Flashback Friday

Time for another trip down memory lane! Lots of our local photographers have been having sales on their digital images and it has been really  fun reliving the moments  they  were taken. It has also allowed me to appreciate how much of a jump Coolie has. He is honestly one  cool horse!

Todays memory  is the show jumping and cross country phases at Harvey in 2018:

After a fun evening of chatting and playing cards, Sunday morning was cool and clear. Show Jumping was up first with a very civilised time of 9.30, allowing me plenty of time walk the horses, feed them and walk the SJ course.

Coolie and his best mate Pluto

Coolie warmed up well, he was responsive and jumping well. He didn't seem bother that the fences were bigger. I think he prefers it! I was surprisingly not nervous and went into the ring very relaxed.

He knocked all the jumps with his back legs. 

Possibly I was too relaxed because I didn't set Coolie up into a good rhythm well enough before we started. We got a slightly long spot into 1, then knocked the rail at 2. 3 to 6 were good, fairly smooth and came up well. 7A we got too deep to, he save us over 7B and then I royally fluffed 8, burying him into it and taking a rail. I didn't get the rhythm back before 9 so we took that too.

Front end was always tidy

Not an ideal round, but I learnt something and I wasn't nervous which is a huge win to me! Our 3 rails put us in position to win the wooden spoon but I was still happy to be there with my horse, looking forward to XC!

Henry was just the best behave baby pony all weekend! I am dusting off my big girl pants and getting him out in the near future!

I really thought the XC looked to be so much fun. There were no fences I was really worried about, I had a solid plan and I knew if I could get over number 2 (big square oxer down the hill, not much time to get a good pace!) we would be right for the rest of the course.

Coolie warmed up a little fresh. He wasn't quite as responsive as WAYER but he was jumping great and I wasn't concerned about having control issues. I made sure to be quite thorough over the warm up fences and jumped more than I usually would to make sure we were on the ball.

Soon enough we were in the start box. I was only a tiny bit nervous and once we were being counted down I was too busy focusing on what I needed to do that I forgot all about them. 3, 2, 1, Good luck! and we were off to jump 1, a small log. Coolie jumped it no problems and galloped down the hill to fence 2 which he SOARED over.

Number 2

Fence 3 was a skinny chevron with a drop landing and he clonked his legs on it because I was thinking about the turn after the fence and interfered I think.

Chevron with a drop landing, then a tight turn

Number 4 in the shadows

4 and 5 were great, he was all business. 6ABC was a bank bounce and then a huge drop and we nailed it. 7 was a breeze, and 8, a up to height apex he just sailed over. The next few fences we really settled into our pace and they all came up easily. I was having so much fun, nothing was too hard and Coolie was feeling brave!

That's a big drop!

12 was a drop into the water then we were galloping up the hill to an upright at 13 that I had planned to get a closer spot too but Coolie had other ideas and jumped early but flew over with no problems. 14 was a ski jump that was easy, then 15ABC was the coffin that Coolie backed himself off into but jumped no problems.

Water jump

17 was another big oxer and as we galloped up to it I sat up closed my leg and Coolie took a massive long spot! He hates long spots so I was surprised but I stayed with him and shouted 'good boy!' with so much enthusiasm the jump judges laughed.

We jumped right in the middle

19 was the unfinished bridge and I really collected him and he bounded off without a care in the world, then we galloped up more of a hill over the last fence and we were home clear!

Don't need a whole bridge!

I hadn't stared my watch so I had no idea about time but we ended up with 4 penalties and I'd say were were too slow.

He's a machine! Fun fact: my friend from uni took this, he is a journo and is doing a write up for the local paper. He had no idea it was me until later.

Despite our fairly ordinary dressage and show jumping I was thrilled with our weekend I was proud of coolie for stepping up and feeling so confident. I was proud of me for not being a nervous wreck and for shrugging after my crap score and getting on with it. Dressage is dressage, and while it is important and we will always work hard on it, we will never score that well so I have let my feelings go. Show jumping was a bit disappointing but we can improve on that before our next event.

This weekend was so much fun spent with friends, a wonderful husband and a horse who 100% had my back over what was a challenging course. I'll call that a win any day.

This guy is the best XC partner a girl could have!