Then onto the Show jumping which was very under height! The 2'9'' was more like 2'3'', but hey ho, it was just for Rosie to have some fun! Anyway, I spoke to soon, the little madam had a stop at the first! Bless! The Clear round ring, had suddenly wacked their jumps up so they were a good 3ft-3ft3, with a lot more fillers than the main ring! So we popped her in that and she did a very sweet round and gained another rosette! Good girl!

Video of the Clear round, and Pictures from the 2'9'' (click to enlarge)

There was a very long wait while they did the 85cm Top Score until the 3'0'' class, so we sat and got very hot eating an egg in a roll as they caterers had run out of food- humph! But eventually it came to an end and I warmed up Ross for the 3'0''. He was warming up very well, until he suddenly stopped at an upright taking me totally by surprise and leaving me clinging onto the side like a limpet! He must have spotted some monster and was clearly saving both of us from a terrible fate! haha!
However, he went in and did a super round, double clear, not stops, and definitely no touching any poles!

Next was Rosie, and this time I was not going to let her stop at the first. But she had already done two rounds and had had to wait hours for this, so was pretty switched off. This meant that she found the distance too hard to get in the double, put a little one in that really wasn’t there and had it down. Then on the final line, we came to a reasonable height spread, I could feel her backing off, took my hand off the rein and gave her two smacks of encouragement. But it was the wrong decision to make, as she then took advantage of this and ran out. Came round again, another smack, popped it very well. So eight faults. It caused lots of problems in the end, and Ross won, and Rosie was 4th. Si not so bad!

Video of Ross' Novice Dressage test and 3'0'' SJ round, and images of Ross and Rosie in the 3ft (Click to enlarge)

Finally, it was onto the 3ft3. There weren’t many in the class so I was hoping for another double clear and win on Ross. However, as we came around to the 2nd, there was a crow on the fence wing, as Ross took off, it took flight and caught Ross' attention so he froze, and forgot he had back legs, so knocked it down. He was lovely around the rest of the course though!
As it turned out, no one went clear and there were three of us on four faults, so they did the placings on the times of our first rounds which were not speed rounds, so Ross was the slowest and came 3rd. Ho hum, not so bad! (Photographer left after the 3ft unfortunately!)

All in all, a VERY VERY hot long day, but we came home with lots of Rosettes (makes a nice change!) and ponies feeling very pleased with themselves I think!

I just hope Ross can do the same at Cleobury Mortimer BE PN this Saturday!