I've had a very busy weekend at Northallerton and Bradwall Horse Trials.
Northallerton Horse Trials
Saturday was a lovely day and I had Kelly's Lad (Louis) in the BE90 at Northallerton. It hasn't rained for ages and I was a bit concerned about the ground conditions, but I needn't have worried as the organisers had done a really good job of the ground and it was the best they could have made it in the circumstances!
Louis did a really good test and he is showing lovely work in this phase scoring a pleasing 33.0.
The showjumping was quite small for the level that he has been doing at BSJA, but he jumped a good rythmical clear round and I was really happy with his performance.
The cross country was a lovely course with a mixture of woods and fields and it was a very encouraging course with plenty of variety and an inviting water jump. After his round at Eden Valley Louis was obviously feeling very overconfident in this phase and I had a little problem with the brakes on the far field, having to circle to give myself more time to set up for the double combination and get him to listen to me!! I am going to have to have a rethink on his bitting before Richmond!!
He finished clear with 2.8 time faults and his final total was 35.8 putting him in 7th place. I was very happy with his performance overall.
Kellys Lad- Northallerton Horse Trials 2011
Bradwall Horse Trials
After an early mornings start we headed the 3 1/2 hour drive to Bradwall in Cheshire for Donnermere to compete in the ONU18.
After walking the course I thought that it was quite a technical course and more to think about than some novices! I decided I would take all the straight routes as it would be good practice for him upgrading later in the season. But first the dressage ...
After a good warm up I headed out across the field to the dressage arena and started going round the edge. Cue a very hairy and (in Beanie's opinion) scarey dog who obviously likes to eat small horses in his spare time, appeared and walked around the field with his oblivious owner! Beanie performed probably the worst test of his career (and of all time) as he couldn't take his eyes off the dog and wouldn't listen to me at all. I managed to complete the test with much embarassment and post test amusement (I didn't find it funny at the time).
I tentatively looked at the scoreboards before jumping and to my amazement I had scored 42.5 (which was one of the scores towards the bottom on the board but certainly not last!!) I now felt more optimistic about the jumping phases.
The showjumping was quite up to height and quite airy jumps but he did a fantastic clear round and got a round of applause. It was one of our best showjumping rounds.
He flew around the cross country giving me a great ride, taking every straight route on course and finishing well within the time. He pulled himself up the board to finish on his dressage score and 11th in the section.
Richmond is next for Beanie for the ONU18 (Q)
Phoebe Powell and the Eventing Team
No comments:
Post a Comment