Started off with a nice mid morning dressage. They were running early so not much time to warm up but he doesn't need too much for a BE100 test. Felt it was more forwards than last week. Shame he just tripped on one of his trot circles and his halt at C wasn't great. Also I was paranoid about him dropping back to trot early on the canters across the diagonal after last week so kept the canter more forwards which meant he just tipped on his forehand a bit in the downwards transitions. Lovely final centre line and square halt to finish for an 8. Bit disappointed with 31.5 - 6,5marks worse than last week's effort in the same test but that's dressage for you. Still top ten after dressage and XC causing plenty of problems.
Went off to walk the XC. Much the same as last year. They had changed the corner at 6 from a left one to right one which made me happy. 4 strides from a chair to the corner. Causing lots of probs for some reason. Then onto the trakehner which was also causing lots of probs. Two skinny houses at 8 and 9 which walked on 4. The double of tyres had become a single fence but a big patch of orange sand/gravel was left where the second one was so planned my route around that as know Monts well now and that's just the sort of thing he'll look at! Step to arrowhead on sharp right turn at 10 as per last year. Then up a steep hill to a combo of big brushes on 3 strides on a left hand curve before heading down to the water which included the step down this year. They had taken out the fence with a roof under the trees so just onto the final one after. More than a minute shorter than last week at Firle but quite hilly.
On to the SJ. Had time to watch quite a few as no chance to walk it. Looked quite small compared to Firle last week and much less technical. Had a little blip in the warmup when he stopped at the oxer just before I was due to go in - it was uphill and I just didn't have the canter for it. After last week's mishap at the big oxer where I killed the canter and he tried his hardest to clear it but landed on it he has clearly remembered and doesn't fancy that happening again. I was going to have another go but someone else went to jump it and did the same demolishing it so I just popped the upright downhill and then it was time to go in. Made sure to ride all the oxers nice and forwards. Mostly it went nicely, he just spooked coming to fence 7 and lost the rhythm so ended up in deep and landed deep -with fence 8 being quite a small upright I sat and waited for 5 strides rather than pushing him flat for 4. Then round and jumped the final double nicely for a clear round. A little bit of confidence rebuilding to do at oxers for both of us before Blenheim I think as they will definitely be bigger than these were.
Fence 3:
Fence 4:
Final double fence 9:
Quick change and on to the XC. Little bit sticky over the first one, this year the hay cart at 2 looking much less scary and he jumped that and the next few nicely. Got a lovely stride to the chair to corner at 5 and 6 and flew the trakehner at 7. For some unknown reason I didn't ride the 4 strides between the 2 houses at 8 and 9 despite a good shot so he cleverly stuck another stride in there. Flew the tyres and avoided the gravel patch. Galloping on well he popped the chair then the left side of the step which he ballooned making the right turn to the arrowhead a little dodgy but just kept kicking forwards and he responded. On up the hill and try to get a wide turn to get straight for the 2 brushes so avoid having to turn between them but again neglected to ride forward enough between them and fortunately with the second bit just being an upright brush he could pop it from being quite close. On to the water. Got a great shot in and popped down the step then didn't ride forwards enough so ended up on a half stride up the step, tripped a bit and slotted in 4 strides before the final part. Clever horse.
The wave before the water:
Up the final hill:
Up the steep hill, through the woods and over the finish before we knew it. Monts barely out of breath and didn't even break a sweat. Bit annoyed with myself for making him work harder than he needed to by adding strides in everywhere. For some reason SJ I normally ride forwards for my strides now but XC I seem to want to add strides everywhere. Must sort this out if we're going Novice any time! I do think part of the issue now is that BE100 is seeming small and without the fear factor I'm forgetting to use my legs and attack. Perhaps it is time to push on to Novice and find that fear factor and the buzz again! Went back and checked out the Novice SJ which looked very much like the heights we have been jumping recently and nowhere near as terrifying as last year.
We ended up finishing 4th in a competitive section with lots of pros - won by Bruce Haskell followed by David Doel and Colina Pickles then us. Lucinda Fredericks and multiple other pros in there too. Another double clear inside the time for us. Sixty top five finish in a row since Badminton! Quite a record. Quite a horse!
Next big outing for us is Blenheim in two weeks time - bit of SJ practice to do before then. We have the dressage champs on the Thursday and the BE100 arena eventing final on the Sunday and lots of spectating in between. Staying up there for the four days so looking forwards to that.
In the mean time we've got a couple of Advanced Mediums to do next Saturday in a vague last minute attempt to get some sheets for the Area Festivals at the end of October.
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