CastleMouse
Well-Known Member
Arrived in plenty of time fortunately, but a couple who were parked next to us were having serious trouble loading their horse. So we asked them if they needed help with lunge ropes, they took up the offer so we used our lunge ropes with their horse, and he was loaded instantly! One good deed done for the day so far...
I then had a chat with a few people, and began to warm-up Ali about half an hour before my first test, which was at 11.48. The warm-up was right next to the two outdoor arenas which were being used for the day, so as you can imagine not many horses were focused... My first test was right next to the road leading to and from the venue, Ali started off quite nicely, but then a loads of cars and trailers passed by and that diverted his attention slightly. A group of people hacking out also passed by during my test so Ali was a bit inattentive whilst they were passing by as well. Ali was still responsive though, and my transitions etc. were fairly accurate. My second test was at 12.24, so I was able to have a quick look at the other tests whilst Dad walked Ali around. I only had a quick warm up for my second test, but I felt it was best to do that. Ali was fairly good throughout the second test, except for a bit of an eeep moment when he got a fright from a bird coming from out of nowhere and he attempted to go over the white marker!
I definitely thought we did better in the second test, and when we went to look at the leaderboard most of the percentages were in the high 40's! I got 48.75% for my first test - Prelim. 18 (
) and 51.5% in my second test - Prelim. 7
But TBH A LOT of people got below that, and I was chatting to a few people and they agreed that the marking was rather harsh today. I came 6th in Prelim. 18 in the Junior Section, and 5th in Prelim. 7 in the Junior Section, so two more rosettes to add to my collection!
There was a large turnout, and lots of juniors today. Before we were leaving, someone parked near the warm-up arena had trouble loading their horse, so out came our lunge ropes again! The horse loaded in a flash, and some people look at us like idiots when we're loading Ali with lunge lines...
On the way home, we had just passed a town and we were overtaken by two Garda cars on a white lined road. They had no sirens, but my Father and I knew something wasn't "quite right". The Garda cars then drove onto the right side of the road into oncoming traffic to stop it, and about 20 travellers and their gigs and horses all tried to speed around away from the Gardai. The Garda car sirens went on, we had obviously slowed down and stopped, but we could feel Ali in the trailer shuffling around wondering what the hell was going on!
Currently uploading photos, not a great day for the majority of people but hey-ho...
