Eland Lodge BE100 report- plus advice to those competing tomorrow!

BroadfordQueen

BroadfordQueen

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This might turn out pretty long, so sorry in advance!

Left early for a change and got there with an extra 20 minutes to spare (although nearly went sailing past the signs!). Got shoved with the trailers in a mini field on the other side of the track which added an extra 5 minutes to get everywhere
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Went to walk the course and saw the dreaded number 5
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Which looked even scarier with the new groundline! So I wasn't feeling all that confident, but the rest of the course looked lovely and I really hoped I would get past fence 5 to jump them! Beautiful, well presented course with perfect going
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Tacked up for dressage slightly too early. She was lovely and soft to start with, but then tensed up when I accidently worked her in at the bottom (on the other side of the hedge from the xc warm up!! Mayhem!!). So took her out and back round the lorries until she settled again. Managed to get some nice-ish work from her before we went in. We did a nice, OK test...not as good as last week IMO (and I forgot to give & retake the reins on the first canter circle!
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), but judge disagreed and gave me 36
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Which left me slightly above middle of the field after dressage.
Onto the showjumping- was a very full up course! With a spooky rainbow filler. The warmup was cramped and hectic and Queenie B was pretty tense before we went in. She gave number 1 a good look but jumped it, and jumped the course nicely- got to number 7 (the spooky filler) and I felt her back off, so I rode her very hard into it- she jumped, but had it down
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So finished on 4 faults.

XC next- *gulp* I was veryyyy nervous, but when I went to the warm up it felt like she suddenly got a bee up her arse- she was really taking me into the practice fences like never before! Set off nicely and flew over no.1, took the next 4 in her stride and was really moving forward. I hooked her back after 4 over the bridge, got a nice collected canter round the corner to number 5 (the allsorts fence) and guess what....she flew it, no problem
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So I breathed a sigh of relief and really enjoyed the rest of the course- she was really enjoying it and so was I
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So finished strong with a clear round
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Dont know my final placing as left early (took ages to do the results which was a shame
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). I am over the moon with Queenie B, she was fab, and I think she will eat up the novice at Broadway
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Now for the advice-
GO SLOW THROUGH THE WOODS!!!! Please do not gallop, the surface is AWFUL through there and at least 4 horses fell in the PN (including a girl parked by us), and 1 in the novice (I only stayed to watch 2 or 3, and 1 had already fallen).
I wouldn't be suprised if they took the fences out tbf. It is awful. They were warning competitors at the start, but some people ignored the warnings, including the girl by us.

Dressage is also by the xc warm up which got up alot of peoples backs. So pick your warm up area carefully.

The course rode really well though apart from that, so good luck everybody
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Well done! Sounds like an excellent confidence building run, good luck with your upcoming novice.
I hate the trailer segregation thing- makes you feel like second class citizens- same thing at tweseldown today lorries got all the front rows and trailers were squished in at the back as have to conserve space for expanding side whittakers lol!
Ground situation doesn't sound good in the woods- shocked they didn't take out fences sooner if falls caused by ground.
 
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Thanks- I have Solihull BE100 next Saturday, then a weekend off, then Broadway novice
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That will be good - best of luck!
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Urm, from what I saw before I left (only first 10 or so competitors had their times up), most that went clear were inside the time, or very slightly out (with 1 or 2 time penalties). The course has plenty of space for a good strong canter.
 
Fantastic, well done! The pics of those allsorts fences looked scary so it's excellent to hear that she jumped it nicely
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Hope you got placed!
 
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Well done! Sounds like an excellent confidence building run, good luck with your upcoming novice.
I hate the trailer segregation thing- makes you feel like second class citizens- same thing at tweseldown today lorries got all the front rows and trailers were squished in at the back as have to conserve space for expanding side whittakers lol!
Ground situation doesn't sound good in the woods- shocked they didn't take out fences sooner if falls caused by ground.

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It was very annoying but I guess they are trying to save as much space as possible.
The really huge lorries (such as Piggy French's
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) had their own space too
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I am shocked they didn't take the jumps out. I think I may have lost abit of time going through there- there are just a few sharp bends in the woods where horses have come down.
 
Thanks, fingers crossed- will probably come 10th/11th! (Have been 10th at last 2 events
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)

The pro photographer took some good pics, and daddy bought me the one over the allsorts fence
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Will post links when they go up
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Yeah theres always a couple of E's so not too concerned. I know when I strided everything yesterday it was lovely, but noticed the planks to the oxer would prob ride a bit short
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Well done though!!
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Thanks for the advice and glad you enjoyed your day.
I did make a comment on that surface when the pictures of the woods were posted , we have that surface in our arena and it is fine for dressage but not really good for xc and it gets worse with time!
 
Well done - thats fantastic!! I saw the pictures of the allsorts fence - it did not look amusing!!! Good luck at Solihull - which day are you riding as I might be coming up to groom for a friend? x
 
Forgot to add something which mum just told me to tell everyone-

A handful of people missed the log out after the water jump!! As the log is a sharp turn after the step up, and a few people just went sailing past it when we were watching (and didn't realise!).
So be careful
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Well done! Glad to hear the allsorts fence caused you no problem (it was causing a problem for a few others I saw).

I spoke the the fence judge at the forest house in the woods where people were falling. They were apparently slipping on landing on the deep bark, so what they had since done was to move it all to the side and lay more gravel down.

The couple I saw jump it then had no problems.

It looks quite a tiring course, especially up the last hill to the last 2 fences, how did it feel to you?
 
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Well done! Glad to hear the allsorts fence caused you no problem (it was causing a problem for a few others I saw).

I spoke the the fence judge at the forest house in the woods where people were falling. They were apparently slipping on landing on the deep bark, so what they had since done was to move it all to the side and lay more gravel down.

The couple I saw jump it then had no problems.

It looks quite a tiring course, especially up the last hill to the last 2 fences, how did it feel to you?

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Ah, the girl next to us said she jumped the house stickily so she pushed her horse on round the corner to the style out of the woods to get more "oomph" and slipped there.

I found the course quite tiring actually, Queenie B was leaning on me slightly when we pushed up the hill to the last couple- I did think "blummin 'eck I am only half way round?!" when I got to fence 11!
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Quite alot of space to open up for a good strong canter, fences take a while to come to you.


The commentator said some lovely things about me (according to the parents!)- eg "Broadford Queen jumping fence 4 with a lovely look on her face" (eh?!?!!) and "Sophie always goes round with a smile on her face" (how do you know?!?!)
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I spoke the the fence judge at the forest house in the woods where people were falling. They were apparently slipping on landing on the deep bark, so what they had since done was to move it all to the side and lay more gravel down.



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It was a shame there were problems with the surface in the woods today as the course seemed to be riding so well. BE advised us to put down 18 inches of cushion ride!!! Which obviously wasnt the right thing to have done, work has been done in the problem areas to improve the ground as the depth of the cushion ride was causing horses to fall as it moved about as they turned. Hopefully tomorrow will be much better now the depth of the surface has been reduced and improved. Hopefully BE wont advise to put that depth of that type of surface down again.

Sorry to anyone it caused problems for and well done to all those of you that competed today
 
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