10 May 2021
Having missed out on the Hunter Trial at Mendips, I had scheduled a practice at Pontispool to jump XC on grass. Pontispool XC is bigger and bolder than Mendip Plains and so this would be the 'tell' as to whether we were ready to enter the BRC horse trials on the 5 June.
After a couple of 'green' first jumps - kind of run in deep and leap - to warm up Fred was in his flow. To be fair to Freddie, I couldn't decide what to jump first and so went for a tiger trap followed by a log, then I went in search of a 'lookie' fence with big holes in it, starting first with the 70 and then 80cm. By the time we swung around for the 80cm (our 4th jump in our practice) he was in his rhythm. And he just didn't look back. We jumped trakeners, ran through the water, jumped barns, skinnies, a log to roll top skinny combo. We 'boinged' up the BE90 or 100 steps. Jumped two chairs in quick succession. Literally jumping everything in site for an hour and a half. Finally, my legs began to ache and so I picked two final fences to jump - the 90cm pheasant feeder in the tree line so light to dark and then running down and up a hill, and the very luminous greeny yellow 'Ted the Tractor'.
Even fences I wasn't sure whether he would 'stand off' or 'look at', Fred just kept on bowling on. Delighted, I promptly came home and paid up for the BRC Team comp with Amanda, Naomi and Abi.
A bit of jump practice at home and we clear 1m!
7 and 8 May
As a bit of a warm up for the XC, we had a little 'pop' within our flat lessons on 7th and 8th May. Fred was just on fire! Clearing 1m upright for the first time and easily booming a 90 spread on the Saturday.