A busy couple of months!

It has been relatively quiet on the competition front recently, and complete hectic in life generally. I think it is a result of having finished uni for summer and deciding to ride as many horses as I can. Lily went to Aston Le Walls BE100 at the beginning of May, did a good test for 33 and a fab clear show jumping. Slight jockey error on my part (I forgot I was on Lily and rode her like Coco so she had a couple of cheeky run outs to keep me on the ball!) 

 

Our next event was Farley Hall BE100 plus. She did another good test, still with plenty to come for 35. I then managed to fall off her show jumping, I rather galloped down the arena and ended up a long way off an oxer with a long unbalanced canter on holding ground, needless to say Lily stopped and I didn't! That was fence three but I got back on and finished clear (sack the jockey!) Cross country she was mega and just cruised round for a clear inside the time so couldn't have asked for much more.
We then headed to BCA with her. She did a much more consistent test with some real promising moments. It was rewarded with a good mark of 29.5 and well up there after dressage. Show jumping, the aim was to get round with no stops as she has been lacking confidence show jumping and putting in the odd stop. Well we achieved that aim and she was very unlucky just to rub one vertical behind for 4 faults, but I was thrilled. Cross country started so well, and the first four fences I felt like I had the horse back that took me round several novices clear cross country last season. Unfortunately I rather missed her to fence 5, a table, and she hit it hard. This frightened her and also jarred her shoulders. So when she jumped into the combination at 6 she overjumped and couldn't make the distance to the out, however she did on the second fence and continued round the course building confidence again slowly. Unfortunately she rather over jumped a fence with a big drop on landing and that reminded her that she was a little sore. So when she got to the trakheneh at fence 13 she simply said no thank you which was a real shame. So she is dropping back down to BE100 at Upton House.

Another reason that I have failed to write a blog is because I have a lovely little connemara project pony called Drew. He is 6 and I have got him on a sales livery type basis to bring on and sell to a lovely new home at the end of the summer. He is a full up 14'2 chunky, old fashioned connie and is a pleasure to have around. So far he has been to two shows and for two cross country schools and hasn't really put a foot wrong. He will make a lovely mother daughter share, pony club or riding club alrounder, a nice hack - anything you want him to be really!  He is going to his first event on the 13th of July so fingers crossed!

I have also been to BUCS Riding Nationals in the last month. It is a very complicated system but it does work. You are only judged against the other people on your horse and the winner on each horse goes through to the next round! There are 3 people on each horse. I won the first round by a convincing 21 penalties, and in the first test you ride in a team of three so its quite complicated.  The horse in the 2nd round was much more tricky. I still managed to get through to round three, where I got to ride a gorgeous intermediate event horse. I won on him too which put me through to the final where there are two people and you both ride the same two horses. On one horse you do a set test at medium level, and on the other horse you have to do a freestyle test to music! Thankfully our good friend Lee Frawley was on hand to let me borrow her music and floor plan. Having never ridden a test to music before, somehow I managed to pull it off and the horse could not have suited the music more. At the end of it, my tests on the two horses were good enough for me to win and become BUCS Equestrian National Champion. The jumping didn't go quite as well, I got through to the final 15 but due to it being judged on faults, I had an unlucky two down but another rider just had one down so she got through to the final. It was a fantastic week and I can't wait to try and get back there next year!!

Coco is back home from his month at the water treadmill and is doing 20 minutes walking a day! He is feeling very pleased with himself and we are very lucky that because he is only having limited turn out, the Simple System Feeds allow us to keep him munching all day using LucieBrix and bowls of GreenGold to give him a fibre alternative to hay! We have still got a long way to go, but with any luck by christmas we hope to be out doing some dressage and I am sure time will fly between now and then! 

So as you can see it has been rather busy, and I am fitting in playing summer league hockey amongst everything else, but I will try and keep more on top of updates now that we have got a bit of a routine going! We are off combined training this weekend with Lily in the Novice and Drew in the 80cm so we shall see how we get on!!

Georgie x