On Wednesday morning we set off at 5am on the fairly long trip down south to Somerley Park Horse Trials to do the CIC** with Jack!
My Dressage was at 10am but we weren't jumping till around 4pm so luckily we didn't have to get there in time to walk the XC first! But on the downside it meant hours and hours of sitting around getting more and more nervous as I waited and getting soaked! It rained pretty much all day!
Jacks dressage has taken a bit of a knock recently for one reason and another so I wasn't holding any high expectations. He warmed up sweetly enough, but unfortunately was very tense during his test and there were a number or errors. Mainly in his straightness (or lack of!) and we also had an incorrect canter strike off which is very unlike him! But all in all it wasn't too bad and we got a fair mark of 61.7.
My Dressage was at 10am but we weren't jumping till around 4pm so luckily we didn't have to get there in time to walk the XC first! But on the downside it meant hours and hours of sitting around getting more and more nervous as I waited and getting soaked! It rained pretty much all day!
Jacks dressage has taken a bit of a knock recently for one reason and another so I wasn't holding any high expectations. He warmed up sweetly enough, but unfortunately was very tense during his test and there were a number or errors. Mainly in his straightness (or lack of!) and we also had an incorrect canter strike off which is very unlike him! But all in all it wasn't too bad and we got a fair mark of 61.7.
After a horribly long wait it was time to Show Jump! The weather was vile and the ground very slippery so the Show Jumping was built fairly small to take this into consideration. Even so it still caused enough problems. Jack however posted another fabulous clear, even if we did have a slightly gung ho moment down a line of 3 fences after I saw a flyer into the first element!
Finally Cross Country time! I was pretty nervous for this because it was only our second event of the season and it was quite a tough track! It was pretty technical in places and the technical bits were big as well!
However I shouldn't have worried, Jack flew round for a superb clear! Made absolutely nothing of the big angled brush palisades at 7, the very spooky water or the massive skinny triple brush to corner combination! Chuffed to bits! He finished strongly and picked up just 8.4 time faults which I was quite pleased with because I didn't really push for the time as I was aiming for a clear! The course caused a lot of problems for the other competitors too with a lot of people getting eliminated or retiring!
However I shouldn't have worried, Jack flew round for a superb clear! Made absolutely nothing of the big angled brush palisades at 7, the very spooky water or the massive skinny triple brush to corner combination! Chuffed to bits! He finished strongly and picked up just 8.4 time faults which I was quite pleased with because I didn't really push for the time as I was aiming for a clear! The course caused a lot of problems for the other competitors too with a lot of people getting eliminated or retiring!
So all in all a very good outing! Another double clear from Mr Supplejack! But the good news doesn't end there....it turns out we finished in the top 25% and so were placed 12th and in the money! Result!
Next outing for Jack is Burnham Market CIC** so let's try and do a similarly good performance!
Next outing for Jack is Burnham Market CIC** so let's try and do a similarly good performance!
