Moora CNC - Cross Country

Sunday was set be a warm day but there was a lovely breeze which helped keep things cool. My XC time wasn't until 12.22 so after walking the horses (Henry was way more relaxed!) I helped my friends get ready for their XC and SJ.

It was a long morning waiting to go XC. By 11.30 I had ants in my pants and started to get ready very slowly! Soon enough I was on and warming up.

The crew

My cow chasing friend Tahlia was driving through Moora so stopped in just to watch my XC. I chatted to her briefly before I got on with warming up. Coolie was feeling a bit strong so I focused on getting him around my leg, and making sure we had stop and go. We popped a few fences and he was really pinging.

just before I was called over to the start box there was an incident in the warm up where a horse fell on it's rider. That was a bit scary but they were both ok. Then after I was called there was a brief hold on course. I focused on what I had to do and put these things out of my mind.

My friends all wished me good luck and I headed to the start box. I always walk Coolie in and out while we wait to be counted down. Every time we walked out Coolie would surge forward thinking it was time to GO! He's not done that before, he clearly understands what it's all about and was keen to get going!

The started counted us down and we were off. First jump was nice and inviting and Coolie tried to take over after we landed. I got him to listen to me and accidentally lined us up for the 2nd 105 fence so quickly re-routed (they looked the same and were right next to each other!) and he flew over. we galloped around to 3 and then we had to have quite a serious discussion about our pace. He jumped 4 and then we settled into our rhythm to 5.6 was the water and he hesitated a fraction before popping in and then out over an upright skinny brush at 7.

8 was a nice easy roll top, then 9A was the house and B was the bank. He backed off very slightly to the house, not quite reading it but I was ready for this and gave him a tap so he sailed right over and up the bank. We had a nice steady gallop to another roll top, then straight over and apex that he made very short work of. 12ABC was a skinny upright, 4 strides down hill to a roll top, then 5 strides up a hill to another skinny upright. I steadied him and we rode through exactly on my line.

13 I rode at an angle and again we got the perfect approach and sailed over then galloped up the hill towards home.

Cool as over 13

14AB was 2 angled uprights and I steadied him and we popped through getting a perfect 3 strides. 15 was yet another roll top, it was quite narrow and in the middle of no where but Coolie locked on and it rode great.

Flying along to 16 we rode past a big 105 square oxer. Coolie locked on and started to take me to it, and I must say I looked very jumpable! They are one of the main things keeping me from moving up so I was quite please Coolie thought he could do it. I pointed us at our actual jump which was easy by comparison!

17 was another upright skinny jump in the shadows which rode great, then we galloped home over to the last fence. We were clear on time penalties and were 3 seconds too fast!

It was definitely our best round to date. We were so confident and everything was super easy. Coolie cooled down quickly and had plenty of spark left in him. I hadn't meant to make time but we found our pace and cruised around. It was very smooth and I felt like I was really in the moment and made good decisions. I rode all the lines I wanted to and Coolie was very rideable.

A very dusty beast!

I was thrilled with how we had done! We took our time cooling down, then packed up before checkign the scores. tehy hadn't been posted yet (a good 2 hours after my round) and they weren't posted so we headed home not thinking I would place.

Turns out people had more problems on XC than I thought and we were almost home when my friend messaged me with a picture of the score sheet. Our clear round moved us up to 5th!

I squealed and clapped and laughed when Hubs told me, I couldn't believe it! Another friend picked up my rosette (and hopefully my prize!) so I can't wait to get it from her. I was sad that I wasn't there to be presented with it myself and thank the sponsors in person. I doesn't feel quite real! I am so thankful to everyone that helped me over the weekend, who celebrated my birthday with me, and I am especially grateful for my wonderful pony!