Well after our unfortunate fall at Aston the main aim of Pontispool was to get round the XC with 20 penalties or less in order to gain our qualification for the Junior National Championships at Glanusk U18* and boy did we do that!!!

The dressage was a bit disappointing really. The first mistake was that this time I gave him too long to warm up and we needed to have been doing the test ten or fifteen minutes earlier than we got to. This meant by the time I did my test he wasn't going quite as nicely as he had been a few moments before. However all in all I was very pleased with it. No mistakes really and his second canter - walk was really good! The first few movements were a bit dodgy because he suddenly tensed up, but from there on in I was quite pleased with it, and felt that overall it was better than Aston Le Walls. The judge however distinctly disagreed and we got 41.4 which I was very disappointed with. I felt sure it would be a 30's test. Ah well, the joys of stressage as I like to call it!!
Some stills from the video can be seen below. (click to enlarge)

Onto the Show Jumping! I had been told that the SJ at Pontispool can be rather large and technical so I was surprised to find that in fact it was quite small. It was certainly smaller than Aston Le Walls and I hadn't felt that Aston was particularly large at any rate! Having said that there were a lot of related turns and curving lines which meant that the track was more technical than ALW and didn't suit Jack because we have been struggling with our changes recently. However, I needn't have worried! We actually had a much smoother round than ALW (bar one rather long shot I saw to a big rustic parallel) and we didn't actually break into trot once because all his changes were fine! Unfortunately for whatever reason we had number 5 (a very simple upright) down, so finished with 4 faults. Again I only have stills from the video because although my brother took lots of photos, he is away at the moment so I don't have them yet!
(Click to enlarge)

Finally it was Cross Country time! Mostly the course was quite nice but there was a new combination at fences 10 and 11. Ten was a skinny log/brush and then you had to turn quite sharply right handed to 11a which was a skinny corner on top of a mound. Such that you basically had to take off for the corner on the upwards slope, and then 11b was another skinny brush down the bank four strides after the corner. It caused a fair few problems all day I think. The other problematic combination was the penultimate fence, the water. It was a jump over a log directly into the water and then a short four strides to a step then one stride and over a roll top. The log is was causing a lot of horses to spook and some very experienced combinations had stops/falls here and retired.

Jack popped number one nicely but didn't have the best jump over fence two and then had a blooming good spook at the trakhener at 3, so I gave him a smack and he picked up and gave me a brilliant feel over a combination of roll tops at 4ab and a big hay cart at 5. He jumped the double of angled hedges at 6 & 7 very nicely and got a fab stride over the parallel at 8. There was then a nice big galloping stretch down to a simple but big box at 9 and then it was the combination at ten and eleven. We got a bit close to 10, but turned well and I pushed him on up the slope for a forwards shot over the corner and then down over the skinny clear. I was very relieved to have got that done after our fall at the corner at ALW two weeks ago. He jumped 12 and a double of logs at 13ab very well. Flew a brush fence at 14 and then popped neatly through the bounce at 15 and 16. Jumped out of the wooded section over the owl hole nicely and then cantered on up to an upright at 18, down a slope and then up two big bounce steps at 19ab which he jumped well, and then 3/4 strides to a double of brush fences which he jumped brilliantly! Down the other side and then it was a jump onto and off of a bank at 21ab. He jumped on and off very expressively because he was worried there were goblins in the ditches I think! Flew a box at 22 and then it was a long downhill stretch before the water. I saw quite a long stride at the log into the water, but knowing that he isn't 100% bold jumping into water I just sat back and drove with my seat and ensured I was ready for whatever he did. He put a little stride in and had a good look so scrambled over the log slightly, but picked up and jumped up the step on 3 strides and over the roll top. Popped over the last and finished clear! Brilliant! Surprisingly enough we were inside the time. I thought this was odd because I hadn't gone very fast because it was hard and I wanted to make sure I made no silly mistakes! But I think the time was set quite kindly because of the hard ground.

So all in all a very good day. The Dressage was nice, just unfortunately a pretty rubbish mark, 4 faults show jumping and then clear XC inside the time which means that I now have my qualification for the Junior National Championships U18CCI* at Glanusk in July! To top it off, we came 9th in the end so got a rosette!

Jack now has four week off eventing until Glanusk 1-4th July, so my next outing will hopefully be Longleat JRN with Belvedere. That does depend on him becoming sound again in the next few days and us getting some show jumping in before hand! Even if he doesn't make it to Longleat he should be at Glanusk with Jack but doing the JRN class on the Sunday instead of the three day event!