Joss
Well-Known Member
Better late than never - last week seemed to slip by
Anyway, Third time lucky we made it to Blair having been qualified for the previous 2 years but thwarted by dodgy family planning & then soundness issues. This year we were not to be put off despite a lack of runs (thanks weather) & only marginally better family planning
Number one groom (thats me) was a little steady due to a the fairly immenent arrival of mini Joss number 2 so the services of HHO's Figjam & Nic (sorry Nic whats your username??!!!) were called upon which in turn produced super photographer Mr Figjam thus this report is much more interesting than my usual efforts
Shall we gloss over the first phase a little? We did try our best to produce a settled dressage tests - OH worked Echo for at least 3 hours each day (not in one go I may add), copious amounts of calmer were administered & all was well until the entry at A & 1st halt then it was really a case of damage limitation. All movements were performed & even the odd 8 was awarded however 'counter bounce' is not a good substitute for counter canter & the halts...... well, erm what halts?! So a dreary 66 left us at the bottom of pile - not last though as the ever cheerful Figjam pointed out
So onto XC - if it wasnt for the fairly copious amounts of rain that had fallen within the previous 48 hours we would have felt fairly confident. OH & Echo have done a nice handful of Intermediates now & although there is always plenty of margin for error everything looked jumpable. The main issue was to get a decent time but keep petrol in the tank on fairly soft ground.
It was obvious as they set off that Echo meant business & had brought along his jumping socks.
The 1st real question was at the 4th, the familiar wall with a related stride to a skinny brush with a drop & tight turn just after. As you can see the main issue was not to get jumped off:
Happily he continued absolutely jumping for fun all the way round
Through the last water:
They finished at a great gallop with just 6 time faults. Cue a happy family photo with big smiles all round
Not everyone found the course so easy and this good clear moved them up from 53rd to 33rd.
An early start on the final day & after plenty of walking to make sure Echo wasnt stiff & quite a search to find a bit of firm road to trot up on we headed off to the Sunday morning Horse inspection with very little worries. trotted up perfectly adequatly I thought, maybe lacking a little bounce but nearly had a heart attack when they sent him to the holding box. I thought I could tell if a horse was lame or not & I couldnt see much wrong with him. The vet took awhile to attempt to establish which leg they might be looking at but eventually squeezed a bit hard enough to get a slight reaction. He didnt think a round of show jumping would do much harm but couldnt guarantee he would pass a 2nd inspection & tried very hard to persuade us to withdraw as a 'withdrawal' looks better than an elimination As we were pretty confident there wasnt anything wrong with the horse we took our chance............ eventually after much discussion & stressful silence the verdict came through....passed!!!! Everybody agreed they couldnt see a damn thing wrong with him............phew
So all nervous energy already used up we headed to the SJ. By the time it was Echo's turn to jump there had only been 1 clear & lots of cricket scores. As soon as they started it was obvious that nothing was bothering him:
Looking good in front of the castle:
Really didnt deserve to have fence down but sadly the front pole of this fell at the second last:
So the final result was 26th - a fair rise from the original position, a good qualifying score for 2* and 2 more shiny BE points leaving him with just 1 point to go before he is out of Novice.
Despite a little of the infamous Blair mud we had a really enjoyable few days and we had better start saving up for some more CCI's in 2013
Anyway, Third time lucky we made it to Blair having been qualified for the previous 2 years but thwarted by dodgy family planning & then soundness issues. This year we were not to be put off despite a lack of runs (thanks weather) & only marginally better family planning
Number one groom (thats me) was a little steady due to a the fairly immenent arrival of mini Joss number 2 so the services of HHO's Figjam & Nic (sorry Nic whats your username??!!!) were called upon which in turn produced super photographer Mr Figjam thus this report is much more interesting than my usual efforts
Shall we gloss over the first phase a little? We did try our best to produce a settled dressage tests - OH worked Echo for at least 3 hours each day (not in one go I may add), copious amounts of calmer were administered & all was well until the entry at A & 1st halt then it was really a case of damage limitation. All movements were performed & even the odd 8 was awarded however 'counter bounce' is not a good substitute for counter canter & the halts...... well, erm what halts?! So a dreary 66 left us at the bottom of pile - not last though as the ever cheerful Figjam pointed out
So onto XC - if it wasnt for the fairly copious amounts of rain that had fallen within the previous 48 hours we would have felt fairly confident. OH & Echo have done a nice handful of Intermediates now & although there is always plenty of margin for error everything looked jumpable. The main issue was to get a decent time but keep petrol in the tank on fairly soft ground.
It was obvious as they set off that Echo meant business & had brought along his jumping socks.
The 1st real question was at the 4th, the familiar wall with a related stride to a skinny brush with a drop & tight turn just after. As you can see the main issue was not to get jumped off:
Happily he continued absolutely jumping for fun all the way round
Through the last water:
They finished at a great gallop with just 6 time faults. Cue a happy family photo with big smiles all round
Not everyone found the course so easy and this good clear moved them up from 53rd to 33rd.
An early start on the final day & after plenty of walking to make sure Echo wasnt stiff & quite a search to find a bit of firm road to trot up on we headed off to the Sunday morning Horse inspection with very little worries. trotted up perfectly adequatly I thought, maybe lacking a little bounce but nearly had a heart attack when they sent him to the holding box. I thought I could tell if a horse was lame or not & I couldnt see much wrong with him. The vet took awhile to attempt to establish which leg they might be looking at but eventually squeezed a bit hard enough to get a slight reaction. He didnt think a round of show jumping would do much harm but couldnt guarantee he would pass a 2nd inspection & tried very hard to persuade us to withdraw as a 'withdrawal' looks better than an elimination
As we were pretty confident there wasnt anything wrong with the horse we took our chance............ eventually after much discussion & stressful silence the verdict came through....passed!!!! Everybody agreed they couldnt see a damn thing wrong with him............phewSo all nervous energy already used up we headed to the SJ. By the time it was Echo's turn to jump there had only been 1 clear & lots of cricket scores. As soon as they started it was obvious that nothing was bothering him:
Looking good in front of the castle:
Really didnt deserve to have fence down but sadly the front pole of this fell at the second last:
So the final result was 26th - a fair rise from the original position, a good qualifying score for 2*
and 2 more shiny BE points leaving him with just 1 point to go before he is out of Novice.Despite a little of the infamous Blair mud we had a really enjoyable few days and we had better start saving up for some more CCI's in 2013
