Competition Report - Shelford (2)

I went to the second competition at Shelford on Thursday. It was great that they ran a midweek event, as it meant I didn't need to use up any holiday on it - it was already on my day off! 

My superstar pony was back. We had a fabulous day! 

I went to walk the course the day before, so I had a chance to have a good look at everything, I really like Shelford - it's an easy one for me to get to, but it's also well laid out, the ground is always good, and everything is close to the lorry park. Win, win, win! The only negative with this one was that I had an 8:30am dressage. Ouch...

I got on a bit early for the dressage and had a little hack round the lorry park before I started warming up. She started out a bit tense, but then came really nice. She was much better than the past few events - she relaxed, was accepting of the bit and giving me some really nice work. She did come a little tense when we went in the arena, but we scored a respectable 33.8 (68.2%) - and it felt more like our usual standard of test. Don't get me wrong, there was still plenty to work on! but I didn't feel like we took backwards steps this time. 

I was pretty much straight over to the showjumping. She warmed up well, I didn't do much because I had so little space between the two phases that she didn't really cool off completely. The course was nice but catching lots of people out - the SJ started at 8:40, I was on at around 9:15 and the first two clear rounds of the day were the two people before me. There were poles going all over!

Because of that, I naturally thought we'd be kicking out half the course. No, my little mare pulled out all the stops!! We had one pole that I will take the blame for (I took a pull and shouldn't have), but considering we've been taking 3 or 4 poles most of the time, I was absolutely thrilled. I think taking my spurs off for SJ has made a big difference, as well as taking off the over reach boots. I never jump in any other boots anyway, but she sometimes pulls shoes so wears over reach boots whenever I ride - but apparently jumping in them makes her a bit less careful! 

Onto the XC - Woohooo!! She was just awesome. It was  a testing course with a few big fences and she took it all in her stride. I was really proud. We had a clear round inside the time. 

So, so happy to end our summer season on that! We ended up in 8th, which is just out of the placings for Shelford but still a good position to finish in. So she gets a (well deserved!) week off, a week of hacking and then a bit of dressage through September - mostly because my saddle is being sent off to be stripped so no jumping until it's back.. unless I get withdrawals and decide to jump in my dressage saddle, anyway!