South Of England

Estella at South of England doing the  CIC1*

A little daunting as when I looked at my section of 90 competitors it included Pippa Funnell, Lucinda Fredricks, Ken Spencer, Clayton Fredricks, Gemma Tattesall, Sacha Pemble...................

It was a bit quiet on the Friday afternoon when we turned up to do the trot up and our dressage, it was hard to believe that the showground would be packed out over the weekend. But it was quite relaxed and we had loads of time to walk the xc too.

The dressage was fantastic we got a 45 which I was over the moon about and at the end of the dressage I was in quite a good place I think about 15th.

We went back on the Saturday to walk the xc course again and walk the show jumping.

On Sunday we had a very early start and arrived at the showground for 7.15am I walked the sj course again Then our friend Lisa turned up to watch, though we soon put her to work!

At the SJ Estella jumped well but was a tad careless at one of the jumps and had it down, she was very spooky that day and was backing of everything so she took a bit of riding.

I went straight to the xc to walk part of of it again as there had been a course change and arranged to meet Lisa, Jill and Mum at the warm up with Estella. I didn't have too long to warm up and then we were on. It was a very long course and hilly but we went clear inside the time which I was chuffed with!

With this it left me in 12th place which was very respectable, very much so considering the company of all the professional riders I was in.

Of course it wouldnt be right just leaving it at this without telling you the other things that happened e.g my Mother embarrassing me several times 1.Walking into a chair when it was silent which caused everyone to look round. 2. She fell in to a dip and nearly fell over a ledge! 3. Talking on the phone about a certain professional dressage rider (nice things) but hadn't realised they where walking right in front of us! This caused me to completely disown her! Butttt then I remember its character building!

I am not sure whether I relayed the incident about Mum and the bicycle in France at Haras, but I am slightly worried as apparently we are taking the bikes to Weston next week, god I hope she stays on this time!

Next up date my Tina Cook lessons.

Busy few weeks!

Its sooo upseting to think its nearly the end of the season, but however its been a funpacked season! This is an update of what I have been doing these few weeks.

A couple of weeks ago I competed for the school at the NSEA qualifers, I did the Novice dressage (on stella) and I WON which I was very pleased with and Farlington also won as a Team, then I did the Elementary on her and came 2nd. I also did the Novice test on Pearl, her first ever novice test and first dressage test in a while and she did suprisingly well she got 60%! I also came 3rd on stella in the open jumping with style which was judged on style, speed and faults! So we are off to Addington for the championships in October if we are able to get up there and it doesn't snow to much!

Next... South Of England 1* I will update you on that tomorrow! 

Update and Goring Heath

Sorry I have not updated for a while, I'm back at school now grrrr but its my last year whooooo!!! I have decided I am not going to College, I have thought about it over and over. Since I can remember I have always told Mum and Dad that I was not going to College and  that I just wanted to ride and that certainly hasn't changed so I have decided to absolutely commit to my riding.

I was at Goring Heath last week. We got a 33 dressage, it was ok just a little behind the leg but my canter work was GREAT!!!!! In the Show jumping I came round the corner to first fence and it absolutely bucketed it down, to a point I could hardly see! But even with this inconvenience we did a perfect round every jump we hit perfect stride and I think it was because I treated every fence the same, rode away from each fence and kept that rhythm. I think we lacked that in other rounds previously!

My XC round was ok however, when I went to start my watch it would not work and so I had no idea what speed I was going. I thought we were quite quick but I forgot from last year that the time is tight as it is quite hilly and what I think happened was that I took a few to many pulls just before the fence which slowed her down! Oh well I have learnt from this experience!!!!

BUTTT I still came 3rd which I was very pleased with!!!!!

Also not sure you can see the number of hits on my blog but I have over 5,500 hits on my blog. That's amazing, Thank you for reading it. x