Eglinton intro - I'm in a huff

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now_loves_mares

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I was at Eglinton today doing the intro (my mare's 4th xc ever) and she did a fairly good dressage, and a clear SJ. Yeah
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However she is a bit funny about water anyway, just not brave enough yet, so I had a heart attack when I walked the course. Not only were there 3 waters and about 6 skinny roll tops, plus another 4 or so various skinnies, but the 4th fence was a horror. Over fence 3, a skinny roll top, then down an angled slope towards some woods. You then had to cut into the woods (so dark, downhill, bad footing) and about 5 strides in there was an up to height log (skinny-ish, about 4ft wide). 1 stride after it, there was a seriously steep slope down into a stream ( I swear it was about 1 in 2). Bearing in mind that this is intro, I was horrified. It was only the 4th fence so no chance to get a rhythm going. To cap it all, when I went xc, about 20 people were gathered round watching, all in the wooded bit. My girl is still at the eyes on stalks stage, so she was spooking and stopped even before I got near the fence, then when I finally got up to it (with of course no pace at all by that point) she had a chance to see the water and stopped. After that there was no getting her over it.

When I checked the scores only 6 were up but of those, one was clear, the rest had one, two or three stops and a faller. The time penalties were up and loads had about 30 (no jumping scores yet so I'm assuming they had at least one stop). Basically it seemed like carnage.

Obviously I'm bitter, but at her last two outings I've felt her xc come on heaps, a baby-ish run-out at each of them but basically get much more confident. I'm angry with myself now that I went xc at all because I knew it was too much of a question for her, bearing in mind she's still dithering over whether to get her feet wet.

Out of interest, I spoke to my trainer (who was there) and she agreed it was horrible and said she'd have been moaning even if it had been in the PN (which incidentally she won on her 5yo so she's quite good at this!) so at least I don't feel too pathetic.

Hard to tell by a description, but does this sound too much for an intro (never thought to get pics)? Interesting to see what anyone else thought if they were there.

I'm getting cross again just thinking about it
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Poo
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I'm not too sure how upset she was, as she seemed quite delighted to be sauntering back home hardly out of breath
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I'm trying for a late entry at Auchinleck in 2 weeks as it's supposed to be much easier, to get back into the swing of it.

But thanks for the hug! I'm off for a shower and a restorative glass of red
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(not at the same time I hasten to add!)
 
That's a shame. I thought the intro course looked really nice, a lot easier than the only intro I've done, But can't have been looking too closely! You had awful weather as well so don't worry about it.
I did the pre-novice on friday and some of the jumps were huge! The course designers definately decided to make it hard this year!
I think you will still get into Auchinleak but there still is quite a tricky water there in the intro. Its a lovely event though so I would go for it.
 
I've just checked the scores on bdwp. Normally I'd say at least 85% go clear in a section at intro. Today looked much more like 60%.

Annoyingly I'd have won if she'd gone clear. OK that's a big if, but it's those "ifs" that keep you going the next time
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Out of interest what intro had you done? I thought Scone was much bigger but more confidence giving generally. 90% of the course walked fine, it was really that particular fence that I thought was nasty. Most of the rest I thought was just a bit uninspired.
 
Never ridden it as I walked it & didn't like the course & thought the ground was really rutted.

Auchinleck is a lovely course & my baby horse is in the intro there in 2 weeks as our 1st BE. There are 2 waters but they are just easy splash thru's.
 
The only intro I have done is scone this year. I certainly thought it was a lot bigger than Eglinton. I have been talking to the eventer that I work for today who took the mare round the course as her first event. She was complaining about the number of skinnies so you are not the only one!
 
Saw from the results that there were a lot of eliminations at XC and alot of the placings up to tenth were in the late 70's!!! Think that says it all! X
 
If you think that's tough for Intro they ran the Riding Club novice horse trials championship qualifier over the Intro course at Eglinton yesterday and it was utter carnage. I was watching loads start, but I saw only three come home.

Fortunately our team all compete at Intro level so all completed and we ended up winning, but we were the only team to have all four members finish.

An interesting competition to say the least!! Fortunately no accidents, just mainly eliminations and retirals.
 
I know it hard to say as wasn't there, but that sounds like a horrid intro course, especially to have such a major question so early in the course.

My OH did the nov RC areas last month, and the course included a jump (over a log) into water. About a third of the class stopped or were E at this, so again slightly unfair I thought, and he would have been 1st or 2nd if he had been clear (had 2 stops).

Hope your next run in a fortnight goes much better.

FIona
 
That does sound very tough for an Intro - after all they are supposed to be confidence building. The results say it all really, I shouldn't be surprised if there are some changes to the course next year!

One to put down to experience really - SJ and dress were fab!
 
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