A Sparkly but Successful Start to the Show Jumping Season

it's taken me a bit of time this year to get underway due to the weird reactive hypoglycaemia issue discovery. November and December were a wipe out and as the iron kicked in through January and the discovery about sugar/insulin thing, it's taken a while to get my energy levels back up.

I jumped in January just at home in the arena not competing and it was SOOOO exciting Fred bucked after every fence and tanked off around the arena.

Which meant a few lessons and a few jumps to get the brain back in the game. Getting back on top of the Show Jumping with some nice smooth rounds over 85cm courses in our lessons - the 8 March at Badgworth was my first SJ competition back.

Remembering our er, slightly feral dressage debut test from January!, I made a tactical decision about the jumping. Rather than just go in for the 80cm, I entered the 70cm as well.

Partly as a warm-up… partly as reconnaissance… and mostly to establish exactly what version of Fred I was sitting on.

Pre-Game Management

Knowing Fred can be a little… enthusiastic… in the warm-up arena, I opted for my plan B unconventional preparation strategy. Instead of marching straight into a busy warm-up with a horse whose internal energy levels could best be described as espresso-powered, we went for a short 20-minute hack first. Just enough to stretch the legs and take the edge off.

This worked, until returning to the car park a couple of ponies were leaving, Not sure why this warranted tail up, on toes snorting, but it did.

I sighed. Rolled my eyes and headed to the black arena for a quick canter on each rein - which felt not unlike being on a pogo stick - followed by a tactical retreat to the indoor arena collecting area, where we could watch the other competitors and generally attempt to cool our beans. This seemed to work.

The 70cm Reconnaissance Mission

The 70cm round was essentially my jumping warm-up. A chance to work out whether the canteen gallery was still holding previously unseen pony-eating monsters - you know they only like the ginger flavour - and whether the distraction of lots of people standing in scary corner was going to be too much.

Having successfully cooled Fred’s beans, outside we entered the arena and picked up our canter… nearly running poor Rob the photographer down in the process - sorry Rob - and I kept cool and Fred kept cool. The bell rang. Off we went. Fence 1. Check. Fence 2. Check.

And then the monster appeared - not the ginger one, the rider one! Whilst Fred stayed very much in the zone, happily travelling forward and doing his job, it was mum’s turn to go:

“OMFG… we’re JUMPING COMPETITING!!”

Excited brain kicked in and instead of riding him properly, I felt like I started to rag him rather than ride him. Fred, to his credit, did not rise to the new ball of excitement on his back and simply got on with the job AND The round flowed nicely enough..... Until fence 7. The Jump off starting at fence 6 and being in a curving line to 7, I think I just got carried away, fudged the striding and so we had a moment of indecision. For a split second Fred said:

Long one?

Chip in?

Apparently the answer was neither.

We ended up paddling over the fence, somehow not touching it. But there was definitely a moment of:

“Shit… are we ok? Yes we're ok… we seem to be upright… the fence is still up…”

That small moment probably cost us a couple of very important milliseconds. Still, the result was rather pleasing:

Double clear.

24.68 seconds.

3rd place.

And a qualification for both the Cricklands and Hartpury Show Jumping Championships.

With 12 riders in the ring for 1-6 for junior and senior, the lap of honour was a sedate trot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXy2HtlUb6E

Time for the 80cm

I was last to go again in the 80cm. So it meant I had time to get my mind back on the job. And this time I was determined not to ride like a monkey who just robbed a tent!

The round felt smoother, more committed, and I managed to cut the corners I hoped for. We finished in 23.86 seconds — just under a second faster than in the 70cm.

However, the competition was tight. Very tight. First was on 21.83, 2nd, 3rd and 4th were all on 23 seconds, which is one of those situations where you realise just how little margin there is between the placings.

This meant qualification for Cricklands but not Hartpury this time. Possibly just that split second pause away from fence 10 cost us the place.

But honestly? For our first jumping outing of the year, with Fred fresh off a dressage test that could politely be described as feral mustang, I was delighted.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnewPvOZDRM

Take two happens on Wednesday

Gutted to have missed by miliseconds, we're trying again on Weds - what will be will be.

Fred is still very much Fred. The boy I love, who brings me my dreams. Sparkly. Opinionated. Extremely enthusiastic about jumping. And occasionally capable of inventing entirely new approaches to fence 7.

But if this is how we’re starting the 2026 season, I’m very happy to see where it goes next.

And possibly slightly relieved we survived the warm-up arena.