TGM
Well-Known Member
I apologise in advance that my report will not be as entertaining as HotToTrot's, and the fences involved are nowhere as big!
Eridge is our most local event and it is always lovely to see so many people we know there - whether they are competing, helping or spectating. The weather forecast for the day was horrendous with heavy thundery showers forecast, but thankfully they seemed to pass Eridge by. We had a bit of drizzle before the dressage and a quick downpour after the XC, but nothing like the predicted amounts of water fell!
Daughter was doing the BE100u18 as she wanted to qualify for the championships at Weston Park. Only the first two riders qualify, and there were 35 starters in the class, so knew it wasn't going to be easy and this was the final qualifier! Times were really far apart with the dressage at 9.00am and the show jumping at nearly 2pm, so hubby decided to pack his mountain bike and cycle to Crawley and back in the interlude (he is practicing for a 100 mile cycle ride)! The dressage went well and daughter was pleased with the test. On the way to the arenas I was accosted by a woman who proclaimed that she 'knew me from Horse & Hound', which rather took me aback but turned out it was Morrismob from here! Sadly no time for a chat as I was rushing into position for my dressage videoing duties.
Daughter was very pleased to discover she got 26.5 for her test which put her in third place after the dressage. After what felt like an interminable wait it was finally time for the show jumping. Opted for a short, sharp warm up and a very forward approach, which seemed to work as he flew round clear! No pressure at all, with half the Pony Club watching including the DC!
Back to the box to get changed and Pop knew it was XC time and marched down to the start very enthusiastically. They were first to go over the BE100 course and it seemed like a long wait whilst everything was got ready for the new course, which is not good for a mother of a nervous disposition. Finally they were off and flew around the cross country course confidently, although Pop did put one of his 'special launches' over the Chris Potter Shotgun fence, which OH managed to capture on video! So they finished clear and it was just a tense wait to find out whether they had got time faults. Pop is very fast cross country and twice has got 'too fast' faults, so daughter had gone steadily to avoid a repeat performance. However, when she told me she had trotted from the top of the hill down to the water I realised that she had probably overdone the steady bit, and sure enough she actually got four time for going too slow! Which was pretty gutting when she knew he could actually make the time easily.
Lots of nailbiting whilst the final scores were put up, and eventually they confirmed she was second! So she was thrilled to qualify again for the Under 18 Championships at Weston Park, although I must confess not to be quite so thrilled at the prospect of celebrating my birthday in a soggy Staffordshire field again, this coming October!
Managed to remember the video this time, so a little compilation of clips from the dressage and XC, plus the whole SJ round:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKYjZHYz25s
Eridge is our most local event and it is always lovely to see so many people we know there - whether they are competing, helping or spectating. The weather forecast for the day was horrendous with heavy thundery showers forecast, but thankfully they seemed to pass Eridge by. We had a bit of drizzle before the dressage and a quick downpour after the XC, but nothing like the predicted amounts of water fell!
Daughter was doing the BE100u18 as she wanted to qualify for the championships at Weston Park. Only the first two riders qualify, and there were 35 starters in the class, so knew it wasn't going to be easy and this was the final qualifier! Times were really far apart with the dressage at 9.00am and the show jumping at nearly 2pm, so hubby decided to pack his mountain bike and cycle to Crawley and back in the interlude (he is practicing for a 100 mile cycle ride)! The dressage went well and daughter was pleased with the test. On the way to the arenas I was accosted by a woman who proclaimed that she 'knew me from Horse & Hound', which rather took me aback but turned out it was Morrismob from here! Sadly no time for a chat as I was rushing into position for my dressage videoing duties.
Daughter was very pleased to discover she got 26.5 for her test which put her in third place after the dressage. After what felt like an interminable wait it was finally time for the show jumping. Opted for a short, sharp warm up and a very forward approach, which seemed to work as he flew round clear! No pressure at all, with half the Pony Club watching including the DC!
Back to the box to get changed and Pop knew it was XC time and marched down to the start very enthusiastically. They were first to go over the BE100 course and it seemed like a long wait whilst everything was got ready for the new course, which is not good for a mother of a nervous disposition. Finally they were off and flew around the cross country course confidently, although Pop did put one of his 'special launches' over the Chris Potter Shotgun fence, which OH managed to capture on video! So they finished clear and it was just a tense wait to find out whether they had got time faults. Pop is very fast cross country and twice has got 'too fast' faults, so daughter had gone steadily to avoid a repeat performance. However, when she told me she had trotted from the top of the hill down to the water I realised that she had probably overdone the steady bit, and sure enough she actually got four time for going too slow! Which was pretty gutting when she knew he could actually make the time easily.
Lots of nailbiting whilst the final scores were put up, and eventually they confirmed she was second! So she was thrilled to qualify again for the Under 18 Championships at Weston Park, although I must confess not to be quite so thrilled at the prospect of celebrating my birthday in a soggy Staffordshire field again, this coming October!
Managed to remember the video this time, so a little compilation of clips from the dressage and XC, plus the whole SJ round:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKYjZHYz25s
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