SKIPTON (2)
Kelly's Lad (Louis) was entered in the 5yo class at Skipton. We were sure it wasn't going to cause him much problems as he had already completed Skipton (1) around the same height course and had found it fine. He performed a nice test to score 33.5, although we think it should have been higher. He did a lovely clear showjumping and flew round the cross country clear with 2.8 time faults. He finished 9th in his section to unfortunately did not manage to qualify for the Young Horse Championships at Osberton which is a shame as he must be one of the nicest 5 year olds around. But at least the 6 year old Championships next year are based on BE results and not on just one competition.
HENDERSYDE PARK
Louis was up at Hendersyde competing in the Scottish Championships at BE100 level. He had qualified for this with a win at Floors Castle. This was a day I would rather forget! He performed a good dressage test for the 3rd best score in the section of 30.5. He was doing cross country next as it was being run with the showjumping to take place at the end, which meant he was a little fresh going into cross country and was not really listening to me. It was all going fine until the coffin where he jumped in and said 'no thanks' at the ditch and meant it. He therefore got eliminated and that was that. He will now go schooling over lots of ditches as he must need a reminder that they are not that scarey!
HARAS DU PIN (FRANCE)
How exciting it was to be competing in France. We travelled with Jodie McGreggor and her mum over to France as she was also competing.
Beanie travelled well and arrived feeling reasonably fresh from the long journey. He had a full day before his dressage which was unfortunately very early on the first day of the dressage for the 1*, which had a huge amount of entries of well over 100. He had done the arena walk the evening before his test so he had at least been in the arena, as it was on a surface and quite spooky with lots of flags and banners and wooden huts for the Judges to sit in. Anyway, he warmed up fairly well and started the test well. He got a little tense however when a tractor was driving about behind the hedge emptying the bins, but on the whole kept his composure. We were a little disappointed with his score of 63.3 but most of the early horses were all in the 60's mark wise so we were ok about it. However, the scoring did get alot better as the day progressed and we did feel that if he had been drawn later in the day would have got a much better mark.
The following day he showjumped well. He did one of the only handful of clears of the day and pulled himself well up the board. We were really pleased with him as it was quite a spooky course.
He cross countried well, although we was a little tentative at the first few fences as he had not been out since his bad round at Chomondeley Castle but he gained in confidence around the course and finished really enjoying himself. It was anounced that he had 4 time faults and that was what our timing was as well, but when it went down on the board he was given 19 time faults, which we knew wasn't correct, so we challenged it but they wouldn't change it and they don't take a time at each fence, as they do in the UK, so there was no way of checking it. Anyway that put him back down the board. Although I did get invited to the mounted prize giving and was given a bottle of Champagne for being the youngest competitor at the competition, so that was nice!! He arrived back in the UK please to be home and having lost a bit of weight so we decided not to compete him again until Allerton Park in a months time.
All in all, my first trip abroad was great experience and I must say a big thankyou to Heidi (Jodie McGreggor's mum) for taking us, Sue Carson for providing us with lovely saddle clothes and clothing, Jane Peters, Caroline Moore for helping me with my warm ups and all the support of the other British Juniors.
Until next time... Phoebe Powell and the eventing team.
