Chaos reigns, ND BE100 report, and exciting times ahead!

charlimouse

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Things have been insanely busy at Team Charlimouse HQ (and are set to get far busier - more on that later!). Between being in my final year at Uni, doing a dissertation, teaching, yard chores, breaking my 3yo, riding my horses and having twice weekly training for the Uni BUCs team, there is a slight undercurrent of chaos! My sister was also overdue with her 3rd child meaning my Mother (AKA Super Groom) would have to drop everything at any second to drive up to Cumbria so she could look after my 2 nephews. To add to that I was asked if I could bring up a horse to Uni on Wednesday to be a guinea pig for a BHS IT exam. So Pickle found himself loaded up and with threats that if he didn't behave himself he would be made into Pickle Pie (to be fair he hadn't been ridden for 2 days as I simply hadn't had time), but thankfully he was on his best behaviour. It would seem guinea pigging is something Pickle excels at, and he thoroughly enjoyed being admired by the examiner (well that is what the examiner was there for, right?!).

On Thursday I had to do some test jumping of horses for a national pentathlon competition being held at Uni yesterday. It was good for me to get on and jump lots of different horses, as I tend to be a bit of a wimp on unknown horses. Whilst doing the test jumping the lady who was organising the pentathlon said they wanted to put a Uni pentathlon team together. Can you see where this is heading yet??????

You guessed it before I knew it I had been volunteered and now I am on the BUCs pentathlon team! So this winter we will be having a crash course in fencing and shooting, and I need to remember how to swim (in my youth I was on my school swimming team, so hopefully I won't be too useless). I also need to go on a major fitness plan, as currently I collapse in a heap after running a few hundred metres!

So following a madly busy few days, what could make it more chaotic? Well to start off I was taking Pickle to Norton Disney for his last run of the season on the Friday. So having got back from jumping the pentathlon horses I quickly got Pickle clipped, plaited, tack cleaned and lorry packed to head off in the early hours of Friday morning. Got up at 4am to find Super Groom had had to head off north as the baby was on it's way. Quickly woke up Dad and managed to persuade him to come with me. He may not be horsey, but is another pair of hands, and more importantly was happy to drive the lorry meaning I could have a snooze on the way there!

All the way to Norton Disney the weather was foul. I had dire predictions of it being abandoned as soon as we got there! Though as luck would have it the rain began to lessen just as we arrived and by the time I had walked the XC it had pretty much stopped. Hopped on to Pickle for the dressage. He was a nightmare, completely over reacting to the leg and hand. We were unable to trot. The only paces we could manage was sideways canter interspersed with a bit of jibbing, we carved a path through the warm up with people frantically moving out of the way of the lunatic horse! Things didn't improve when I went over to do my test. I was unable to get around the arena due to Pickle waving at the judge, and was yet to achieve anything remotely like a trot. Horn went and Pickle was still being a lunatic. Just as I was thinking I would have to retire before I made it into the dressage arena, Pickle suddenly decided actually he could co operate and somehow managed to perform a test resembling BE102. Although I had to ride VERY tactfully it was actually an OK test given the circumstances. Finished up with 33.5, which left me in the middle of the section. The judge's comment was spot on "when the horse allows you to ride him, you will get the marks you deserve".

Off to the SJ, and Pickle was fab. He jumped a super clear round, never giving me a moments doubt.

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Time for the XC. Had a quick warm up.

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And off we set. Flew over the first 4, then set up for the corner at 5, over that and sailed the saw bench. Pickle was fab over the turning log combination at 7 and got a lovely 4 strides down to the skinny at 8. Over the 9 and 10 then we pinged up the steps and met the skinny on a perfect 5 strides. Galloped on to the rolltop to ditch which didn't pose a problem. Then on to the water.

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Then we galloped on the house at 17.

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Flew that, then over a rolltop and 2 hedges on a curving related distance, then on to the last. As I set up for the last fence I suddenly felt rather sad that this would be the last XC fence I would be jumping this year! But then we were over and through the finish to mark the end of the 2013 event season.

We managed to finish 19 seconds inside the time so ended on our dressage score. Unfortunately so did a lot of other people so we only managed to claw our way up to 8th. But at least it was another rosette and top 10 finish.

This means Pickle has jumped double clear at his last 4 events, and got 71 FPs. Hopefully with a bit of hard work over winter we can come out all guns blazing and move up to Novice early next season. Which brings me nicely round to another big of good news (although this is going to make me even more busy). I have been selected for my Uni's riding academy, which essentially means I get lots of free training, help planning competitions etc. This means Pickle will be coming to Uni with me 2 days a week, and I will fit in lessons round my lectures. Poor Pickle isn't going to get much of a rest! We also have a lesson with Mary King on Thursday which I am ridiculously excited for. No rest for the wicked!

So all in all busy but exciting times ahead. Not sure if I will actually get time to sleep between horses and a mountain of Uni work.

Oh and in other news my sister had a baby girl on Friday. I haven't met her yet, I think they are coming to visit next weekend.
 

Festive_Felicitations

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I'm feeling tiered just thinking about all you are trying to cram into one day! :O Though it all sounds like great fun (well maybe not the uni work) and best of luck with it all!

Great report, shame he was so naughty in the DR but he sounds like he was fab the rest of the time. Lovely photos :)
 

Hornby

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Oh to be young again.....please can I have some of your energy ?

Excellent report and I love Pickle
 
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