Well, certainly not such a good day as last week, unfortunately. I had a long time between my Dressage and Show jumping, so when I arrived I went a got my number and watched the SJ, then got straight on with my Dressage.

Well, he was very tense to begin with in the Dressage warm up, and as I consequence I began to get very tense and defensive in my riding and locking my arms. Making it all much worse. So I decided to do sitting trot as it meant that I didn't have the same leverage in my arms, and I was much softer. This worked very well, and he was going very nicely, and the sitting trot was lovely. So in I went, I was in the far dressage arena, by a hedge. I was just coming round to go down the center line when a group of walkers appeared wearing bright clothes, massive rucksacks and talking very very loudly. They then remained there behind a hedge/watching for the whole of my test. Obviously Belv was very interested by them and so was a bit tense. The judge then slated him for this, and we got a very disappointing 44. After my 33 last week this was a big let down. Even with his tension and few mistakes in rein back and counter canter, I felt he deserved at the worst 38-40. 

Onto the Show Jumping, it was in a main arena surrounded by trade stands, with a fence (not rope) enclosing it, so it was a very imposing course. Although not big, it had its questions, and the triple was just as we hate it (spread in, then two uprights!) We went in, jumped the first 6 very nicely and incredibly cleanly. Came around to the planks, and I didn’t get him deep enough, and went for a longer flatter stride, so down they came. Popped through the triple very cleanly again, and round to the last, a 1m15 upright that a lot were having down, and I did the same thing again, and had it down. Very disappointed, was craving another clear, or even just the 4 faults would have sufficed.

Right, the Cross Country, well I wasn't worried so much about the course, but more interested, because it had an awful lot of steps in it. Right at the beginning there was a step onto a bank and off, then there were three very step bounce steps downhill, then two bounce steps up to a skinny, then later on another two (again very steep) bounce steps up. I wasn't sure how many steps Belv had come across, so decided just to attack it and sit tight. Flew beautifully over the first few and the first bank, then turned away from the trade stands towards a log then walk into the first water, I was turning towards the log (about 4/5 strides from it) and he went sideways and span around and started to jump about, I then made him turn around and jump the log from a walk. I have no idea what happened, maybe he was napping slightly, but he has never napped before. I also had no idea whether it would be classed as a refusal or not. He then flew round the rest of the course. The three bounce steps down were very very steep, and he popped them slowly and cautiously so I just sat back saying sit up sit up sit up, as it felt very steep! He was brilliant at the 2nd water which was a rather large drop in, out over skinny, then over a big box with shot gun cartridges in front of it. However, because of his silliness, we got 9.2 time penalties.

All in all, a very disappointing day, especially in comparison to Kelsall. We ended up a rubbish 24th. Without the time pens that we would normally not have got we would have been a very respectable 16th, and had we had a reasonable judge and one down SJ, or the same dressage but clear SJ (very achievable if I hadn’t been a mupet) we would of been 4th. Ah the "If only's" of eventing! 

Leave a Reply