Event report - 80 at eland lodge today

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I posted the other day about me and my 5yo. Basically we've not done loads because I've been having a baby but did our first 80cm at eland lodge today.

So lucky to have eland lodge on our doorstep, but walked the course last night and it was lovely but had some randomly big fences that weren't in the BE last week! Main worry for me was a skinny-ish box which must have been bigger than 80cm!! Looked massive! Anyway nothing too bad really but I did have a thought.. why didn't I just enter the 70l?

I was extremely organised for me on the day, except how are you meant to get stud plug things out of the stud holes!? That was stressful. But left the babies at home so was overall none stressed.

Dressage - on a massive slope in wind and rainy period but you know, she did great. Terrible halt and a bit wiggly in some of the canter work but not too bad at all.

SJ - warmed up nice, easy course, bit unbalanced round some of it but finished with 1 down. Fairly usual for her.

XC - bit random that they were running late but you had to go down, put number down and stand around. Oh my goodness the warm up did not go well!! Had a couple of crap jumps over a log and then she practically climbed over the house jump. Not good. Got her jumping them ok but green / big, not like her. Not sure what that was about but I rode quite positively out of the start box and she just flew! I was so impressed with her. I was worried about getting a lot of time faults but she just went round like such a pro, cantered through the waters, sunken road etc. Opened up where we could and just jumped beautifully out of her stride. Chuffed!

So we ended up with 30.3 dressage, 4 SJ and 2.8 time XC, I could not be more happy with her! So lucky to have such a nice baby horse.

I don't think I will affiliated this year but not want to get her ready for BE90s next year. I think she is going to be brilliant!
 
Fanstastic, knowing what you have jumped I don't think you can say anything in an 80 looked massive :D. Sounds fab that she was better on course than in the warm up, very grown up. Good stressage too :)

What stud plugs are you using some are better than others?
 
Great report, well done :).

Can we have a picture of lovely baby horse :D, mine definitely wouldn't be able to do what yours can! Plus we do dressage barefoot now so no idea about the stud problem sorry :o....
 
Yes it depends what you are riding though doesn't it! They have a fence near the end and it's at least 3'3". But has alternative. The bloody 90 looked massive!! So will have to grow some balls for that. But I think she will just do it. She doesn't even look at anything!

I'm not sure just the little black ones.
 
the little black ones can be a pain in the arse as they can get pushed in by a stone etc and you need to get the nail underneat to flick them out. I prefer the fat cotton ones as you can get better purchase on them :)
 
Wow, sounds like a fantastic start for her - look forward to lots of BE reports next year :) what else have you got planned this season?

Stud plugs I'm not much help on - I used to get very irritated with them so took to just using a nail to pack the holes with cotton wool instead. Always stayed in and much much easier to remove, did have to repack for clean if they were out in mud though.
 
Not much planned really but I'd like to try and do another event or 2, and do some hunter trials etc. while still keeping up with dressage / SJ but focus on that in the winter when there's nothing fun to do.

She really has the most fantastic temperament. I know its not much but I'm really proud of what we've achieved so far.

We had a few (a lot) of negative comments when we got her as an unbroken 3yo - "she's a bit plain / ugly etc. isn't she.." but i think she's turning out to be quite a nice mare?
 
Could anyone give me a market value on this kind of mare? She is extremely easy, hacks out, great to do etc. etc. good Irish breeding by clover brigade. She would probably do a BE90 tomorrow with someone who dare take her round (just had baby, my excuse). I think she will be an XC machine, potential for Novice+ I would say. Bad bits is she chews the fence in the field and i wouldn't say she is 100% in traffic yet but i think she will be when she's seen a bit more.
 
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