Brand Hall Horse Trials:
We took Donnermere down to Shropshire for our first international event (FEI), the CIC*. It was a very different atmosphere to what he was used to in the dressage. There was only two arenas next to each other with two judges per arena and with shops around the outside and spookier boards and flowers, but thankfully it was a quiet atmosphere as there was only dressage going on. I was very excited to wear my new top-hat and tail-coat and was hoping for a good photo!!! He performed a lovely test besides his silly rider going wrong once, and scored 59.4 which I was fairly pleased with looking at the stiff competition. Unfortunately, going wrong costs a minus 2 off each Judge, so a fairly expensive mistake, I won't be doing that again! He found himself in the bottom third of the board going in to day 2, so not such an amazing start!
We stayed at some friends yard in Shropshire overnight and set off bright and early next morning for showjumping and cross country. The showjumping was probably his worst round of his eventing career, not in the score as he only got 1 down, but he hated the hard ground and felt insecure on the take off as it felt quite slippy so was a little cautious, we have decided to double stud him behind from now on.
His cross country was amazing as always, he flew round finding it really easy and taking all the straight routes. He finished well within the time and pulled himself well up the board to finish 21st. Not a bad first attempt at this level.
Skipton (1) Horse Trials
Two weeks later it was off with Kellys Lad to Skipton. There has been some major course changes this year and the course made more use of the natural features and included some nice hedges to jump.
Louis performed a very good dressage score of 33.0 leaving him high on the leader board in his section. He showjumped clear and flew round the cross country with 3.6 time faults which was good enough for 2nd place in the section.
The following day Donnermere went to Skipton for the ONu18(q). It was his second qualifier of the Northern region and he needed a good clear in front of the Regional Co-ordinators. He did a lovely dressage to secure a good score of 35.5, the best in the section tied with 2 others. He showjumped clear, and a nice round, double studded up behind, but unfortunately incurred 1 time fault. His cross country was faultless with a foot perfect round but got 6.8 time faults, which I was surprised at because he felt like he was flying and it was one of his best cross country rounds this year. Anyway it was good enough for 4th place and a double clear was what was needed.
The day was rounded off to a bad finish however as when we arrived home Leo, a young 5 year old of ours, unfortunately was badly injured in the field and when the vet arrived it was confirmed he had broken his leg which meant we had no choice but to have him put down. This was just the worst thing imaginable as we had high hopes for this young horse and had grown to really love him. It was a really upsetting experience for the whole family and something I would never want to experience again.
Anyway, with a lighter note, Donnermere is off the Aske next and Louis will be out at Buckminster Park in the 5YO class. If you see us out eventing please come and say hello!
Phoebe Powell and the Eventing Team.
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