charlimouse
Well-Known Member
Well it has been a little while since I did a report, mainly due to lack of interest, but given people have said they miss them, I thought I would do an end of season round up. After good runs at Breckenbrough and Frickley, I took P to Richmond to do his first novice. He didn't disappoint, with a middle of the road dressage. In the SJ we were clear until the last, where he couldn't quite shorten enough to the last element of the treble for 4 penalties. XC he was amazing, cruising round clear, but with quite a few time penalties. A very solid first run at novice. Jem ran well for 9th in the BE100.
From there we headed back to Frickley. The result from earlier in the year wasn't repeated, but again both horses had solid runs finishing on their dressage scores to come 8th and 10th.
It was off to Allerton next. Again both horses were vey good, jumping double clears. Unfortunately I was a casualty of a very generous optimum time, with Jem getting 11 penalties for going too fast, and Pickle 19! These penalties were rather expensive dropping me from 2nd and 3rd right down the leaderboard!
Kelsall was next on the agenda. The plan was for Pickle to do his second novice, however things weren't meant to be, when a couple of days before P came in from the field with a cut leg. Jem had her final run in the 100, she did a good dressage for 24, and just knocked an unfortunate rail, before cruising round the XC for 10th.
For Pickle his last run was at Aldon in the BE100 3 day, which is still long format. After a 6 hour drive we arrived. His dressage on the Thursday was mixed, with the trot scoring 8's and canter 7's. Unfortunately he just didn't settle in his walk, and typically there was a lot of walk in the test! The walk scored 4's across the board, meaning we ended up on 38.8, just 7th from last. I cheered up by reminding myself that I didn't travel my horse 300 miles for a dressage test! On the Friday we walked the XC and steeplechase, and rode the road and tracks. I had been warned it was hilly, but I don't think I have ever seen hills quite like Aldons! Living on a flood plain, I wasn't sure how P would cope, especially with the very long steep hill 3 fences from home on the XC. The XC was certainly a step up from a regular BE100, and I was very glad I had a good novice run under our belts.
On the Saturday I woke up feeling somewhat green, luckily I didn't have too long to panic given I set out on phase A at 8.37! Phase A was just under 4km, which needed to be completed in 17 minutes. We came in comfortably under time in 16 minutes.
A 2 minute breather, and we were off on the steeplechase. P flew, and finished 15 seconds under time. I think he would like to become a racehorse!
Straight off on to our second lot of roads and tracks, 5 1/2 km in 34 minutes, which we completed about 2 minutes under time. Into the D box, where P was very quickly passed as fit to continue by the vet. Due to a hold on course, we ended up being in the 10 minute box for about 50 minutes, so got on with a few minutes to give P a canter and get his blood up before the XC. P was brilliant round the XC, eating up the course to finish 9 seconds inside the time, and stay on his dressage score overnight.
I'm not really quite sure what happened here, it felt like we jumped up the step fine!
And we managed an ok jump over the skinny 2 strides later.
We had an early start on Sunday for the trot up. P was feeling very well, and was accepted immediately.
So onto the show jumping, which although height wise was comparable to a normal 100, it was certainly a lot more technical. P pinged his way round for a clear.
So Pickle managed to stay on his dressage score, and typically finished 11th! A fab placing, but a little frustrated to just miss out on getting a rosette!
So after a long journey home, P is now having a well deserved holiday.
From there we headed back to Frickley. The result from earlier in the year wasn't repeated, but again both horses had solid runs finishing on their dressage scores to come 8th and 10th.
It was off to Allerton next. Again both horses were vey good, jumping double clears. Unfortunately I was a casualty of a very generous optimum time, with Jem getting 11 penalties for going too fast, and Pickle 19! These penalties were rather expensive dropping me from 2nd and 3rd right down the leaderboard!
Kelsall was next on the agenda. The plan was for Pickle to do his second novice, however things weren't meant to be, when a couple of days before P came in from the field with a cut leg. Jem had her final run in the 100, she did a good dressage for 24, and just knocked an unfortunate rail, before cruising round the XC for 10th.
For Pickle his last run was at Aldon in the BE100 3 day, which is still long format. After a 6 hour drive we arrived. His dressage on the Thursday was mixed, with the trot scoring 8's and canter 7's. Unfortunately he just didn't settle in his walk, and typically there was a lot of walk in the test! The walk scored 4's across the board, meaning we ended up on 38.8, just 7th from last. I cheered up by reminding myself that I didn't travel my horse 300 miles for a dressage test! On the Friday we walked the XC and steeplechase, and rode the road and tracks. I had been warned it was hilly, but I don't think I have ever seen hills quite like Aldons! Living on a flood plain, I wasn't sure how P would cope, especially with the very long steep hill 3 fences from home on the XC. The XC was certainly a step up from a regular BE100, and I was very glad I had a good novice run under our belts.
On the Saturday I woke up feeling somewhat green, luckily I didn't have too long to panic given I set out on phase A at 8.37! Phase A was just under 4km, which needed to be completed in 17 minutes. We came in comfortably under time in 16 minutes.
A 2 minute breather, and we were off on the steeplechase. P flew, and finished 15 seconds under time. I think he would like to become a racehorse!
Straight off on to our second lot of roads and tracks, 5 1/2 km in 34 minutes, which we completed about 2 minutes under time. Into the D box, where P was very quickly passed as fit to continue by the vet. Due to a hold on course, we ended up being in the 10 minute box for about 50 minutes, so got on with a few minutes to give P a canter and get his blood up before the XC. P was brilliant round the XC, eating up the course to finish 9 seconds inside the time, and stay on his dressage score overnight.
I'm not really quite sure what happened here, it felt like we jumped up the step fine!
And we managed an ok jump over the skinny 2 strides later.
We had an early start on Sunday for the trot up. P was feeling very well, and was accepted immediately.
So onto the show jumping, which although height wise was comparable to a normal 100, it was certainly a lot more technical. P pinged his way round for a clear.
So Pickle managed to stay on his dressage score, and typically finished 11th! A fab placing, but a little frustrated to just miss out on getting a rosette!
So after a long journey home, P is now having a well deserved holiday.
