blackhor2e
Well-Known Member
Blair Castle was to be our 2nd foray into the world of 3* competitions, and at this event there just happens to be the new 'Event Rider Masters' on and it is the exact track as the 3*, so I thought 'why not?' on my entry when it asked to specify whether you would like to be considered.
So a week before Blair my Twitter account pings announcing I was in the last group of riders to be picked :0 as a wildcard.
The great thing for me doing the Event Rider Masters was I got to choose music for my dressage test (Hall of Fame & Good Times) and everything was televised so my family at home could watch and cheer me on from afar.
On the way there my (relatively) new to me lorry decided to break down turning a 6-7hr trip into a 13hr trip and we arrived at Blair at about 1.30am to the poor stable manager and vet who gave us all the information we needed and helped us put Uno to bed.
I was so glad to set off 2 days before dressage as that gave us Friday to recover before the real hard work starts. So on Friday Uno got ridden twice, just flat-work, with our test in mind for Saturday. I would of loved to go hacking but my trainer advised that I needed him in the right frame of mind before the dressage so we had to forfeit the fun bit, just for now.
On Saturday our test was at 9.30am and I needed to ride Uno at least once before his test to get any 'silly' moments out of him. We were up at the crack of dawn and rode for an hour, fed him, got him ready and then warmed up again. Uno was lovely and calm in the test and did all the movements I asked for which was really pleasing. Had some lovely comments from the commentators including Bettina and Sue Barker who suggested our lateral work needs more finessing but in general think he is a nice horse with a great future (little did they know he is in fact 15). I knew my score wouldn't get us in the top 10, but any score better than the 60 we got at Bramham would be welcome, so I was pleased to hear we had scored 58.something. But shock horror had made two errors in the test so I would of been on 54 (I am ashamed of the errors and Uno is not to blame in this instance).
I was then immediately interviewed by Alice Plunkett who was absolutely lovely and such a kind woman, very encouraging and made me feel like we had just done a Valegro style test.
For the rest of the afternoon Uno slept and me and Jo shopped and sampled the delights of the champagne tent alongside the other gin tents, you can tell how this is going, so I don't remember much more of Saturday other than it was hot, we walked the course and lost the dogs.
On Sunday we woke up to the rain pouring down on the roof of the wagon and I just prayed it would go away, no such luck there as we got on for the show jumping we were soaked through. Uno was fabulous in the arena, really soaked the atmosphere in and produced a fantastic round with only one jump down which was my fault really as I should of held him before the jump so he ran into the bottom of it (that's what WFP said anyway). I was shocked to see we had 8 time penalties though, but in hindsight i wouldn't of increased the pace I would of cut the corners a bit more, and I know that the time had been really reduced from the CIC class for the ERM so if I had of been doing the normal CIC we would of been fine for time.
We then had a couple of hours to watch the CIC*** cross country. I was most concerned about a combination fence at the top of the Blair hill which was a decent drop followed by 3 (too) long strides to a skinny and another three strides to another skinny. No room for error and plenty of room for a run out!
Warming up for the cross country the weather then changed and became gloriously sunny. I was now roasting! And I didn't need to warm up Uno too much as he would behave like a kangaroo on acid if you mess about for too long in the warm-up.
Into the starters box and 3,2,1 we were off. No.1 he stood off from a mile, so I made a note to myself that he wasn't to do that again and as we came round the corner to No.2 his left front shoe literally flew off into the crowd :0 If it wasn't for the beautifully soft ground or the fact I had three other shoes studded up I would of had to retire then and there. As it was I thought I'll see how he feels after No.3. No.3 was an enormous table which he just flew over, so obviously wasn't missing his shoe s much as I was, so we carried on. No.4 to 5a & b, was a brush box followed by a hanging log into and out of a valley over a skinny. He jumped the 1st two elements well, but we almost jumped the wrong side of 5b as he veered a bit too much to the right but we made it.
Up and over a giants table at 6, up a very steep hill and some telegraph poles at the top, followed by a flower box at No.8. We then started what I thought was the hardest climb before No.9, so I let Uno go at his own speed, waiting for him to take a breath at the top where we then jumped down over a wall and two strides to a skinny cannon ball fence. Which he breezed through.
We then jumped No.10 a fairly innocuous fence out of his stride and continued to climb to the top where the 1st water fence is, a large log dropping into a pond and angled brush out on 5 strides. We jumped the log in and I held him for six strides as being such a small horse I believe he is better on a shorter stride coming to the angled hedge than a long stride where he could run out, and he jumped it perfectly. Onto a huge parallel into the woods and out the other side to my most worrysome fence the drop followed by two skinny hedges downhill. I had seen quite a few run outs at this point so probably was too careful going down the drop and we fitted in 4&4 strides, which didn't feel wrong but Uno is such a small horse this was simply shortening his little stride slightly, then over No.13 a log. Down towards the 2nd water. Again there was an enormous parallel of birch trees which I wasn't keen on when I walked it, but Uno was keen so I let him come into it steadying before take off. Into the water which was simply a pond followed by a bounce up and out which rode nicely.
Again we had a log on the top of a hill before the steep descent down towards the final water jump which admittedly I rode a bit like a lemon and instead of gathering him before it I pushed him on over it, so we had an enormous jump and I had to gather my reins just in time for the element coming out of the water and the turn to the barrels.
Going past the warm up to the steeple chase jump Uno slowed down, I think he thought he had finished so I just had to encourage him forwards with my leg to jump the left hand side of the steeplechase to line up for the double of open corners on three strides which he did perfectly. Over a potato box and the final question was a pair of angled hedges with two long strides between, i had seen this caused chaos with other riders but knew we had done one at Bramham, so Blair would not be a problem, and we were over, and then over the last. It was the most amazing feeling to complete our 2nd CIC*** I'm still over the moon about it, and due to our clear round xc we moved from 24th place to 15th. For now I think me and Uno will have a well deserved rest, his foot thank goodness is not sore at all and he has a set of shiny shoes on today. I cannot wait for 2017 season, hopefully we can do more 3*'s and actually become competitive!
I do apologise though if the photos are too large, thanks all for reading x
So a week before Blair my Twitter account pings announcing I was in the last group of riders to be picked :0 as a wildcard.
The great thing for me doing the Event Rider Masters was I got to choose music for my dressage test (Hall of Fame & Good Times) and everything was televised so my family at home could watch and cheer me on from afar.
On the way there my (relatively) new to me lorry decided to break down turning a 6-7hr trip into a 13hr trip and we arrived at Blair at about 1.30am to the poor stable manager and vet who gave us all the information we needed and helped us put Uno to bed.
I was so glad to set off 2 days before dressage as that gave us Friday to recover before the real hard work starts. So on Friday Uno got ridden twice, just flat-work, with our test in mind for Saturday. I would of loved to go hacking but my trainer advised that I needed him in the right frame of mind before the dressage so we had to forfeit the fun bit, just for now.
On Saturday our test was at 9.30am and I needed to ride Uno at least once before his test to get any 'silly' moments out of him. We were up at the crack of dawn and rode for an hour, fed him, got him ready and then warmed up again. Uno was lovely and calm in the test and did all the movements I asked for which was really pleasing. Had some lovely comments from the commentators including Bettina and Sue Barker who suggested our lateral work needs more finessing but in general think he is a nice horse with a great future (little did they know he is in fact 15). I knew my score wouldn't get us in the top 10, but any score better than the 60 we got at Bramham would be welcome, so I was pleased to hear we had scored 58.something. But shock horror had made two errors in the test so I would of been on 54 (I am ashamed of the errors and Uno is not to blame in this instance).
I was then immediately interviewed by Alice Plunkett who was absolutely lovely and such a kind woman, very encouraging and made me feel like we had just done a Valegro style test.
For the rest of the afternoon Uno slept and me and Jo shopped and sampled the delights of the champagne tent alongside the other gin tents, you can tell how this is going, so I don't remember much more of Saturday other than it was hot, we walked the course and lost the dogs.
On Sunday we woke up to the rain pouring down on the roof of the wagon and I just prayed it would go away, no such luck there as we got on for the show jumping we were soaked through. Uno was fabulous in the arena, really soaked the atmosphere in and produced a fantastic round with only one jump down which was my fault really as I should of held him before the jump so he ran into the bottom of it (that's what WFP said anyway). I was shocked to see we had 8 time penalties though, but in hindsight i wouldn't of increased the pace I would of cut the corners a bit more, and I know that the time had been really reduced from the CIC class for the ERM so if I had of been doing the normal CIC we would of been fine for time.
We then had a couple of hours to watch the CIC*** cross country. I was most concerned about a combination fence at the top of the Blair hill which was a decent drop followed by 3 (too) long strides to a skinny and another three strides to another skinny. No room for error and plenty of room for a run out!
Warming up for the cross country the weather then changed and became gloriously sunny. I was now roasting! And I didn't need to warm up Uno too much as he would behave like a kangaroo on acid if you mess about for too long in the warm-up.
Into the starters box and 3,2,1 we were off. No.1 he stood off from a mile, so I made a note to myself that he wasn't to do that again and as we came round the corner to No.2 his left front shoe literally flew off into the crowd :0 If it wasn't for the beautifully soft ground or the fact I had three other shoes studded up I would of had to retire then and there. As it was I thought I'll see how he feels after No.3. No.3 was an enormous table which he just flew over, so obviously wasn't missing his shoe s much as I was, so we carried on. No.4 to 5a & b, was a brush box followed by a hanging log into and out of a valley over a skinny. He jumped the 1st two elements well, but we almost jumped the wrong side of 5b as he veered a bit too much to the right but we made it.
Up and over a giants table at 6, up a very steep hill and some telegraph poles at the top, followed by a flower box at No.8. We then started what I thought was the hardest climb before No.9, so I let Uno go at his own speed, waiting for him to take a breath at the top where we then jumped down over a wall and two strides to a skinny cannon ball fence. Which he breezed through.
We then jumped No.10 a fairly innocuous fence out of his stride and continued to climb to the top where the 1st water fence is, a large log dropping into a pond and angled brush out on 5 strides. We jumped the log in and I held him for six strides as being such a small horse I believe he is better on a shorter stride coming to the angled hedge than a long stride where he could run out, and he jumped it perfectly. Onto a huge parallel into the woods and out the other side to my most worrysome fence the drop followed by two skinny hedges downhill. I had seen quite a few run outs at this point so probably was too careful going down the drop and we fitted in 4&4 strides, which didn't feel wrong but Uno is such a small horse this was simply shortening his little stride slightly, then over No.13 a log. Down towards the 2nd water. Again there was an enormous parallel of birch trees which I wasn't keen on when I walked it, but Uno was keen so I let him come into it steadying before take off. Into the water which was simply a pond followed by a bounce up and out which rode nicely.
Again we had a log on the top of a hill before the steep descent down towards the final water jump which admittedly I rode a bit like a lemon and instead of gathering him before it I pushed him on over it, so we had an enormous jump and I had to gather my reins just in time for the element coming out of the water and the turn to the barrels.
Going past the warm up to the steeple chase jump Uno slowed down, I think he thought he had finished so I just had to encourage him forwards with my leg to jump the left hand side of the steeplechase to line up for the double of open corners on three strides which he did perfectly. Over a potato box and the final question was a pair of angled hedges with two long strides between, i had seen this caused chaos with other riders but knew we had done one at Bramham, so Blair would not be a problem, and we were over, and then over the last. It was the most amazing feeling to complete our 2nd CIC*** I'm still over the moon about it, and due to our clear round xc we moved from 24th place to 15th. For now I think me and Uno will have a well deserved rest, his foot thank goodness is not sore at all and he has a set of shiny shoes on today. I cannot wait for 2017 season, hopefully we can do more 3*'s and actually become competitive!
I do apologise though if the photos are too large, thanks all for reading x
). You must be made up with that result, and to complete XC with a shoe missing 
- you're far braver than me. 
