We arrived at 8:30 and I had to unfreeze myself from the lorry seat! It was perishingly cold on the way down, and no heating with a draft old lorry was not fun! I walked the course and I have to say, I didn't like it. The SJ part was fine, but the XC part had some rather difficult things in it, considering that this was supposed to be BE90 level. There was a triple around a corner, so you did the first element jumping into a wall, turned 90 degrees and out over a double. There were only two strides between A & B. Horrifically tight, and loads of horses in the BE90 baulked at it because they didn't want to jump directly into a wall! Oh and part B had a water tray with foliage on it underneath the rail, so that (plus the fact that horses turned a corner and were immediately faced by it) meant it caused problems! (The first four people all had stops here). There was also a double of meaty skinny's and a corner on a horrible angle - not many strides after a double and on a bend with a jump in the way so you had hardly any straight strides.
BE 90 - He warmed up well. Went in, spooked dramatically at a banner on the edge of the area - not a good sign! The bell went, we popped number one nicely and number two - starting to feel better, he was jumping well and we had got over some fences! Round to three the double, nicely through that, four was an upright, that was fine. Five was a skinny upright, 6 and 7 were both fine. Then onto the cross country part. He flew fence 8, then a handbrake turn around the skinny's to a skinny brush, leaped that - this is a horse that team chases, I mean really. If he was going to pretend there were aliens, couldn't he at least do it at something that I could forgive him for spooking at! Popped the wall at 10, nice over roll top at 11. Trotted into the triple combination at 12, popped over turned, managed to squeeze three strides in - no idea how!! Then out over the next elements fine. Then onto the double of skinny's which I messed up! Ross doesn't do long ones as a general rule, and isn't reliable with skinny's etc anyway, plus he finds then scary and I stupidly asked him for a long stride. Cue a stop, then he took off out of fear wasting loads of time!! Anyway clear through on the second attempt. Then around to the road closed double, clear there. Very steady round to the corner, he thought about running out but we got over. Finally the last, which he flew! So I stupidly cost us a nice double clear. We also ended up with THIRTY TWO time penalties...opps!
We got a style score of 18. Had we finished on 18 or even had 8 time pens we would have qualified for the championships.
BE 90 - He warmed up well. Went in, spooked dramatically at a banner on the edge of the area - not a good sign! The bell went, we popped number one nicely and number two - starting to feel better, he was jumping well and we had got over some fences! Round to three the double, nicely through that, four was an upright, that was fine. Five was a skinny upright, 6 and 7 were both fine. Then onto the cross country part. He flew fence 8, then a handbrake turn around the skinny's to a skinny brush, leaped that - this is a horse that team chases, I mean really. If he was going to pretend there were aliens, couldn't he at least do it at something that I could forgive him for spooking at! Popped the wall at 10, nice over roll top at 11. Trotted into the triple combination at 12, popped over turned, managed to squeeze three strides in - no idea how!! Then out over the next elements fine. Then onto the double of skinny's which I messed up! Ross doesn't do long ones as a general rule, and isn't reliable with skinny's etc anyway, plus he finds then scary and I stupidly asked him for a long stride. Cue a stop, then he took off out of fear wasting loads of time!! Anyway clear through on the second attempt. Then around to the road closed double, clear there. Very steady round to the corner, he thought about running out but we got over. Finally the last, which he flew! So I stupidly cost us a nice double clear. We also ended up with THIRTY TWO time penalties...opps!
We got a style score of 18. Had we finished on 18 or even had 8 time pens we would have qualified for the championships.
BE 100 - Well I was determined not to get time penalties this time! He popped around the SJ very nicely, but had the style at fence 5 down, not entirely sure why, but I must have done something to upset him. A bit rushed off the corner maybe? So onto the XC bit, I pushed on to try and make the time, flew the first jump at 8, tight turn, kick on over the brush, going for a forward stride. Ross was not amused and put a little one in. This horse likes to show jump in his steady pingy rhythm and does not appreciate being pushed out of it and make to go faster. And as he also doesn't like to go on long ones, this forward pace caused a few issues. However I was determined not to get 32 time pens again so I kept it up, this meant that we had some very sticky jumps. He put a little one in at the roll top too. Nice through the triple. Really pushed on down the long side. Then came to the double of skinny's...ahem...me very much thinking forwards, Ross a bit unsure and a dodgy stride = an extremely messy jump! We managed to get over the second part nicely though. Poor Ross, I don't think he liked the moving on business. He jumped the road closed things nicely, scrambled over the corner (very nearly ran out again) and absolutely flew the last beautifully!
I was very happy to hear the words ''inside the time'' but quite embarrassed with how messy the round was. I was very concerned as to what horrific mark we would get for our style, in the end we got 20. Plus 4 faults for the pole, leaving us on 24 for finish.
We came 20th in the BE 90 and 18th in the BE 100 (about 60 in it).
So not too shabby, but it would have been nice to qualify for the BE 90 championships.
I was very happy to hear the words ''inside the time'' but quite embarrassed with how messy the round was. I was very concerned as to what horrific mark we would get for our style, in the end we got 20. Plus 4 faults for the pole, leaving us on 24 for finish.
We came 20th in the BE 90 and 18th in the BE 100 (about 60 in it).
So not too shabby, but it would have been nice to qualify for the BE 90 championships.
The photos from the BE 90 and BE 100 can be seen here - Solihull JAS Photos
I apologise in advance for the dodgy lower leg position! I do quite like the picture in the BE 100 over the second element of the road closed double though!!
I apologise in advance for the dodgy lower leg position! I do quite like the picture in the BE 100 over the second element of the road closed double though!!
