Flashback Friday

Given the current state of things, I thought it would be a fun exercise for me to revisit past events. Plus I'm sure that like me many people want to a little relief from the flood of Covid-19 stuff flying around everywhere.

It's been a while since Coolie evented, so lets take a look back at an event from him, and Dakota too:

Eventing in Western Australia keeps us very busy throughout winter. We are very lucky to have many events and can compete almost every weekend.

The Accidental Eventer made her eventing début at Moora CNC in April. leading up to this event, we did a lot of show jumping and cross country training, with a few dressage days thrown in. She is getting pretty good at leaving the property and is pretty chill when we get to events.

Moora is a 2 hour drive from Perth, so we packed the ponies, OH, Super Groom and Spare Groom (not named by importance!) into the car and headed off on Friday night. The lead up tot this event was not quite what I had in mind, as we had visitors staying with us for 3 weeks leading up to the event. But never mind!

Dakotas dressage was first up. She warmed up very nicely in a packed arena, and did a very tidy test. A bit tense here and there but quite reasonable. 

Coolie followed with his dressage which was simply horrible. Very tense, something we have been working on. He just wasn't with it! We don't talk about this test any more.

Dakota flew around the show jumping for a very tidy clear round and the judge telling me not to sell her.. I was thrilled!

Coolie also flew around his show jumping, he is rising to the challenge of bigger fences wonderfully and starting to find it all very easy.

Having 2 horses means I have to walk cross country a lot! I don't know how the pros do it, but it is getting me quite fit. 

Dakotas course was fairly challenging for EvA65. There was nothing I was overly concerned about as she has seen most things before but the Moora committee have been working very hard to upgrade the course and it was lovely. She was super but a little green around the course and we had one stop at a bridge, which I should have taken a different approach to. i didn't give her enough time to look at it, but she popped over it the second time with no dramas. She was super over a little house, a ditch, an unexpected water crossing that hadn't bee there the day before, and she merrily cantered through the water like she had done it her whole life. I was very proud! 

The bridge was fine after she actually worked out what she needed to do!

There were plenty of people who didn't get around so one stop and some time meant we finished mid filed. Nothing amazing, but pretty good for her first time!

Coolie ate up his course and put in some fairly massive jumps. His pilot let him down too, and we had a refusal but only because I couldn't turn him in time to the fence, rather than him actually saying no. Something to work on! He can get very strong and enthusiastic out there!

All in all it was a good weekend for everyone, and not even too cold!

Coolie letting me know he is preparing to upgrade whenever I am ready... He's not ready yet!