Joss
Well-Known Member
Would it be allowed to just say it didnt go too well & leave it at that or do you guys want the nitty gritty?
Well, it was my first ever 3DE & I had agreed to be in CCI* section A & do everything a day early. My reasoning being that I would not have to do too much hanging about & I would get nice fresh ground. Wrong....
That didnt work.
Arrived on Tues evening & went for a pleasant happy hack with HHOer DionneR (who had a much worse week than me). The ground was fine & all was well.
By Wednesday it was all a different story, it rained & rained. I had been looking forward to the trot up, showing off my fit & shiny horse & looking kinda smartish. Quickly ditched the outfit but decided that wellies were a step too far. I can assure you it is the best part of 5 miles to walk to the trot up at Blair & within 5 mins I was utterly drowned & sodden. Horse passed fine & I realised that what you really need is a groom to lead your horse to the trot up for you. Error number 1.
Error number 2 occured within the hour, I should really have lunged this amazing fit beastie that I was going to attempt the ride before his dressage but I didnt have time because I had only just got back from the trot up & still deliberating as to how I was going to get all tacked up & dressed in my top hatted finery without ending up covered in mud
Managed the dressing & tacking dilema but only had an ordinary warmup. The test was actually perfectly ok, nothing great but not badly behaved. Unfortunately he managed to just have a little wiggle, just a brief above the bit moment in every single movement. Now I usually get a mid 30's ish mark at Intermediates so I didnt think an ambition to get 60 something at FEI was unreasonable. You can imagine my
at 73. It took a while to recover.
And so with that as a starting point things got steadily worse. On Friday morning when I should have been getting ready to go XC I was doing nothing, it had rained fairly solidly for 36 hours & they decided to hold out for some drier weather. Our section was therefore told to show jump as the 2nd phase on Saturday & then go XC on Sunday.
I had been particularly looking forward to the opportunity to sj last as my horse is usually far too keen & I was hoping the XC would have settled him a little. As it was he was as fresh as a daisy & having the SJ warm up right next to the XC course on Sat am just added to my problems. Managed to start off jumping a nice round & then the brakes started to fail & the poles started to fall. Ended up on 24 faults - the maximum allowed to carry on the XC
To make me feel marginally better there were only 4 clears out of 60plus horses & plenty of scores worse than mine. But it didnt cheer me much.
And so eventually 2 days late we got to go XC. The course was lovely, no real worries for an experienced horse like Bruno and it had dried out a lot. My concerns were simply about the length of the course & how he would handle the big hill. Well, I need not have worried on that front. I had got him far, far too fit. He was mental, throwing himself at the practise fences & generally carting me about like some over horsed kid on a far too big pony.
When we eventually made it to the start box we came out like an exocet missile. We flew extremely literally to the highest point on the course going every short route and I really honestly thought he would settle by the top of the hill - he didnt - we started the desent at an even more rapid speed. I made it to the 2nd water which involved a small hillock & a downhill run to a rails drop into the water. At the top of the hillock the small amount of strength I had left in my arms disappeared & we ran out. I managed a whole lap of the fence & jumped parts A & B of the longer route, I then needed to turn tightly to part C. Sadly I just couldnt manage to turn anywhere nor stop & we went up a deadended chute of string, semi jumped it & got tied into a knot with the string
At this point I retired. I only had about 4 more fences to jump but I had lost control & it wasnt really safe to carry on.
So that really was it. Its not often with eventing that you manage to do all 3 phases quite as badly as all that. But there were a few good points along the way. I met some lovely fellow HHO's. Especially Mr & Mrs Figjam plus Nic01 & Mummy Nic01. Briefly had a chat with Punk (who isnt) and attended most parties
I have for the time being been cured of the desire to 3DE & I shall review my plans for this & future seasons when (or if!) I recover
Well, it was my first ever 3DE & I had agreed to be in CCI* section A & do everything a day early. My reasoning being that I would not have to do too much hanging about & I would get nice fresh ground. Wrong....
Arrived on Tues evening & went for a pleasant happy hack with HHOer DionneR (who had a much worse week than me). The ground was fine & all was well.
By Wednesday it was all a different story, it rained & rained. I had been looking forward to the trot up, showing off my fit & shiny horse & looking kinda smartish. Quickly ditched the outfit but decided that wellies were a step too far. I can assure you it is the best part of 5 miles to walk to the trot up at Blair & within 5 mins I was utterly drowned & sodden. Horse passed fine & I realised that what you really need is a groom to lead your horse to the trot up for you. Error number 1.
Error number 2 occured within the hour, I should really have lunged this amazing fit beastie that I was going to attempt the ride before his dressage but I didnt have time because I had only just got back from the trot up & still deliberating as to how I was going to get all tacked up & dressed in my top hatted finery without ending up covered in mud
And so with that as a starting point things got steadily worse. On Friday morning when I should have been getting ready to go XC I was doing nothing, it had rained fairly solidly for 36 hours & they decided to hold out for some drier weather. Our section was therefore told to show jump as the 2nd phase on Saturday & then go XC on Sunday.
I had been particularly looking forward to the opportunity to sj last as my horse is usually far too keen & I was hoping the XC would have settled him a little. As it was he was as fresh as a daisy & having the SJ warm up right next to the XC course on Sat am just added to my problems. Managed to start off jumping a nice round & then the brakes started to fail & the poles started to fall. Ended up on 24 faults - the maximum allowed to carry on the XC
And so eventually 2 days late we got to go XC. The course was lovely, no real worries for an experienced horse like Bruno and it had dried out a lot. My concerns were simply about the length of the course & how he would handle the big hill. Well, I need not have worried on that front. I had got him far, far too fit. He was mental, throwing himself at the practise fences & generally carting me about like some over horsed kid on a far too big pony.
When we eventually made it to the start box we came out like an exocet missile. We flew extremely literally to the highest point on the course going every short route and I really honestly thought he would settle by the top of the hill - he didnt - we started the desent at an even more rapid speed. I made it to the 2nd water which involved a small hillock & a downhill run to a rails drop into the water. At the top of the hillock the small amount of strength I had left in my arms disappeared & we ran out. I managed a whole lap of the fence & jumped parts A & B of the longer route, I then needed to turn tightly to part C. Sadly I just couldnt manage to turn anywhere nor stop & we went up a deadended chute of string, semi jumped it & got tied into a knot with the string
So that really was it. Its not often with eventing that you manage to do all 3 phases quite as badly as all that. But there were a few good points along the way. I met some lovely fellow HHO's. Especially Mr & Mrs Figjam plus Nic01 & Mummy Nic01. Briefly had a chat with Punk (who isnt) and attended most parties
I have for the time being been cured of the desire to 3DE & I shall review my plans for this & future seasons when (or if!) I recover
