So, off we went to Hambleden where we won the BE100 last year. Late afternoon times. Walked the course to find it was much the same as last year. SJ actually looked quite small compared to SOE and what we've been jumping with Chris.
Onwards to dressage. He warmed up nicely but some tension in the test again frustratingly kept our marks down again. Finished with 32. He got an 8 for the free walk and I managed to keep the canter energised for 7's but he popped up to canter in each serpentine dropping to 6's and losing a mark for impulsion as well, plus a stingy 6 for a very nice looking apparently not quite square final halt. He is just convinced that the tests must be about to contain something more interesting and can't believe these days I am just asking for simple transitions and serpentines. The disadvantages of taking a horse schooling Advanced Medium to do the equivalent of a basic prelim!
On to the SJ. Got to the warmp with 5 horses to go before us. Perfect. Quick whizz over each fence. People kept walking in front of the fence and putting me off my stride which wasn't a good start but once we got going we were fine. He went in and jumped a super super round. Really smooth, lovely forwards rhythm and met every single fence and related distance spot on. So proud of him!
He just makes it look sooooo easy! Not a small fence and he's miles above it.
Straight onto XC and managed to go 15mins early as they were at the end of the class. Quick warmup, no hanging around - best way for Monts. Set off like a rocket and never stopped. He was awesome, taking everything in his stride. We trotted down the steps, trotted through the water and the coffin and yet somehow managed to be the only people all day to go too fast and collect a whopping 5 too fast time penalities for being 5 seconds faster than Novice speed. Somehow we had gone 30 odd seconds quicker than last year here. Gutted as dropped us from 6th to 10th so missing out on another Regional Final qualification despite another double clear. No-one else came close to that time all day and he really isn't a quick horse. I felt like we whizzed round SOE 2weeks ago and we were 16seconds too slow so rather puzzled as to how we turned into speed demons overnight! Awesome, confidence giving round before Badminton though.
Coming out of the coffin:
Fence 2:
Next stop Badminton!
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