On the weekend I did my first Advanced at Chatsworth International Horse Trials! What an amazing experience that was, it didn't go quite to plan but I learnt a lot and Jack was absolutely fantastic!
Walking the course
The Dressage was never going to be spectacular as it is by far our weakest phase. However it didn't go too badly and we didn't make an horrific errors and ended up with 44.1 - Clearly not brilliant, but sub 45 so I was reasonably happy.
The Show Jumping was in a very impressive arena with a grandstand and it was a very long and up to height course so I was a little bit nervous! However Jack jumped out of his skin! He jumped all bar one of the fences in foot perfect fashion & clear. Unfortunately I made a mistake at fence 6 and we had it down and I had to circle before the next fence to organise ourselves again so picked up a few jumping penalties & a lot of time faults. So although it doesn't look very good on paper, he actually jumped incredibly well and it was almost a clear round!
Surprisingly I wasn't actually very nervous for the Cross Country. I think because I had already messed up the show jumping somewhat and so I just wanted to get on with it! I didn't wear my watch because I wasn't concerned with how quickly or not I was going as I just wanted to get round! After having a bit of a chit chat with Oli Townend in the warm up it was time to go!
Jack jumped fences 1 & 2 very well, but unfortunately he was being unusually strong and I just didn't have him where I wanted coming to fence 3 and we came up the bank, turned for the fence and just met it on a completely duff stride. Lucky totally deserted us and he just couldn't jump it. We re-presented and jumped it fine. It was just one of those galling & really unlucky things. However we put it behind us and proceeded to jump clear around the rest of the course over all the direct routes in exemplary fashion! Although slightly disappointed with the 20 penalties I couldn't have been more thrilled with Jack coming through the finish! He isn't experienced at this level having only done one advanced in the UK a few years ago, yet he took everything in his stride and sailed round!
Jack jumped fences 1 & 2 very well, but unfortunately he was being unusually strong and I just didn't have him where I wanted coming to fence 3 and we came up the bank, turned for the fence and just met it on a completely duff stride. Lucky totally deserted us and he just couldn't jump it. We re-presented and jumped it fine. It was just one of those galling & really unlucky things. However we put it behind us and proceeded to jump clear around the rest of the course over all the direct routes in exemplary fashion! Although slightly disappointed with the 20 penalties I couldn't have been more thrilled with Jack coming through the finish! He isn't experienced at this level having only done one advanced in the UK a few years ago, yet he took everything in his stride and sailed round!
So all in all a very good first Advanced! Although it didn't go quite as I had planned or hoped, we successfully completed arguably the biggest Advanced in the country and so I can't really complain. I made a few mistakes and paid for them, but Jack was an absolute superstar and didn't put a foot wrong so overall I am thrilled and really want to get back out there and continue competing at this level. So if anyone has any ideas of suitable horses/owners then please please please get in touch.
