Brilliant Borde Hill - frillies, FP's and qualifications

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Alarm went off at the ungodly hour of 5am again this morning. At least having not walked the XC course I got some sleep as was blissfully unaware of what lay ahead.

We got to Borde Hill at 8am. Dressage not till 10.30am so plenty of time to walk the course.
Link here to pics of the whole course:
http://community.webshots.com/album/580268898Lfoaot?vhost=community

Few things to concern me - 1st in the SJ the final line consisted of oxer then related distance to a 1 stride double then a short related distance to a final upright - could forsee this causing problems (how right I was!)
Then XC - all was fine until fence 9 and 10 - 2 brush fences full up 1.10m including the brush on top - they came up to my chest and I'm not short! To make matters worse they were on an angle inviting a left hand run out (his favourite!) and they were on a very short 2 strides or an incredibly long one stride. Following that there were a few twisty turny fences, a big wide one with another max height brush on top following by 90degrees left to narrow log then 90degrees right to another log. The narrow log was flagged back to front when I walked the course - pointed it out to the steward who swapped them round - that could have caused some confusion! Then there was a little narrow hedgehog fence followed by sharp 90degrees left to a narrow log then right into the water. 2 loops went close to the collecting ring - not great on a orange monster prone to napping!

Anyway, onwards with the dressage. He did a very sweet test and at the moment I couldn't have asked for anything more. I have worked damn hard on his dressage over the winter so was overjoyed to hear a score of 31.5 when I went into the SJing - didn't half put the pressure on though!

That was, once we made it to the SJing. Apparantly having to walk past portaloos and marquees is so scary we had to have 5minutes of napping and leaping round the car park first. I apologise to the group calmly enjoying a picnic who I may have nearly sat on as well as multiple other people and cars. Little bugger. Ended up shoving him up someone else's bum to get him out of there. Anyway, once we made it there all went well until the dratted final line when he didn't come back to me enough to the last fence, got too close and took it out with a front leg. Should have asked him to go longer, not shorter in hindsight but there we go. It turned out to be an expensive rail.
Video here:
http://youtu.be/1JE_kXvD31k
Pics:
fence 4:


fence 8b


So, finished kicking myself over the rail down and went up to the XC - went over the first warmup fence and pony promptly tripped on landing and we both nearly ended up on the floor. Thankfully he managed to pick himself up but on glancing at his legs I realised I hadn't changed his boots to XC ones!!! Had to despatch helper to leg it back to the car park and collect them, put myself back several places with the steward and then jump off, reboot, jump back on, pop over a fence then got sent to the start box. Fortunately course then got held (it was causing carnage which was really reassuring - not!) so we got a little longer to chill out again after rush to get boots on.

Finally set off, serious determination to make the time after Tweseldown last week. You can see by the getaway from this fence I meant business!


excuse my bum - it looks huuuuge in this!


video:
http://youtu.be/-HxygU2Ic_4

So, away over 1 no probs, huge amount of spooking about fence 2 which to me seemed completely innocuous. Got a slap on the shoulder and a big growl after that one - plenty more troublesome things to come! Fine over the log at 3, roll tops at 4 and 5, down a steep hill then back up another one and straight away faced with wall of people, motorbikes, commentary tower and the collecting ring - had to work hard to get over 6 then right turn and got a good shot at 7:


video:
http://youtu.be/6__GzeVmCk4

another right turn, pop over the roll top then over the little ditch that wasn't even really a ditch, just a take-off rail but he was really looking at it - I think he was searching for the ditch that wasn't!

Then, onto those horrid brushes at 9 and 10, he's not a big horse so decided to go short on 2 strides, he locked on well, popped in 2 strides and hopped out over the 2nd part no probs, huge pats and good boys and on we went, next few big oxers that he flew then the sharp bends to the logs at 13 and 14 no probs. Steadied up to a trot for the hedgehog at 15 as v sharp turn after to the log before the water - no probs to any of that though

vid:
http://youtu.be/_8x0ogDm2RM

And then it was just a case of galloping flat out to home.

Didn't hear the commentator when we finished so had to wait for results to go up on the board desperately praying we didn't get time faults as was =5th after dressage which is by far our best yet. 36 starters so not a small class! Time went up as 4mins 13secs. Optimum time: 4mins 13secs!!!! So I went ahead of the other 2 on the same score as me as you cant get much closer to the optimum than that! Someone pipped me to the win finishing on 35 (damn expensive show jump!) but we were 2nd! Cant quite believe it! We got a frillie and some prize money although have to say BE prize money is quite pathetic -- you could at least get your entry fee back! SO, I do believe most importantly that gets us a qualification to a regional final and also a nice clutch of foundation points (no idea how many!)

Over the moon with the little orange pony (picnic squashing all forgiven!)

Next stop BCA (and some more dressage practice next week at GBEC too!)

I have strawberry smoothie and chocolate buttons to anyone who made it to the end!
 

Santa_Claus

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WOOHOO well done you girl :D :D :D

Yes you do indeed have a RF qualification with that result (presuming there were at least 16 in the class ;) ). You are entitled to enter one of this years regionals tis a case of take your pick which one you enter. You will get confirmation by email from BE that you have the qualification as well.
 

kir90

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Well done! He has got a pop in him hasn't he? Congratulations for the qualification . X
 

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forgot to say we got three 8's in the dressage too - our first ones at eventing. entry, FWLR and for his paces! She loved his trot. Over the moon as have worked soooo hard on his dressage - it's finally paying off!
 

StrawberryFish

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Wow, fabulous result and I loved the pics and videos! You have really inspired me, once my kids have grown up a bit and I'm at work, I am getting myself another horse and this'll be me :D
 

LEC

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Well done - you are having a pretty awesome first season eventing! Sounds like you well and truly have the bug.
 

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Well done - you are having a pretty awesome first season eventing! Sounds like you well and truly have the bug.

i would have to majorly credit my been there, done it before horse but I like to think I have also played my part as he is a spooky bugger, has not done XC for 6yrs and went like an upside down banana when I got him so three 8's in the dressage has made my day!
 

star

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Huge well done! :D Will see you at BCA as I have asked to be moved down to the BE90 (after our shabby run today!) :(

the BE100 sounded like it was causing as much trouble as the 90 plus a load of people missing out fence 8. there were a lot of cricket scores today if it makes you feel any better. Sorry you had a bad one :(
 

Eventer96

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It was causing a lot of problems. It was a bad day from start to finish if I'm honest. For example, we spent 20 minutes searching for the poxy lorry keys!! That was before we had even left the yard! I retired cross country in the end. Dropping back down to BE90 if the BCA organisers can get me in a BE90 section.

Congrats on your qualification, ribbon and 8 FPs (I believe that's how many you get for a BE90 2nd place). Don't quote me on that though! ;)
 

Rana

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Well done!! We were fence judging the brushes at 9 & 10 and believe me they were causing some problems. Kept us busy all morning, with falls, eliminations and more refusals than I want to think about. Glad you made it through ok :)
 

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Well done!! We were fence judging the brushes at 9 & 10 and believe me they were causing some problems. Kept us busy all morning, with falls, eliminations and more refusals than I want to think about. Glad you made it through ok :)

was wondering who got the busy job of judging that one. it was causing all sorts of chatter in the lorry park and even the collecting ring and then all we could hear over the tannoy was problem after problem. Horsey got a huuuuuge pat and well done for getting us through there safely and making it seem easy!
 

Thistle

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Huge well done.

It's wromg that a combo should ask so many questions at that level. There should be a proper stride, or put the fences on 2/3 strides as it's easier then to make a choice.
 

Kelpie

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wow, well done!

What section were you in? - I really must look out for you next time!

I was there too - thought they had done a fab job on the XC ground but wish they'd have done more on the SJ and DR areas/ warm up. Still, got a double clear tho dressage not as good as yours so no rossie for me!
 

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wow, well done!

What section were you in? - I really must look out for you next time!

I was there too - thought they had done a fab job on the XC ground but wish they'd have done more on the SJ and DR areas/ warm up. Still, got a double clear tho dressage not as good as yours so no rossie for me!

sec D. Well done for double clear!

i particularly enjoyed doing dressage on a hill! Not! Thankfully I have been practising on my slopey grass field at home in the wind all week so he was well prepared! SJ warmup was a bit small but I didnt notice him feeling the ground at all. Hoping BCA will be doing something useful to their ground in the next couple of wks as I'm not seeing any rain forthcoming.

i've got 4 fault-itis in the SJ at the moment - aiming for the double clear next time. And having achieved the aim of low 30's dressage I think the new aim has got to be a sub-30!!
 

Pidgeon

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great result, shame about the last fence SJ but still a great result :D you must be grinning from ear to ear :)
 

Kelpie

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awe - sorry I missed you! - I was in Sec A.

Yeah, think I need more practice of dressage on a hill - don't think it did our marks any favours!!! Hey ho, at least we weren't one of the many that had problems XC - can't believe how many people were struggling with that (and yes, those 2 big brushes were a bit of a test, but if you took the route round the tree, I didn't think they rode all that bad?? - lots of people seemed to think otherwise tho! - LOL, at least it would have been one of the more interesting fences to judge, tho, I'll bet!)
 
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