Swan River Horse Trials @ Capel
This event was my first one day event, and I was really looking forward to it. I wasn't looking forward to the 4am start though! Capel is a couple of hours away my my dressage test was at 8.34 so the early start was necessary to avoid camping.
The drive went by without incident and we arrived slightly behind schedule and so I started the day on the back foot. Henry was pretty relaxed for a quick walk around the grounds and as always was happy to relax and snack while we got ready. I warmed up with about half an hour up my sleeve and put Henry right to work. I was surprisingly nervous and wasn't being as effective but Henry was mostly keeping his head. He felt tense but that was all.
We went to our arena and Henry got really tense and our test was pretty much a write off. It was really hard to see any positives coming out, and we scored 41.6. At least Henry on his worst day is the same as Coolie on his best day 🙊. It wasn't so bad though with 3 7's in there. I was very upset by it though and felt like I could have done so much more than I did. Luckily though we had 2 more phases to go to make up for it.
Show jumping was up next and Henry came out marginally more settled and I really rode him in the warm up. He warmed up well on the flat, but he was unsettled over the jumps so I spent some time getting him relaxed and into a rhythm. We got to a good place and waited for our turn.
Our round was the smoothest we have done yet! We got the correct leads mostly, it was in self carriage and it was clear. Henry was adjustable and the jumps all came up well even where the course designer had made the striding a bit of a challenge. I came out thrilled and feeling so much better about everything. Funny how that works.
We had a decent amount of time between show jumping and cross country so we walked the course and had lunch. We tried not to nap too since the early start was taking it's toll!
The course looked very inviting but not too easy, and since I was coming last I decided where I was going to use it as a schooling oppourtunity. There were a few places I decided to trot, like at the waters (2!) and the bank. There was quite a diverse range of jumps which was nice, including a mini trakehner, two banks, a drop, two water jumps, a coop, and some mini versions of other common jumps. Not just logs!
There was nothing on the course I was worried about, knowing that Henry and I have done all the work.
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| Couldn't take these cuties with us sadly |
The drive went by without incident and we arrived slightly behind schedule and so I started the day on the back foot. Henry was pretty relaxed for a quick walk around the grounds and as always was happy to relax and snack while we got ready. I warmed up with about half an hour up my sleeve and put Henry right to work. I was surprisingly nervous and wasn't being as effective but Henry was mostly keeping his head. He felt tense but that was all.
We went to our arena and Henry got really tense and our test was pretty much a write off. It was really hard to see any positives coming out, and we scored 41.6. At least Henry on his worst day is the same as Coolie on his best day 🙊. It wasn't so bad though with 3 7's in there. I was very upset by it though and felt like I could have done so much more than I did. Luckily though we had 2 more phases to go to make up for it.
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| Can't bring myself to watch the video, so check out his perm instead |
Show jumping was up next and Henry came out marginally more settled and I really rode him in the warm up. He warmed up well on the flat, but he was unsettled over the jumps so I spent some time getting him relaxed and into a rhythm. We got to a good place and waited for our turn.
Our round was the smoothest we have done yet! We got the correct leads mostly, it was in self carriage and it was clear. Henry was adjustable and the jumps all came up well even where the course designer had made the striding a bit of a challenge. I came out thrilled and feeling so much better about everything. Funny how that works.
We had a decent amount of time between show jumping and cross country so we walked the course and had lunch. We tried not to nap too since the early start was taking it's toll!
The course looked very inviting but not too easy, and since I was coming last I decided where I was going to use it as a schooling oppourtunity. There were a few places I decided to trot, like at the waters (2!) and the bank. There was quite a diverse range of jumps which was nice, including a mini trakehner, two banks, a drop, two water jumps, a coop, and some mini versions of other common jumps. Not just logs!
There was nothing on the course I was worried about, knowing that Henry and I have done all the work.
Way to go on putting aside the first phase and taking charge of the second.
ReplyDeletecatching up but sounds like even tho dressage wasn't the best you moved on with him! YAY he is getting a very good head on his shoulders that Henry! :)
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