On 12 July we headed to Mendip Plains for a spot of XC schooling.
I wanted to go and see where we were at. Given that our attempt in April at Pontispool had been more than a little disappointing. I'd kind of decided if it went the same way then I'd hang up my evening boots.
In the run up to the day, the rain came down again, so much so I even put a rug on Freddie on the Tuesday so he would be dry to tack up at least. And weds started a bit grey and drizzley.
BUT
As I arrived at Badgworth and loaded up (straight up no messing around after a year of being a div) the sun shone. (Thank you Mum)
And so with the sun shining and the ground being just perfect underfoot, we had an absolute blast and found our mojo. We popped a couple of smaller fences to warm up and then cracked on to the 80cm fences. In fact this video is our first turn to the 80s including the doubles, and the owl hole.
And so feeling bold, we started to take on the 90s. It was Jayne's suggestion, although I'm not sure interpreted the 'jump the middle one' correctly lol. I took that mean to "jump the 90 roll top" rather than jump the middle fence of the 70-1m options. But he absolutely flew it.
Next we started to incorporate the brush fence into our combos. I could see the line from this to the next but couldn't quite hit it, on our way home we discussed that that was probably part of the 90 or 1m course as you'd need balance, travel and pop - we were right. It was in the 100 class.
I love this footage of Freddie booming over the brush fence. Yes, I whoo hoo'd as he flew it and we jumped and jumped it as part of a combo of fences and he just kept on booming it.
After that I went into the next field and hit the water jump. He was on fire, cantering straight in and we even jumped up on to the island in the middle and back down into the water.
We cantered up to, down across and up over the sunken road. But i think the most fun was in the water - jumping the boat in, cantering through the water, jumping up and down in and out and on a warm day enjoying the splashing of water.
And so after an hour of jumping, where he was always asking me "what's next mum?" - I felt we had successfully ticked our 'continue on' eventing box. My beautiful little boy reminded me why I love XC and that we're not ready to hang up our eventing boots.