Well, what a good day!!!! Finally I have had a good day BE!
Well, it was quite a long journey, 2h 45mins. We got there, met up with my friend who was also doing the JRN and set off to walk the XC and watch some SJ rounds. I was rather worried when I watched the SJ as the course, once again seemed designed to catch Belv out, with an ascending spread, for strides to an upright at 1m15 and a double of uprights for the last spread. The XCC was very nicely presented and was a nice course. It was a decent height and reasonably technical. However, it was very short and incredibly twisty with no room to gallop. There were lots of combinations which came up thick and fast. I knew it would not suit belv, and that the time would be hard to achieve!
Anyway, onto the Dressage. Belvedere warmed up very sweetly, although the warm up was next to the XC he was very calm and working quite well. However, some one collided with me (neither persons fault, just on of those things) and her horse turned its bum to me, and kicked out very hard and caught me full on the foot. Luckily my stirrup took most of the blow and Belvedere was unharmed. However, I was not amused that she then blamed me for her horse kicking me! Urgh! Anyway, onto the actual test, wow, Belvedere's best ever test with me I think! He was fab, both his counter canters were super, one of his medium trots were excellent, and he was much better coming back to medium walk, and then trot after the free walk. he didn't canter. However, his rein back was not good; he did one nice step, and then refused to do anymore! It turns out I got 33! By far my best score BE with him. Very happy! It wasn't a kind judge either, just average, there were plenty of scores in the 40's and 50's. I got 7 & 8 for counter canters. 8 for medium and a 2 for rein back!!!!
Here is the dressage sheet and video!
Onto the Show Jumping, they were running late when I arrived, so I sat and watched for a while. This did not help my nerves because there were a lot of show jumping penalties. Looking at the results there were a lot of 16's, 12's, 8's and 4's and only a few clears! Also, belvedere is now traumatized because he was kicked at in the dressage, and then someone charged into him in the show jumping. For the rest of the day when he passed other horses he tensed up, shot sideways and forwards because he was scared they would attack him. I hope he forgets about it soon. Anyway, he did an absolutely FANTASTIC round! Foot perfect, for a well deserved clear! Must have been the best round BE we have ever done. Was thrilled with him, couldn't believe it!
I was then very nervous for the Cross Country because I did not want another Gatcombe to happen! So I set off very nervous, and blimey, disaster nearly struck at fence three. It was a simple step up to a reasonable size fence, that was slightly narrow. We had a misunderstanding as to where to take off for the step and he fell up the step. He was on his face, and fair enough, he tried to evade the jump. However I was not going to let that happen, so I pulled him round, and made him jump it from a halt. And bless him, he is so honest that he did, he literally climbed over it. Cue lots of pats and "good boy's". He then flew round the rest of the course, but I went steady into the combinations to ensure I didn’t make any silly mistakes, so we got 3.6 time penalties. But considering the course, and our woopsy at fence 3 that was perfectly acceptable and I was ecstatic! DOUBLE CLEAR!!
So I finished on 36.6, Belvedere's best finishing score at BE (including with Jon!!) It turns out I came 4th! Absolutely thrilled! Also, I got two rosettes, a cap, a head collar, 64 pounds and 3 points for Belvedere!! My first points BE, so happy! I LOVE my horse. And now we can see that he can do it! The winner (who's horse has gone 3*) was on 31, so had the rein back been good and I had gone slightly quicker XC I could have easily won! How exciting!
