20 August 2020
Well, it's been a year since we did a one day event, a year since we jumped cross country fences on grass, 8 months since we did an XC fence and 8 months since we last did a competition. With a bit of a shock the week before as my dad was rushed to Musgrove Hospital, the pre-event xc training went out the window. And so, I opted for the 70cm class again.
With all that in mind, actually the day went very well!
Given the last time Freddie had 5 months off competing we had a giraffe on speed kind of test, today we did a tidy, if not top performance dressage test, producing a score of 30.5 and leaving us in 6th out of 25 after this phase. A clear show jumping round took us up to 5th. The course wasn't that challenging, but we have been jumping 80cm recently at home.
Then it was the xc phase. Last time here (a year ago) we did the 60cm although there was a lot of cross over with the 70cm that year. This year they were separate and the 70 crossed with the 80cm. The owl hole was still in this course :)
We have been working at home to increase our speed xc and try and hit the 435mpm target. Today we set off like our tail was on fire and didn't stop. Totally out of control we came flying round out of the water and round to the 'cheese wedge' or 'corner' fence in old money. We were so out of control that we glanced off it twice. Kind of disappointing as it dropped us from 4th to 18th. But there we are and I was super proud that we jumped our first 'well' and two water jumps without hesitation... and .... At least we made the time!!
The photo's
Gorgeous pic of Freddie in our Welsh dragon green and red cross country colours jumping the haycart jump
A copy of our dressage sheet. We scored 30.5 with a nice smattering of 7's and 7.5 marks to put us in 6th place after the dressage phase
Gorgeous pic of Freddie in our Welsh dragon green and red cross country colours jumping the log pile
The course photos: