On the 26th May (sorry, very late blog post!) we went over to Shelford Manor in Nottingham to compete in the unaffiliated BE100 class there. I had to do the UA as the affiliated event ran over the bank holiday, which I have to work. We had a great day out, as you can see in the photo below - all smiles!
We had enough time to walk the XC later in the day, so after we arrived I had some time to spare as my friend was in before me. That meant getting ready was very relaxed and I had plenty of time to warm up, including a nice little hack around the lorry park - a bit of walking really helps loosen her off and get her in the right mindset before we start proper work.
She warmed up beautifully, and was very relaxed and soft in the hand. We went in and I was really pleased with the test. She didn't stay quite as relaxed as she had been in the warm up, but we are really getting there with it. She was lovely and obedient. She broke in the second canter, however, and was a little tense after that, so I thought the marks would reflect that. I was very pleasantly surprised by a fantastic score of 31.8 (68.9%)! Without the break and the tension that followed it for the last few movements, we would have easily scored below 30, which I'm absolutely thrilled about. This is our best score in a 100 test ever, and one of our best scores even when including the 90 tests.
Onto my least favourite part - the SJ! We walked the XC after the dressage and I was so excited to get out on course. I was definitely more nervous about the SJ! It was a nice, flowing course, with a few big oxers and then some tiny uprights thrown in for good measure (these are my nemesis fence!!)
She warmed up well, but I was trying hard to get her as light on the forehand as I get her in my lessons, and I just couldn't do it. She was just leaning on my hand a bit much and I couldn't get her to sit back and lift her shoulders. So that's something I really need to work on.
She went into the ring and jumped the first fence lovely. Fences 2 and 3 were an upright to an oxer on an unrelated distance. It was causing a lot of problems all round and it got me too, she hit both fences. However it seemed to pick her up a bit and make her take a bit more care, as she jumped everything else clear up to the last. The last fence was a two-stride double of small uprights, and she'd just got a bit too long and flat and ran through the second part. I was really happy as she felt fab over the big oxers and was really picking up, just unfortunate that I got those 3 rails.
Quickly back to the trailer and onto the fun part, the XC!! It was a great course with some questions and rode really well. I was so happy as she took it all in her stride and flew over everything. She gave me an absolutely fantastic ride!
What a clever pony. We ended up in 8th place (Shelford places up to 6th) - so only just out the placings. Without one of the poles we would have finished in the placings, which is half gutting but half really exciting.
We're entered for Skipton at the end of June, but hoping to get out to do a bit of practise at some point in the middle of June as well.
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