I had late times, so at least that was nice - she stayed out the night before and I had time to plait up in the morning before setting off. I was slightly dissapointed walking the XC as I was hoping for a little bit of a change on the course - nope. It was pretty much exactly the same as last time! At other events where I have attended multiple ones at the same venue, they usually change things up a bit. I think there was one fence that they had turned into a combination and the rest was the same.
The dressage warm up wasn't so great - she was very tense, refusing to take the contact and also very spooky. I got her to be semi-relaxed and at least working with me before we head over to the arena. On the way over there she had a total fit and started leaping around all over the place.Very unlike her! So that didn't set us up very well, and my test was pretty much just spent trying to relax her and get the movements right. We scored a 38, so I was kind of disappointed about that! You can see in the photos she just does not look relaxed at all.
We had a little break before heading over to the SJ. She actually warmed up really well, aside from someone starting to alter a 1m oxer as I was approaching it (I was shouting OXER! OXER! thankfully they saw me eventually!). She actually jumped really well, very together and very careful. We just tapped two poles but it was a MUCH better round than we have done recently! So I was really pleased with both of us after that.
Onto the XC! Now I usually call Emmie an XC machine and she was that today - but with one big mistake!! We had a very naughty stop at a hanging log going into the water. As I said before, the course had barely changed from last time - so she had already jumped every single one of those fences about 6 weeks ago!! I think that put me in a bit of a false sense of security and I just wasn't after her enough going into the water. She jumped everything else very well apart from that I had to get after her when she started chipping strides and getting a bit close to a few things.
We got home safe at the end of the day which is the most important thing - although a clear XC would have been nice, it's not the end of the world and I know she has jumped that fence fine before, and she did jump it when re-presented.
All in all it was not the best day on paper, but we still had fun and I was SO pleased at having an improved SJ. I have our last event next Thursday at Shelford, where my aim is just to have a better dressage and aim for a clear XC, and whatever happens, happens. She's then going to get a week off, a week of hacking and I've got a few bits planned in September for doing some dressage and a couple of clinics, which should be fun! My jump saddle is having a strip and re-flock, which may help her jumping as the saddler suspects it is digging in her shoulder, so that gives me a bit of time where it's ok for me to be without a jump saddle.
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