AandK
Well-Known Member
so the first event of the season has been and gone and what a day we had.!!
as i live about an hour away from Stilemans i decided to brave the wind and rain on Friday avo and walked the course then, never been there before but it is lovely.. nice and straight forward for the first run of 2008.
i was in section B along with Pippa Funnel, WFP, Mary King and Lucinda Green, wow.!!
arrived and got ready for phase 1, all quite stress free (Andy is an angel at shows) apart from my stud holes being full of stud-hole-sized stones (AandK will always do stud holes the night before from this moment on) but after much faffing and cursing i managed to get 1 stud in each shoe..
warming up Andy was quite lively (for him anyway) nice and forward but quite strong, i was regretting not putting on the flash strap.! did our test, was pleased, quite strong but controlable and managed to not get lost and stayed in the arena..
onto the SJ, the worst bit for us.!! he has been jumping so well recently so i was quietly confident we could do better than our usual cricket score... only jumped each warm-up fence twice and went in.. and WOW... he pinged round, i had control and was able to ride positivley into each fence it was amazing.!! we went clear.!!!!!!
i was extatic, made so much noise making a fuss of Andy coming out, what a good boy.!! and to top it off Lucinda Green was in the warm-up, must of heard me (you'd of had to be deaf not too) and she said 'what a trier, well done' so chuffed.!!!
by this time my friend had turned up and let me know we got a 33 in the dressage, clever boy.!
onto the fun bit, not worried by anything on the xc course as Andy is a star on xc so we got ready and walked to the start. warmed up well and 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and we're off...
it all felt so easy.! flying round through the water, came to fence 8, little bench with fur tree branches on it, he had a look at this just at the last minute and decided it was a bit scary and ducked out to the left.. oh sh*t.!!!! little b*ggar... gave him a smack and re-presented and he popped it nicley, flew on round the rest of the course like a pro, up the really steep hill (that was tough.!) and through the finish just 12 seconds over the o.t..
so i am kicking myself for not riding straighter/being more with it/having my left leg on more at frence 8 but to be honest it was a silly mistake and the rest was brill, felt so easy.!! and of course the clear in the SJ was just amazing.. (people who know Andy and i, know how much this means to us/me) so i am very pleased with our first event of 2008 and even more pleased i decided to be brave and go straight in at PN..!
on to Goring Heath next, i cannot wait.!!
thank you for reading..
Krissi and Andy.x
as i live about an hour away from Stilemans i decided to brave the wind and rain on Friday avo and walked the course then, never been there before but it is lovely.. nice and straight forward for the first run of 2008.
i was in section B along with Pippa Funnel, WFP, Mary King and Lucinda Green, wow.!!
arrived and got ready for phase 1, all quite stress free (Andy is an angel at shows) apart from my stud holes being full of stud-hole-sized stones (AandK will always do stud holes the night before from this moment on) but after much faffing and cursing i managed to get 1 stud in each shoe..
warming up Andy was quite lively (for him anyway) nice and forward but quite strong, i was regretting not putting on the flash strap.! did our test, was pleased, quite strong but controlable and managed to not get lost and stayed in the arena..
onto the SJ, the worst bit for us.!! he has been jumping so well recently so i was quietly confident we could do better than our usual cricket score... only jumped each warm-up fence twice and went in.. and WOW... he pinged round, i had control and was able to ride positivley into each fence it was amazing.!! we went clear.!!!!!!
by this time my friend had turned up and let me know we got a 33 in the dressage, clever boy.!
onto the fun bit, not worried by anything on the xc course as Andy is a star on xc so we got ready and walked to the start. warmed up well and 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and we're off...
it all felt so easy.! flying round through the water, came to fence 8, little bench with fur tree branches on it, he had a look at this just at the last minute and decided it was a bit scary and ducked out to the left.. oh sh*t.!!!! little b*ggar... gave him a smack and re-presented and he popped it nicley, flew on round the rest of the course like a pro, up the really steep hill (that was tough.!) and through the finish just 12 seconds over the o.t..
so i am kicking myself for not riding straighter/being more with it/having my left leg on more at frence 8 but to be honest it was a silly mistake and the rest was brill, felt so easy.!! and of course the clear in the SJ was just amazing.. (people who know Andy and i, know how much this means to us/me) so i am very pleased with our first event of 2008 and even more pleased i decided to be brave and go straight in at PN..!
on to Goring Heath next, i cannot wait.!!
thank you for reading..
Krissi and Andy.x
