Swan River Horse Trials - Cross Country
We were up bright and early again on Sunday, but not because we had to be! Horses can be vey noisy creatures.
The horses were walked and grazed before the action kicked off. Henry had prime position to observe the goings on, which he didn't seem too bothered about. He was much more concerned about where Coolie was.
My ride time was 12.30, Husband was kindly doing my helper duty (show jumping, having a lovely time of it!) so I had my morning free to watch cross country and support my friends.
Super groom and I headed out and found our selves a good spot to watch the action at the new water jumps. All grades had to go through water twice which was very exciting. The lower grade horses were less than thrilled and there was quite a few almost spills.
Our friends had no issues out on the course and both finished with great rides. One 3* rider went for a nice swim at the second water, but there were few falls across the day.
My coach was the technical delegate for the higher grades so we spent a bit of time with her learning about how fences should ride, and the new 50 penalty rule. She was filming the fences where they thought riders would take out the flags to be sure they knew what happened.
Our action packed morning flew by and it was soon time to get ready for my round. I was a little bit nervous because I wasn't sure how Coolie would be feeling, but once I was on I put him to work and felt much better. Coolie was on fire and really wanted to get out on course. I knew I was in for some hard work keeping the lid on his enthusiasm. I kept him busy in the warm up and finally it was our turn to head to the start box.
3, 2, 1 and we were off to the first fence, a roll top shared with 95. Coolie was on task but wanting to take over. I held him steady for the next fence which was quite upright and skinny. The wide open space made Coolie want to gallop as fast as he could so I let him have a run but bought him back well before the third fence. He was being pretty cool out there, jumping out of stride. He was strong but listening. He got a bit wobbly before fence 5 so I gave him a tap with my crop to keep him on task. After that we had no dramas, cruising over every fence.
We galloped through both waters, up stairs, off drops, and over skinny fences with no problems to come home clear and very under time.
We added a few too fast penalties to our score (note to self, check watch earlier!) and finished in 7th place. We got a lovely rosette for our efforts and all!
It was a very successful weekend all up. I was positive and had a heap of fun. Coolie did a really good job and I couldn't have asked for more at the first event of the season. I didn't look at the scores all weekend so was very happy to see where we had finished.
Australia has recently updated the dressage scoring to be inline with the UK and US and I much prefer how it is now. It puts everyone on a more level playing field. Our score was an improvement anyway, so I was thrilled.
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| So pretty |
The horses were walked and grazed before the action kicked off. Henry had prime position to observe the goings on, which he didn't seem too bothered about. He was much more concerned about where Coolie was.
My ride time was 12.30, Husband was kindly doing my helper duty (show jumping, having a lovely time of it!) so I had my morning free to watch cross country and support my friends.
Super groom and I headed out and found our selves a good spot to watch the action at the new water jumps. All grades had to go through water twice which was very exciting. The lower grade horses were less than thrilled and there was quite a few almost spills.
Our friends had no issues out on the course and both finished with great rides. One 3* rider went for a nice swim at the second water, but there were few falls across the day.
My coach was the technical delegate for the higher grades so we spent a bit of time with her learning about how fences should ride, and the new 50 penalty rule. She was filming the fences where they thought riders would take out the flags to be sure they knew what happened.
Our action packed morning flew by and it was soon time to get ready for my round. I was a little bit nervous because I wasn't sure how Coolie would be feeling, but once I was on I put him to work and felt much better. Coolie was on fire and really wanted to get out on course. I knew I was in for some hard work keeping the lid on his enthusiasm. I kept him busy in the warm up and finally it was our turn to head to the start box.
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| Galloping |
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| Jumping |
We galloped through both waters, up stairs, off drops, and over skinny fences with no problems to come home clear and very under time.
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| New water |
We added a few too fast penalties to our score (note to self, check watch earlier!) and finished in 7th place. We got a lovely rosette for our efforts and all!
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| Love him! |
It was a very successful weekend all up. I was positive and had a heap of fun. Coolie did a really good job and I couldn't have asked for more at the first event of the season. I didn't look at the scores all weekend so was very happy to see where we had finished.
Australia has recently updated the dressage scoring to be inline with the UK and US and I much prefer how it is now. It puts everyone on a more level playing field. Our score was an improvement anyway, so I was thrilled.
haha he must have been really cruisin - sounds like a great run tho, like Coolie was super confident about everything!! congrats on the nice final score too ;)
ReplyDeleteThanks! I think he thought he was king of XC! Sometimes he is a little too confident, and thinks he knows better than his pleb mother. Except I know where we are going ;p
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