Pony and I toddled off to our local Riding Club show for a day of SJ and dressage.
The venue was only 13 miles away which is luxury after trailering up and down the country all summer. Unfortunately the weather wasn't looking good and I almost withdrew my entry after arriving at the yard in the pouring rain! Glad I didn't though as the rain soon stopped and the sun even tried to peek out from behind the clouds!
First up was our prelim test - P13. Considering we used to solely focus on dressage you'd think we'd be good at it but it has been so long since we've focused on it and although I school him weekly on the flat it takes us a while to settle into competing again. I'd set myself a target of 65% for the prelim.
So the test felt awful - he was rushing, pulling, refusing to bend in the corners - typically he'd rode perfectly when we practiced at home but that's how it goes!
Had an hours break before the next test - Novice 20 - only our 3rd ever attempt at a novice. It's a nice test though and we've done it before so I'd set myself a target of 60% (our highest previous score at novice is 59%)
I gave him a longer warm up this time and he was going much better and did a much nicer test with some bits that felt ok an others that felt really nice.
Results were as expected - prelim we got 62.5% - actually higher than I was expected but lower than my target. No rosette for us in that class. For the Novice I was delighted to get 62.8% and even a 3rd place rosette - sort of makes up for the poor Prelim performance!
Next it was time for some showjumping. I have always hated SJ - it's always been my least favourite discipline because pony struggles with tight turns and I generally always feel like I ride like an idiot when SJ whereas going XC you have a nice long gallop between fences so plenty of time to recover from a dodgy jump!
Did the 65cm and he just couldn't be bothered - demolised jumps 2 and 3 before improving for the end of the round so we only finished on those 8 faults.
Next was the 75cm - I rode a bit more strongly to try and avoid a similar problem but he still had fence 3 down and despite clearing the rest he felt a bit tired - so no SJ rosettes for us this time round but I thoroughly enjoyed it and am actually keen for the indoor season to start so that we can focus on doing some pure dressage and SJ.
A lovely friend managed to get some pictures which I'll try and add later but I'm pleased to see that my jumping position is improving - not looking down anymore, trying to focus on finding the right line and also riding more positively. Still lots to work on but things are looking up!
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