Wednesday 8 August 2012

Chuffed at Chilham

OK for those of you that follow my blog you will know how challenged Mum and I are when it comes to directions. This time not only did we have a 7.5 tonne, 8 metre lorry but we had Jill Chator following us in the car and trailer. Yes we got lost, in the country lanes of Kent, actually so lost we had to phone Ross at home to navigate us to our destination. This is not the first time he has had to do this!

On the shopping list this week, a sat nav!

Arabella

A 3 hour journey that should have been 1.45 hours is not ideal with two baby horses not used to travelling, neither is turning up with 15 minutes to go before the 4 year old dressage test. However Arabella showed everyone that she has a cool head and did a very relaxed dressage test and ended up with the 2nd best dressage in the section.

Also not ideal because of our original late arrival was the very short space of time I had to run round the XC course, which resulted in me being late for my time on show jumping and as I was one of the last to go there was no leeway. So popped a couple of fences in the warm up, then watched the horse before me go round (I did not know my course) and off we went. No time to take in the flags flapping around the arena, she did however notice the very silly boy who decided to roll under the fence as we were going past, good job otherwise she would have stepped on him! Anyway she had a beautiful, rhythmical round, just clipped the last fence as it was downhill and she lost a bit of concentration with the loud speaker beside it. We were so so pleased though.

Straight on to the cross country, now we expected some issues on this very demanding course as she is so inexperienced. When Ken took her to Tweseldown she went into reverse at the water but as she had not presented at the fence there were no penalties. Anyway this time there was a jump before the water, a tough question for a 4 year old, however she jumped it and before she knew it she was in the water, then she realised and froze! It didn't matter even though we got penalties, she still came 7th and the feeling she gave me across the rest of the course was just awesome. Jill was so so pleased.

I cannot put into words how much I love this horse, she has taken the very best of Estella's qualities. I adore riding her, yes she can be challenging, I have ridden her since the moment she was first backed and she has bucked and bronked and reared with me, but I don't mind we have such a special bond. I have handed her back to Ken to take to Firle and I will continue her dressage and jumping until I am lucky enough to event her again hopefully next year.

Glimpse

First ever event for little Glimpse, our little retrained racehorse and she was much admired too. She did a good dressage test, I didn't put any pressure on her and let her go round in a very relaxed manner. She didn't think the white boards were jumps this time and remained focused for the test. There was room to make the test more flamboyant but Saturday and her first event was not the day to do that.

This time we went straight to the SJ and asked to go early. Oh my goodness that pony was amazing, she has such a jump. With all the flags around the arena, not a flicker. She has hardly ever jumped on grass before either and we got a clear!! Then came the cross country, she just took it on, beautiful rhythm. Such a little step back at the water - honestly who made that rule! Gained us 20 penalities which felt unfair to her for what was a stunning round. She stood so quietly on the lorry all day and was an absolute super star, I think she might have a bit of a future ahead.


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