Blair Castle report

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blood_magik

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Well, I survived. Just...
It was a week of two halves, if I'm honest. There were a few highs and a few lows, and a sat-nav failure or two, which I'm still kicking myself for.

It was our first time staying away in the lorry - We ended up sending Lenny up with the yard last year due to my old boy dying and Timbi and Beau going lame within a week of each other - and we spent the better part of a week writing list after list and packing. This year we thankfully managed to keep all four horses sound but Lenny started refusing the week before and I eventually decided to withdraw him from the show jumping. Thankfully, it appears to have been a virus and he's back to normal now.

So, Thursday was showing day and we had an early start to get the boys plaited and studded up. I had Timbi in the Novice Hunter class and Lenny in the LW Hunter straight after, then Raz was down for the Riding Horse class in the afternoon.
I've only shown Mr. T once before but he went relatively well although we had a few spooks at the crowd and a little white dog, which moved at the wrong time. :D We ended up being pulled in 10th after the initial go-round but he trotted up nicely once he'd been stripped and he gave the judge a super ride, which resulted in him being bumped up 3 places to 7th place. They placed to 8th with rosettes to 6th, so I was really pleased with our results. :)

Pro pic:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...049463811.1073741837.223002495&type=3&theater

Next up was Lenny. He was strong and we ended up being pulled in 8th (out of 8 ;)). I was a little worried about trotting him up but our practice paid off and he gave the judge a nice ride, again (she called him a 'smashing little horse' :o). Unfortunately it wasn't enough to move us up the line so we stayed in 8th place. I can't complain - he behaved and that's all I really wanted.
Raz, on the other hand, didn't make it into the ring. It was my fault - I should have walked him around the show ground the day before. Anyways, I got on him and he felt ready to explode but we made it as far as the collecting ring before the napping started - he took himself out of the ring and when I told him no, he went up on his back legs. I ended up getting off him - the road between the collecting rings wasn't the place to have that argument. I took him out with T the next day and he was 100% better so I definitely made a mistake by not riding him the day before.


On the Friday I was suppose to jump Beau in the 1.05m class but they were still on the British Novice at 1pm. They ended up splitting my class into two section and the first jumped in the second arena once the 1.25m class was done. We watched a bit and then went to walk the XC.
My section jumped at 8am on the Saturday. We walked the course early and it walked okay - it hadn't looked particularly big the night before but it was actually up to height (the BN and Disco were really small???) and there were a few technical lines. Overall, I was pretty happy with it.

Well, Beau screamed his head off all the way from the stables to the collecting ring, and then he screamed some more. :rolleyes: I had to be rescued by my super groom when he napped at the entrance to the collecting ring and she had to lead me into the arena. Beau grew to about 10ft tall (he's big enough at 17.3hh) and I'm sure a few people thought he was a stallion, what with all the noise he was making. Anyways, he switched back on when we got into the ring. They rang the bell really quickly so I didn't get a chance to show him the Horseware fence but it didn't matter in the end because we didn't get that far.
I jumped one, then got the 6 strides to 2. We motorbiked around the corner to the oxer at 3, then it was 4 strides to a 2 stride double and then 5 strides on a dog-leg to an oxer at the bottom of the ring. I had my first satnav failure between 6 and 7 and rode straight for far too long before I turned - I expected to get another stride in but Beau took a bit of a flyer and we had the fence down. Then I had my second satnav failure and went straight past the next fence. :(
On the plus side, I got a good stride into the triple at 9 but we were eliminated for missing number 8. On one hand, I'm really annoyed with myself because Beau was jumping really well but on the other, we'd already had a fence down so we would have been done anyways. At least I got a nice photo with the castle in the background.

[video=youtube;TjcqlU4sxRQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjcqlU4sxRQ[/video]

pro pic:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...049463811.1073741837.223002495&type=3&theater

The rain started not long after Beau was done and it was torrential. They ended up cancelling the jumping around 2.30 and moved the remaining classes to the Sunday morning but the ground in the warm-up was horrendous and I ended up deciding not to jump my second class.

So, all in all, it was a good experience but I'm kicking myself for making such a silly mistake in my class. At least I didn't circle. ;)

Finally, some pics of the boys.
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I'm looking forwards to having some time off and I'm sure the boys feel the same. ;) Once we've had a break, my aim is to work towards doing my first Newcomers - I'm hoping we'll be ready by the beginning of next year but we'll see... There's no rush.
Thanks for reading. :)
 
Lovely reports as usual. Love reading them. I've not seen Mr T I don't think, he looks lovely. You had a very busy time, not sure how you manage it all !
 
I saw you and Beau jumping and yes...I heard him too. Dan and I walked in with another HHOer, who went off to shop, Dan went to get some food and I stood on the opposite side of the arena to your friend and watched a few rounds. There were a few eliminations IIRC - one very fine big TB looking chestnut that was just not giving an easy ride...you got much further round than him.

I don't blame you at all for getting off after the rear, I think I saw that too...the horse I remember was being ridden by an absolute patient saint despite the napping and the rear (which was pretty flipping impressive) and the walkways for horses were really confined - not at all safe for having an argument with a horse, so good judgement call on your part. I had to laugh on the Friday - Myself and a couple of friends (one from here) walked over to the Mitsubishi off-road area and saw a little girl leading a little black Shetland stallion in nothing but a headcollar. She took him out by the rings, he started to get excited......we carried on our way. When we walked back through a few minutes later, the poor girl was getting a real dressing down by one of the showing judges for..."He's a stallion, in a head collar dear, you need to have a bridle on him at all times. Where's your mother? You're not dressed to show, you shouldn't even be here should you? You can't just walk around a show because you feel like it". It was hilarious. Proper old fashioned British dressing down in the most well spoken, polite, non-shouty way :)

It was a fab event overall and I'm glad you came away with lots of positives. I've already booked to go again next year! :)
 
dixie said:
Lovely reports as usual. Love reading them. I've not seen Mr T I don't think, he looks lovely. You had a very busy time, not sure how you manage it all !
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Mr. T's only just started competing again after being off for a year so that's probably why you haven't seen him. Blair was his 4th show back. :)
It was hard work - I'm not sure how we managed it all either. ;)


McFluff said:
Great report, they all look lovely. Blair is a really nice setting.
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Thank you. :)

sare_bear said:
Lovely report. Looks like a great experience all round. Sad that the weather didn't last, seems typical for Blair.
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Thanks. I learned a lot - mostly, how much I hate doing studs. ;)
Yes, the weather was typically Scottish - shame because it was lovely Thursday and Friday. At least we got to jump before it started.

_GG_ said:
I saw you and Beau jumping and yes...I heard him too. Dan and I walked in with another HHOer, who went off to shop, Dan went to get some food and I stood on the opposite side of the arena to your friend and watched a few rounds. There were a few eliminations IIRC - one very fine big TB looking chestnut that was just not giving an easy ride...you got much further round than him.

I don't blame you at all for getting off after the rear, I think I saw that too...the horse I remember was being ridden by an absolute patient saint despite the napping and the rear (which was pretty flipping impressive) and the walkways for horses were really confined - not at all safe for having an argument with a horse, so good judgement call on your part.

It was a fab event overall and I'm glad you came away with lots of positives. I've already booked to go again next year! :)
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I'm not surprised you heard him - I think he woke the whole show ground with his nonsense. :rolleyes: I'm just glad he went into work mode when we were in the ring. I don't think we embarrassed ourselves too much considering. It was only our third 1.05m and our first time jumping at Blair together.
The SJ seemed to cause a few issues for some reason. I thought the course for the 1.05m was quite nice - It was a walk in the park compared to the last 1.05m Robert built at home, which was big and technical. The British Novice was interesting - out of the few riders that I watched, I think only one went clear.

If it was a finely-built chestnut with no white on him that was being a brat, then yes, that was me. ;)
Glad you enjoyed it. :)
 
blood_magik said:
Mr. T's only just started competing again after being off for a year so that's probably why you haven't seen him. Blair was his 4th show back. :)
It was hard work - I'm not sure how we managed it all either. ;)




Thank you. :)



Thanks. I learned a lot - mostly, how much I hate doing studs. ;)
Yes, the weather was typically Scottish - shame because it was lovely Thursday and Friday. At least we got to jump before it started.



I'm not surprised you heard him - I think he woke the whole show ground with his nonsense. :rolleyes: I'm just glad he went into work mode when we were in the ring. I don't think we embarrassed ourselves too much considering. It was only our third 1.05m and our first time jumping at Blair together.
The SJ seemed to cause a few issues for some reason. I thought the course for the 1.05m was quite nice - It was a walk in the park compared to the last 1.05m Robert built at home, which was big and technical. The British Novice was interesting - out of the few riders that I watched, I think only one went clear.

If it was a finely-built chestnut with no white on him that was being a brat, then yes, that was me. ;)
Glad you enjoyed it. :)
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No - it was ridden by a man so wasn't you ;)
 
Well done. I didn't watch much BS but some of the rounds I saw were fairly horrific so you didn't do at all badly in comparison.

_GG_ I'm glad you enjoyed your visit, if I'd known you were there I'd have said hello!! Maybe next year, Blair is addictive!!
 
EventingMum said:
Well done. I didn't watch much BS but some of the rounds I saw were fairly horrific so you didn't do at all badly in comparison.

_GG_ I'm glad you enjoyed your visit, if I'd known you were there I'd have said hello!! Maybe next year, Blair is addictive!!
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Already booked....gutted to know you were there, I have hardly been on here recently so didn't even think to see who else may be going :(
 
Good report, shame about the weather. Don't beat yourself up about the satnav failure - it's the best mistake to make - the kind that has no effect whatsoever on the horse :)
 
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