Thankfully Howick is a pretty local event for us so although I had very early times we didn't have to leave at too much of an unearthly hour! Saying that, we still lhad to leave at 6am, even though I had walked the course the day before!

Belv warmed up very well for the Dressage but unfortunately had 5 minutes too long and so just wasn't giving me his complete attention for the test. That combined with a sloped and tacky (due to the mud) arena meant that we made a number or little errors/mistakes which brought our mark right down. We ended up with 37 which was very fair in the section as it was quite a tough marking judge.

The Show Jumping was a fair track, not too big, not too small and it flowed nicely enough. Had a quick warm up and then in we went. We hit everything on a good stride and popped around for a nice clear. Belv was a little bit 'tappy' but I think that is because he finds it quite small. I'm not complaining though - I quite like this BE100 lark - much more relaxing than 2*!!

Quick change of tack & clothing and it was off to the Cross Country! The aim was to set out like we meant it so that he was going a bit more forwards, rather than sauntering round in a pretty little canter! So 5,4,3,2,1 and off we went! Kicked on more than I have done on his other BE100 runs and he did a lovely round. Very sweet and happy and as it turns out, it was just as well that I kicked on because the time proved quite tight! We finished a very good 14 seconds under the time, although on the downside, I finished on the same score as someone else but they went slower XC and were closer to the optimum and so beat me!

All in all another very successful outing! We finished on our dressage score and came 3rd, gaining 12 foundation points! Belv's next run is Sapey BE100open and then he is heading to Withington to have a crack at a novice! Exciting stuff!