doodle
Well-Known Member
Thankyou! Recovering from being really ill and my horse was pts so I have time to fill.
Eventing 2025
- Thread starter TheMule
- Start date
doodle
Well-Known Member
Added all of them and settling down to watch
TheMule
Well-Known Member
Kingston Maurward BE100
What a spectacular event! I dressage stewarded for them on Saturday and it was such a lovely experience- I was kept well fed and sent home with a box of delicious goodies. Also gave me a chance to walk my xc course properly- it's a beautiful parkland setting and they had done a brilliant job with the going. I couldn’t wait to get stuck in myself!
Dressage has been a big work in progress and we finally nailed it with a calm, settled test. Not 'wow' and plenty more marks still to come, but very happy with a 31.8. SJ was in their massive arena in front of the house- it's quite atmospheric and undulating and, given he had gone green at Larkhill earlier in the year, I wasn’t sure how he'd be. It was a good full up track that was proving quite testing. We had a terrible warm up- he was just carting me into fences so we totally messed up the upright 3 times and I had to do some work on the discipline with pulling him up in front of fences which is always hard to do in a warm up because you end up getting in other people's way! But we jumped the oxer better and in we went. And he was mega in the ring- I'm so proud of how he dealt with it and how I rode, it was definitely our best SJ round to date and a very easy clear round.
So now we were sitting in 4th place and needed to just cement it with a clear inside the time xc. I'm never normally competitive so I don’t normally wear a stopwatch xc, but last time out I went too fast (I'm normally really slow!) so I thought it would be best to wear the watch. It's very undulating there and I wasn’t sure how he'd manage with the hills, but he absolutely ate it up and I was perfect on my time. Fantastic clear, he felt absolutely magic. He's just a joy to ride because he's always looking for his fences and he just jumps beautifully out of his rhythm. So I was overjoyed to cross the finish line inside the time and here is where I totally ****** up. I patted him just before the line as I checked my watch and he dropped to trot for 2 strides. That’s considered 'deliberately slowing down to gain a competitive advantage' and we received 10 penalties. I am so, so, so gutted. I don’t think I will forgive myself for a very long time. I threw away our best ever BE placing and ruined what was otherwise an absolutely amazing day.
At least I got a nice photo! Vlog is coming out this evening if anyone is interested!
What a spectacular event! I dressage stewarded for them on Saturday and it was such a lovely experience- I was kept well fed and sent home with a box of delicious goodies. Also gave me a chance to walk my xc course properly- it's a beautiful parkland setting and they had done a brilliant job with the going. I couldn’t wait to get stuck in myself!
Dressage has been a big work in progress and we finally nailed it with a calm, settled test. Not 'wow' and plenty more marks still to come, but very happy with a 31.8. SJ was in their massive arena in front of the house- it's quite atmospheric and undulating and, given he had gone green at Larkhill earlier in the year, I wasn’t sure how he'd be. It was a good full up track that was proving quite testing. We had a terrible warm up- he was just carting me into fences so we totally messed up the upright 3 times and I had to do some work on the discipline with pulling him up in front of fences which is always hard to do in a warm up because you end up getting in other people's way! But we jumped the oxer better and in we went. And he was mega in the ring- I'm so proud of how he dealt with it and how I rode, it was definitely our best SJ round to date and a very easy clear round.
So now we were sitting in 4th place and needed to just cement it with a clear inside the time xc. I'm never normally competitive so I don’t normally wear a stopwatch xc, but last time out I went too fast (I'm normally really slow!) so I thought it would be best to wear the watch. It's very undulating there and I wasn’t sure how he'd manage with the hills, but he absolutely ate it up and I was perfect on my time. Fantastic clear, he felt absolutely magic. He's just a joy to ride because he's always looking for his fences and he just jumps beautifully out of his rhythm. So I was overjoyed to cross the finish line inside the time and here is where I totally ****** up. I patted him just before the line as I checked my watch and he dropped to trot for 2 strides. That’s considered 'deliberately slowing down to gain a competitive advantage' and we received 10 penalties. I am so, so, so gutted. I don’t think I will forgive myself for a very long time. I threw away our best ever BE placing and ruined what was otherwise an absolutely amazing day.
At least I got a nice photo! Vlog is coming out this evening if anyone is interested!
Attachments
TheMule
Well-Known Member
Thank you- the horse was a star and learnt a lot so I am trying to just cling onto that, rather than being in my own head about the mistake. Hopefully we will actually manage to get our big day one day!
Alibear
Well-Known Member
Tin hat on Ali style. I promise I've learned this the hard way myself. Stop all thoughts of the big day, it's just not a productive approach. Dig in for the small steps and improvements over time and years, the day will happen but organically, focusing on it is just counterproductive.
AandK
Well-Known Member
That's an amazing result, well done! I'm a bit shocked that dropping to trot only 2 strides before the finish is worthy of a such a penalty, what a shame. Easy for me to say, but try not to let it take away from all the other (many) positives!
TheMule
Well-Known Member
Thank you- it is judge's discretion and I did go and ask, but they explained that it was because I was on a competitive score and coming in well on time, plus I was looking at my watch. I think it was harsh- I was under the impression the rule was there to stop people riding dangerously slowly to the final fence or walking over the line- but a rule's a rule and I do understand why they penalized me.
SEL
Well-Known Member
I saw on Insta that "something" had happened that meant you got penalties and no wonder you're annoyed with yourself - but it wasn't anything intentional, just unlucky that he thought he was done. It sounds like a cracking ride round though and the photo is awesome so focus on the positives!
ihatework
Well-Known Member
You’d hope some common sense would apply. You were well inside the margin for speeding penalties so dropping back a fraction early didn’t put you at a competitive advantage. Jobsworth in my opinion … see I can say that but I know the party line in ‘judges discretion’!!!
ETA but you still aced it!
humblepie
Well-Known Member
That’s a shame with the penalties, but brilliant day otherwise well done.
TheMule
Well-Known Member
Thank you. I had 5mins of elation before we checked the updated scores!
TheMule
Well-Known Member
I agree with you- I wanted to say ‘don’t we all just do this for a bit of fun?' Because it really took the edge off it for me and I do do it purely for having fun. Being competitive once in 3 years of trying is the icing on the cake, and it would have been really nice just to enjoy that. It wasn’t even like it was a money/ top placing that I would have 'gained'.
Never mind. Onwards and upwards!
daffy44
Well-Known Member
Oh how frustrating! It does seem a bit unnecessary, but your lovely horse doesnt know, all he knows is that he was a star and did a good job, well done!
iknowmyvalue
Well-Known Member
@TheMule glad you had a good day other than the penalties! Seems mighty unfair if you weren’t going to get speeding penalties anyway, but at least he jumped well. It’s a shame, but there’ll be other times I’m sure.
Was gutted I couldn’t make it there this year as had such an amazing time there last year and could tell they’d really put the effort in to try and make it special. Hoping to make it next year
Was gutted I couldn’t make it there this year as had such an amazing time there last year and could tell they’d really put the effort in to try and make it special. Hoping to make it next year
TheMule
Well-Known Member
@TheMule glad you had a good day other than the penalties! Seems mighty unfair if you weren’t going to get speeding penalties anyway, but at least he jumped well. It’s a shame, but there’ll be other times I’m sure.
Was gutted I couldn’t make it there this year as had such an amazing time there last year and could tell they’d really put the effort in to try and make it special. Hoping to make it next year
It is such a great event, I really hope they get a better date next year and are rewarded with bumper entries
TheMule
Well-Known Member
Vlog is here for anyone interested in watching our day!
RachelFerd
Well-Known Member
bumper eventing report because I forgot to post about Bradwall a couple of weeks ago. Bradwall is my most local event and it's also one of my absolute favourites. Proper little greenfield site, great XC courses (designed by Andy Heffernan) that keep you thinking. First time with a summer date rather than a spring one - I'm used to mud there. But they prepped the ground beautifully and we had some lovely old springy parkland to ride over. I was in the intermediate novice - we did a dressage test that felt very wooden but scored OK with a 33.6, then he jumped super in the SJ but just rolled a pole... and then flew around a twisty XC track having a great time to have just a handful of time penalties. Ended up 10th of 21/22 starters - good boy.
Then yesterday we braved the heatwave and did the 3hr drive down to Swalcliffe to have another intermediate novice run. Was refreshing the weather forecast for days leading up to this because I did not much fancy the melting heat - but the event themselves had produced good ground with plenty of give in it, and the sponsor (Aspen Cooling) had provided a dedicated post-XC cooling area with big fans and unlimited water and extra people to help get horses cooled off. I figured we could use the M6 toll to avoid the worst of Birmingham traffic - so off we went! I thought he did a better test then he did at Bradwall, so of course it scored worse (haha) but 35.2 is ok - and we were right in the mix on that score in our small but perfectly formed section of 10 horses.
I had a long break so left the horse and my other half chilling under out lorry awning which created some lovely shade and walked the XC course - it was surprisingly BIG and hilly! The combination at fence 4/5 walked more like an intermediate question than a novice (and my view was validated by Kristina Cook who described as being tougher than anything that was in Aston 3* last week, haha!)
Came back for SJ and realised they'd started my section early so didn't get a chance to walk the track. It was in a very undulating ring and I didn't ride at my best - I was a bit backward thinking, but we still got away with rolling just the one pole again (trend for the season so far - not at all bad, but i'd really like a clear instead!).
Then off we went on XC - so lucky to ride an absolute schoolmaster (albeit of my own making) around a track like this - he's just so clever and so easy. I didn't entirely nail the striding at 4/5, but we got through it, and then he was pretty much foot perfect around the rest. The first half of the course was mainly downhill and undulating, and then the second half was a really decent pull up hill - testing fitness in the heat. So I didn't go mad chasing the time, but we were still good enough to end up 2nd in our section - woo! I also finished one place in front of Mary King which did amuse me, because in how many sports do you end up competing up against your childhood heroes several decades later?! Also because my horse is a 'King' prefix by name, we always joked that he sounded like he was one of Mary's [he's an ex racehorse so had to keep the name that he raced with].
Anyway - glad we made the trip, and the horse was cooled down very efficiently by the team at the end, so he finished the day feeling pretty pleased with himself I think.
A few quiet weeks now and then we'll head to Hartpury for the RoR class which runs over the Corinthian Cup course
Then yesterday we braved the heatwave and did the 3hr drive down to Swalcliffe to have another intermediate novice run. Was refreshing the weather forecast for days leading up to this because I did not much fancy the melting heat - but the event themselves had produced good ground with plenty of give in it, and the sponsor (Aspen Cooling) had provided a dedicated post-XC cooling area with big fans and unlimited water and extra people to help get horses cooled off. I figured we could use the M6 toll to avoid the worst of Birmingham traffic - so off we went! I thought he did a better test then he did at Bradwall, so of course it scored worse (haha) but 35.2 is ok - and we were right in the mix on that score in our small but perfectly formed section of 10 horses.
I had a long break so left the horse and my other half chilling under out lorry awning which created some lovely shade and walked the XC course - it was surprisingly BIG and hilly! The combination at fence 4/5 walked more like an intermediate question than a novice (and my view was validated by Kristina Cook who described as being tougher than anything that was in Aston 3* last week, haha!)
Came back for SJ and realised they'd started my section early so didn't get a chance to walk the track. It was in a very undulating ring and I didn't ride at my best - I was a bit backward thinking, but we still got away with rolling just the one pole again (trend for the season so far - not at all bad, but i'd really like a clear instead!).
Then off we went on XC - so lucky to ride an absolute schoolmaster (albeit of my own making) around a track like this - he's just so clever and so easy. I didn't entirely nail the striding at 4/5, but we got through it, and then he was pretty much foot perfect around the rest. The first half of the course was mainly downhill and undulating, and then the second half was a really decent pull up hill - testing fitness in the heat. So I didn't go mad chasing the time, but we were still good enough to end up 2nd in our section - woo! I also finished one place in front of Mary King which did amuse me, because in how many sports do you end up competing up against your childhood heroes several decades later?! Also because my horse is a 'King' prefix by name, we always joked that he sounded like he was one of Mary's [he's an ex racehorse so had to keep the name that he raced with].
Anyway - glad we made the trip, and the horse was cooled down very efficiently by the team at the end, so he finished the day feeling pretty pleased with himself I think.
A few quiet weeks now and then we'll head to Hartpury for the RoR class which runs over the Corinthian Cup course
Gamebird
Well-Known Member
@RachelFerd I watched your SJ at Bradwall (actually I was working on the Tigga's Saddlery stand - it's my next-door neighbour's business - so I watched everyone!). Well done. It looked good!
ETA - I can actually see me on your video
ETA - I can actually see me on your video
TheMule
Well-Known Member
bumper eventing report because I forgot to post about Bradwall a couple of weeks ago. Bradwall is my most local event and it's also one of my absolute favourites. Proper little greenfield site, great XC courses (designed by Andy Heffernan) that keep you thinking. First time with a summer date rather than a spring one - I'm used to mud there. But they prepped the ground beautifully and we had some lovely old springy parkland to ride over. I was in the intermediate novice - we did a dressage test that felt very wooden but scored OK with a 33.6, then he jumped super in the SJ but just rolled a pole... and then flew around a twisty XC track having a great time to have just a handful of time penalties. Ended up 10th of 21/22 starters - good boy.
Then yesterday we braved the heatwave and did the 3hr drive down to Swalcliffe to have another intermediate novice run. Was refreshing the weather forecast for days leading up to this because I did not much fancy the melting heat - but the event themselves had produced good ground with plenty of give in it, and the sponsor (Aspen Cooling) had provided a dedicated post-XC cooling area with big fans and unlimited water and extra people to help get horses cooled off. I figured we could use the M6 toll to avoid the worst of Birmingham traffic - so off we went! I thought he did a better test then he did at Bradwall, so of course it scored worse (haha) but 35.2 is ok - and we were right in the mix on that score in our small but perfectly formed section of 10 horses.
I had a long break so left the horse and my other half chilling under out lorry awning which created some lovely shade and walked the XC course - it was surprisingly BIG and hilly! The combination at fence 4/5 walked more like an intermediate question than a novice (and my view was validated by Kristina Cook who described as being tougher than anything that was in Aston 3* last week, haha!)
Came back for SJ and realised they'd started my section early so didn't get a chance to walk the track. It was in a very undulating ring and I didn't ride at my best - I was a bit backward thinking, but we still got away with rolling just the one pole again (trend for the season so far - not at all bad, but i'd really like a clear instead!).
Then off we went on XC - so lucky to ride an absolute schoolmaster (albeit of my own making) around a track like this - he's just so clever and so easy. I didn't entirely nail the striding at 4/5, but we got through it, and then he was pretty much foot perfect around the rest. The first half of the course was mainly downhill and undulating, and then the second half was a really decent pull up hill - testing fitness in the heat. So I didn't go mad chasing the time, but we were still good enough to end up 2nd in our section - woo! I also finished one place in front of Mary King which did amuse me, because in how many sports do you end up competing up against your childhood heroes several decades later?! Also because my horse is a 'King' prefix by name, we always joked that he sounded like he was one of Mary's [he's an ex racehorse so had to keep the name that he raced with].
Anyway - glad we made the trip, and the horse was cooled down very efficiently by the team at the end, so he finished the day feeling pretty pleased with himself I think.
A few quiet weeks now and then we'll head to Hartpury for the RoR class which runs over the Corinthian Cup course
View attachment 163293
Fantastic result, well done- he's an absolute model of consistency, what a good boy!
TheMule
Well-Known Member
Portman BE100+
Nova is starting to make 100s pretty straightforward so I'm having to relocate my brave pants (that I last remember having on his mother about a gazillion years ago
). He's not quite ready for Novice xc yet so I'm trying to do some of these stepping stone classes, though there aren’t that many around. 100+ is a BE Novice dressage test, 105 SJ but just the 100 xc.
I was pleased with his first attempt at the harder test; loads to improve, a couple of mistakes and plenty of homework to do for a 35.5.
SJ looked a bit disappointingly small but it wasn’t an easy arena and it was reasonably technical. I think maybe my eye is just ready for bigger courses (I do a lot of BS at 1.05), but anyway, he warmed up well (working on not letting him take over and dictate the stride pattern) and jumped a good round with just a very casual rub of a small upright for 4 faults.
Xc he was ace- he has just improved and improved this season and feels like a proper horse now. He made it feel all very easy and was in danger of being too fast again but we came in bang on our 15 second window. I can’t believe that the horse who used to struggle with the time at 90 and who I was pretty convinced would never get the time at 100 is now consistently making the time easily.
Next up are the RFs at Bicton and then the 105 at Wellington
Vlog here for anyone interested
Nova is starting to make 100s pretty straightforward so I'm having to relocate my brave pants (that I last remember having on his mother about a gazillion years ago
). He's not quite ready for Novice xc yet so I'm trying to do some of these stepping stone classes, though there aren’t that many around. 100+ is a BE Novice dressage test, 105 SJ but just the 100 xc.I was pleased with his first attempt at the harder test; loads to improve, a couple of mistakes and plenty of homework to do for a 35.5.
SJ looked a bit disappointingly small but it wasn’t an easy arena and it was reasonably technical. I think maybe my eye is just ready for bigger courses (I do a lot of BS at 1.05), but anyway, he warmed up well (working on not letting him take over and dictate the stride pattern) and jumped a good round with just a very casual rub of a small upright for 4 faults.
Xc he was ace- he has just improved and improved this season and feels like a proper horse now. He made it feel all very easy and was in danger of being too fast again but we came in bang on our 15 second window. I can’t believe that the horse who used to struggle with the time at 90 and who I was pretty convinced would never get the time at 100 is now consistently making the time easily.
Next up are the RFs at Bicton and then the 105 at Wellington
Vlog here for anyone interested
RachelFerd
Well-Known Member
I forgot to reply to this to say very well done - cracking result with the increased dressage and SJ ask!
RachelFerd
Well-Known Member
another I love my horse post incoming!
We went to Hartpury international/ the Festival of British Eventing (now that it's sadly no longer at Gatcombe). Bit of a sombre drive down there having heard the terrible news from Aston and thinking of everyone connected to Sarah.
We were doing the RoR championship class, which is run at Open Novice level (used to be IN but they've downgraded it....) and this year it had a larger than usual entry of 18 combinations because all the pros are very interested in winning the £45,000 first prize in the thoroughbreds class at Cornbury next month!!
The dressage was a 20x60 test in a very decorated indoor arena. My chap did a typically unexciting and unremarkable test with very little to penalise him for, but not much to give him great marks for either. Other than his favourite thing, the stretchy trot circle, which got an 8. Unfortunately I got quite distracted by the judge at C standing up as I went onto the final centreline that I forgot to halt in the correct place and ended up with an EOC mark for halting too late- agh! I didn't realise that championship judges sometimes stand up when you're going up the C/L - I assumed that he was about to tell me something was wrong!! Anyway - we finished this on 35.3 which was in 13th of 18 - so not terrible but not great.
Later on on Saturday afternoon we were showjumping - same track as the Corinthian Cup restricted novice champs. Simon warmed up pretty unimpressively - tapping out 2 tiny uprights before waking up a bit... but then he went in the ring, realised it was a big occasion with lots of tradestands and people around and absolutely pinged his way around for a cracking clear With that, we climbed up to 8th!
We then had a little overnight stay ready for XC this morning. I walked the course twice on the saturday and my overall impression was of a course that wasn't particularly technical, but did need horses to be quite bold and brave - particularly to a tricky first water complex where the palisade brush to jump in had a steep downward slope to it. It turned out that the XC time was also *much* tighter than normal - whoever wheeled that course really wheeled a very tight line to create the optimum time (!!)
Anyway - Simon was brilliant. Absolutely foot perfect all the way, bold as anything into the first water which caused loads of trouble. Just kept running and jumping and picked up everything that I pointed him at with no questions asked. I felt like I went pretty flat out, but we still ended up three seconds over the optimum time. I think the only way I could've gone faster would have been out of the start box to the first and second fences! Anyway - we were still 3rd fastest round out of a class of ex racehorses, which is definitely nothing to sniff at. The clear and quick XC also meant we went climbing again to finish an eventual 4th. We also had some lovely commentary from Lucinda Green on the H&C stream which has made my day
As ever, just a pleasure to be riding a horse that I know so well and who tries his absolute best for me.
We went to Hartpury international/ the Festival of British Eventing (now that it's sadly no longer at Gatcombe). Bit of a sombre drive down there having heard the terrible news from Aston and thinking of everyone connected to Sarah.
We were doing the RoR championship class, which is run at Open Novice level (used to be IN but they've downgraded it....) and this year it had a larger than usual entry of 18 combinations because all the pros are very interested in winning the £45,000 first prize in the thoroughbreds class at Cornbury next month!!
The dressage was a 20x60 test in a very decorated indoor arena. My chap did a typically unexciting and unremarkable test with very little to penalise him for, but not much to give him great marks for either. Other than his favourite thing, the stretchy trot circle, which got an 8. Unfortunately I got quite distracted by the judge at C standing up as I went onto the final centreline that I forgot to halt in the correct place and ended up with an EOC mark for halting too late- agh! I didn't realise that championship judges sometimes stand up when you're going up the C/L - I assumed that he was about to tell me something was wrong!! Anyway - we finished this on 35.3 which was in 13th of 18 - so not terrible but not great.
Later on on Saturday afternoon we were showjumping - same track as the Corinthian Cup restricted novice champs. Simon warmed up pretty unimpressively - tapping out 2 tiny uprights before waking up a bit... but then he went in the ring, realised it was a big occasion with lots of tradestands and people around and absolutely pinged his way around for a cracking clear
With that, we climbed up to 8th!We then had a little overnight stay ready for XC this morning. I walked the course twice on the saturday and my overall impression was of a course that wasn't particularly technical, but did need horses to be quite bold and brave - particularly to a tricky first water complex where the palisade brush to jump in had a steep downward slope to it. It turned out that the XC time was also *much* tighter than normal - whoever wheeled that course really wheeled a very tight line to create the optimum time (!!)
Anyway - Simon was brilliant. Absolutely foot perfect all the way, bold as anything into the first water which caused loads of trouble. Just kept running and jumping and picked up everything that I pointed him at with no questions asked. I felt like I went pretty flat out, but we still ended up three seconds over the optimum time. I think the only way I could've gone faster would have been out of the start box to the first and second fences! Anyway - we were still 3rd fastest round out of a class of ex racehorses, which is definitely nothing to sniff at. The clear and quick XC also meant we went climbing again to finish an eventual 4th. We also had some lovely commentary from Lucinda Green on the H&C stream which has made my day
As ever, just a pleasure to be riding a horse that I know so well and who tries his absolute best for me.
TheMule
Well-Known Member
Thank you!
Unfortunately we’ve hit a snag and he missed his Regional Final with a virus. He’s well again and hopefully back on track for Wellington, but we’re probably going to have to trek up to Chillington if we do want to do a Badminton qualifier
RachelFerd
Well-Known Member
Definitely worth the trek to give it a shot though!
ihatework
Well-Known Member
Amazing result, well done RF!
ETA - just watched the vid, he jumps out of the most beautiful rhythm- that first water was just textbook
ETA - just watched the vid, he jumps out of the most beautiful rhythm- that first water was just textbook
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TheMule
Well-Known Member
another I love my horse post incoming!
We went to Hartpury international/ the Festival of British Eventing (now that it's sadly no longer at Gatcombe). Bit of a sombre drive down there having heard the terrible news from Aston and thinking of everyone connected to Sarah.
We were doing the RoR championship class, which is run at Open Novice level (used to be IN but they've downgraded it....) and this year it had a larger than usual entry of 18 combinations because all the pros are very interested in winning the £45,000 first prize in the thoroughbreds class at Cornbury next month!!
The dressage was a 20x60 test in a very decorated indoor arena. My chap did a typically unexciting and unremarkable test with very little to penalise him for, but not much to give him great marks for either. Other than his favourite thing, the stretchy trot circle, which got an 8. Unfortunately I got quite distracted by the judge at C standing up as I went onto the final centreline that I forgot to halt in the correct place and ended up with an EOC mark for halting too late- agh! I didn't realise that championship judges sometimes stand up when you're going up the C/L - I assumed that he was about to tell me something was wrong!! Anyway - we finished this on 35.3 which was in 13th of 18 - so not terrible but not great.
Later on on Saturday afternoon we were showjumping - same track as the Corinthian Cup restricted novice champs. Simon warmed up pretty unimpressively - tapping out 2 tiny uprights before waking up a bit... but then he went in the ring, realised it was a big occasion with lots of tradestands and people around and absolutely pinged his way around for a cracking clear
We then had a little overnight stay ready for XC this morning. I walked the course twice on the saturday and my overall impression was of a course that wasn't particularly technical, but did need horses to be quite bold and brave - particularly to a tricky first water complex where the palisade brush to jump in had a steep downward slope to it. It turned out that the XC time was also *much* tighter than normal - whoever wheeled that course really wheeled a very tight line to create the optimum time (!!)
Anyway - Simon was brilliant. Absolutely foot perfect all the way, bold as anything into the first water which caused loads of trouble. Just kept running and jumping and picked up everything that I pointed him at with no questions asked. I felt like I went pretty flat out, but we still ended up three seconds over the optimum time. I think the only way I could've gone faster would have been out of the start box to the first and second fences! Anyway - we were still 3rd fastest round out of a class of ex racehorses, which is definitely nothing to sniff at. The clear and quick XC also meant we went climbing again to finish an eventual 4th. We also had some lovely commentary from Lucinda Green on the H&C stream which has made my day
As ever, just a pleasure to be riding a horse that I know so well and who tries his absolute best for me.
View attachment 164730
View attachment 164731
What a little legend!!
Well done, it's a huge achievement to even get there, let alone to be so competitive.
LEC
Opinions are like bum holes, everyone has one.
I saw your great result while stalking. Has ROR slackened up on what is an ex racehorse now? Can those just with wetherbys passports do it now?
RachelFerd
Well-Known Member
Yeah they have. I don't think the horses that Oli T or Harry Dzenis were riding would have been eligible under old rules. Unless Oli's P2Ped in the UK under a different name... We've been puzzling over it!
Also interesting that of the top 5 horses, It's only my horse that hasn't been produced by a British team rider at some point in its life. Which is more credit to my horse's trainability!
humblepie
Well-Known Member
Congratulations and what amazing photos. He is such a super boy.
In general I’m not for opening up the big RoR things to non raced though do understand there needs to be an avenue for those horses. That said there’s been a few in training for the minimum 14 days then run once and pulled up just to qualify RoR which isn’t really in the spirit of things.
In general I’m not for opening up the big RoR things to non raced though do understand there needs to be an avenue for those horses. That said there’s been a few in training for the minimum 14 days then run once and pulled up just to qualify RoR which isn’t really in the spirit of things.