Hey!
So the new season has well and truly started, and for potentially the first time ever, we are yet to get rained on at an event! In fact, the weather has been absolutely glorious at every event so far, to the extent of getting rather sunburnt at Weston Park!
Oasby open novice and Lincoln intermediate novice were good warm up runs, with an 8th placing at Lincoln after a fantastic clear cross country inside the time.
After two average tests at those two events, we fit in a dressage lesson with Ruth Edge to try and iron out some little inaccuracies in our movements. We worked on balance and collection in canter, as well as walk pirouettes and half pass. Henry was absolutely fantastic in this lesson, really showing his potential on the flat!
We were supposed to compete at Burgham intermediate that weekend, but unfortunately it was cancelled. However, we managed to get in a last minute entry to Gatcombe on the Sunday, also in the intermediate! It was really helpful of the secretary to fit us in at last minute. We had a fantastic day, and even the grandparents travelled down from Wrexham to watch me compete! We arrived at Gatcombe to find out we'd run out of gas - which was a complete disaster, what on earth were we going to do without a cup of tea! Only joking, we need the gas for the hot water as Henry gets a slight rash if he is washed off in cold (the special bean that he is). So we rang the grandparents to beg them to find a new bottle in Cirencester, to the detriment of them missing my dressage test. When they eventually arrived, it transpired that they had bought the wrong one anyway, so we had to go without!
Anyway, we had a fantastic day, posting an amazing dressage of 26.6, even with some little mistakes! Then an awesome double clear round two tough tracks, with 12 time faults, to finished a very respectable 4th place!
The following week we took new pony (well, 17hh giant) Charlie cross country practicing at Somerford with Auntie Claire. She hasn't evented for 7 years, so her sitting on a rather excited Henry was quite a funny experience for us all! Charlie was good schooling, we just need to find some more brakes from somewhere!
My next event was my first ever GB junior trial at Weston Park, which is quite a local event for us, and only 20 minutes for the support team (grandparents again). Another good weekend, with an 8th placing in the u21 section, being the 5th place junior (u18). Our dressage wasn't quite as good this week, but I can't expect him to pull off a foot perfect test every week, however nice that would be!
Some very exciting events (and very boring exams) coming up, so stay tuned for my next blog!
Annabel x
