trying to keep control and steering I didn't keep enough power going so couldn't make 6 strides. I did keep riding positively forwards though rather than hooking back and despite feeling him think about nipping out to the left, he was clever, tucked in a 7th stride and over we went - phew!
On to a brush under some trees, trotted through the water, over the log out and another oxer then the final combo. I think he thought perhaps it was a coffin or something. He was really backing off so I kept my shoulders back and he launched in, not enough power to get one stride before the step so cleverly stuck in another (never good to launch at steps from way out - he is a clever lad) then landed steep with still not enough power. I had long reins so again just sat back and rode forwards and straight and he got 3 strides in before the final log.
Clearly very scary - look at the tucked up knees and pricked ears!
Last fence no probs and kicked on through the finish. Coming back from the warmup we passed super starter Chris Kirby who gave me the thumbs up - we had gone clear inside the time - woohoo!
Back to the lorry to sort Monts out and that gave them time to have updated the live scoreboard. Loads of dressage scores in the 20's so again assumed our pole down would have knocked us out, but more and more SJ scores went up all with penalties. Started to look in with a chance again. Finally, XC scores started going up and we went into 5th place. 27 starters so 5 to qualify for Badminton. Only one more could potentially go ahead of us. Suddenly they corrected his SJ score from clear to 12 faults and no-one else could beat us! Refused to believe it until saw it confirmed on the final scoreboard but there it was!
Whoop whoop! We won some lovely rossies and a shiny glass:
And a photo with Denise who totally deserved to qualify with her cracking little horse and also another lovely lady who came 4th.
We're all off to Badders!
Finally got home at 10.30pm and then spent yesterday helping at Wellington Horse Trials from 7.30am, writing for the dressage and then watching the SJ/XC. Worked today which was rather busy so now feeling quite tired!
Reassessing what to do with the rest of the season now. Have an entry in for Goring this weekend in the Regionals section which now can't do so have emailed the secretary to see if can swap to a normal section and have a nice, no pressure run. Our SJ clearly still needs work and XC is a good challenge at Goring. Had the other Regionals in my diary as never imagined we'd qualify at the first one but thinking we might just finish after Goring now. No need to trek round the country. We also have the dressage and BE Eventing Finals at Blenheim in a couple of weeks. Then he could have some chill out time.
So, 3rd time lucky at Badders??? Surely the weather can't be as bad again!
So, 3rd time lucky at Badders??? Surely the weather can't be as bad again!
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