Next up was the Show Jumping....George's wild behaviour continued and if anything got worse!! I nearly took out the poor lady on rope duty as I attempted to enter the arena. I say attempted because I was trying to walk normally through the gap....George however couldn't contain his excitement and tried to go through sideways..backwards..and every which way except forwards! This continued well into the arena!! Anyway he gave me his classic George style round - HARD WORK!! However on coming out of the arena for the first time with him I actually felt that I rode a good round and coped well with his energy! We did have an unfortunate 4 faults though where he came around the corner disunited and then took it behind which was a shame. 

Finally it was time for the fun bit! He didn't give me the easiest ride because he was so overly enthusiastic that I struggled to get him back for the fences! Although we loved galloping out of our stride over the chase fence....P2P-ing here we come!! So anyway not our best round but finished clear with 5.2 time penalties.

Next stop Weston Intermediate!

So once we had a play with the flag we cracked on with the proper schooling! George was a very good boy and was much less spooky than he was at Hiltop the other week! At the end of the session I gave him a gentle blow up the hill to give his fitness an extra boost!

George had an easy day on Saturday and just went for a gentle hack, I on the other hand did not and spent the morning riding out for Venetia.

On Sunday we hired out Sophie Hooper's lovely new arena and gave him a pop over her Show Jumps. He was a very good boy but did get quite tired by the end which was reflected in his jumping. This is only to be expected though as he has barely jumped in months. However he does appear to be well on track for Gatcombe so all is well :)

The other good Uni riding news is that I have been long listed for the World Equestrian University Championships held at Aachen in Germany this year. This is a long list of around 25 people which after a training session will be made into a short list of around 10 people. The final selection will consist of just 3 team members with 1 travelling reserve so the competition is very hot!

Finally I got my results from my January exams yesterday and they were a lot better than expected! My lowest was 79%, highest 89% and I am sitting on an average of 82.6%!! 

That's all for now and unfortunately no exciting news or photos to post of George as he is still on limited work due to various set backs.

In between work I have been riding George and he is coming on nicely. Since his work has upped he has now been clipped and I also attacked his mane & tail so he no longer looks quite so feral! Tim will come back at the end of the month and hopefully give us the all clear to start jumping.

Meanwhile George has been having regular sessions with Tim Bradford and has been coming on in leaps and bounds. He has now progressed to long reigning and in a few weeks I should be able to start riding him again. He now has so much more movement through his back, it's very impressive stuff!

Finally, on a different note, I had a day off today because my lab session was cancelled and decided to do something productive with the free time. So I drove up to the Brecon Beacons and did the iconic Waterfalls walk. It's a 15.3km/9.5miles low level walk with some very impressive waterfalls along the way. At one point you even walk behind a waterfall! The guide book time for the walk was 6hours yet I managed to do it in 3h20mins!!! (I am a very fast walker and was on my own so didn't have to wait for anyone or faff around!) I  had a great time and will definitely do some more routes when I have the time.