Gatcombe BYEH 5yr olds

[coedcae]

Somewhat belated report from Gatcombe. What a day

Firstly it took 3 hours to get there, when it should have taken 2 hrs max. I have to say the sign posting to and from the event was rubbish and in the end I had to leave my lorry, run up to some traffic lights and knock on the passenger door of some poor unsuspecting woman driving her own horsebox and ask which way it was to Gatcombe. She nearly jumped out of her skin

So we arrived hot, sweaty and stressed but had luckily allowed plenty of time hoping to do some shopping, that went out the window.
Went and had a quick look at the dressage arena and SJ and my fears of all week were quickly comfirmed, it was huge. Made worse by the fact that it was roped off so you couldnt even get near to the jumps, let alone walk the course.
All the big names were there and I felt like a complete imposter. Coupled with the journey from hell and then not being able to find secretaries tent, I was ready to go straight back home. But hey ho, I thought 'you've paid your entry, might as well go through with it'.
I had William Fox Pitt in a few before me and Lucinda Fredericks straight after, so quite a crowd had gathered. Frank was a little over whelmed by all the people and also the flags but he tried his little socks off. The SJing wasnt pretty, I have never jumped him over 95cm, so was a bit hit and miss but we only had the last fence down. We scored 21 in the dressage, 23 in the SJing and 13 for the conformation, total 57. We were way off the leaders on 70 something but we werent last, I was so made up

Here he is in the dressage

 

[Sarah_Jane]

Well done - lovely picture, looks a really nice hore I bet you are thrilled.

 

[sfward]

Well done, he looks really lovely...

I had a similar experience at the BYEH at Richmond, left me with a bad taste in my mouth i have to say. The horse went lovely and jumped a beautiful clear round but our marks were average to say the least, I left thinking that maybe if I'd had a sponsors logo on my saddle cloth and a famous name (and also not been first in) the same efforts might have been better rewarded in terms of marks...!

Will have been really good experience for your horse though so you're right to be pleased with him

 

[DollyPentreath]

Well done, the piccy looks lovely too.

Have you got any other BYEH classes lined up for him?

 

[viola]

Well done! I will (hopefully) be in the same situation next year - that is if I will be brave enough to go!

 

[cheeky girl]

Well done Frank looks great. All good experience for him as well. I would of been scared as well

 

[coedcae]

Hi Shaab, No, I thought I'd just do one because I can, cos he's 5

I'd prefer to do some more Intro's and maybe a PN at the end of the season with him
I agree with donadea, that it is a class for the Pro's really. But I kind of knew it would be like that, so wasnt going with any great expectations, more for the experience. As Cheeky Girl said the entry list read like a "who's who" of eventing and the class seems to be used as a tool for selling horses or for stallions to gain valuable credentials.
I think I was one of only two people out of 50 entries, who was an owner/rider

 

[Nickymac]

He looks like a lovely stamp of a horse and you should be pleased that he coped with it all really well - I bet there was quite a bit of "atmosphere" there.

I can sympathise with you about it being a class for the pros, but I think it's good mileage for them to get out and about as long as you can keep clear in your head that a) you really like your horse, that's why you own it, and b) you're happy with how your horse performed on that day, and c) you are pretty confident that your horse will go on and event at the level you want to event at. My horse is SO not the type that they like yet he performs well enough, I have a huge amount of fun on him and I think he'll make a good event horse (eventually!) He qualified last year and came nowhere (he was pretty goofy at the final) and has qualified again this year, having been in the top ten on his three BYEH outings. I know I won't be anywhere in the final but thankfully my livelihood doesn't depend on my selling him after the final, or taking the judges' opinions that seriously that I'll think he's a failure if they don't like him!

 

[christine48]

Frank is a really smart horse and you should be proud of him. Gatcombe would be one of the more competative qualifiers (like Bramham) with a lot of the professionals there with their young horses. go uot and have some fun with him eventing where it isn't so subjective.