Show report (hello, nerves, my old friend... long time no see)

[blood_magik]

What is it about competing that turns even the most competent of riders into a sweaty, shaking mess?
Answers on a postcard please because the state I got myself into this morning was ridiculous, even for me.

Truth be told, I really only have myself to blame. It's been about seven months since I last took Beau out jumping so, naturally, all I could think about was everything that could go wrong in the ring - getting a duff stride, Beau being sore and stopping, Beau being a nightmare in the warm-up and having to take him out/get off, falling off... you name it, I imagined it happening.
I was in two minds after walking the course but decided I'd better go through with it after imagining the b*****king I'd get from my dad if I didn't.

Because Beau can be a bit of an idiot in the warm-up, I'd asked if I could possibly go early in the draw so the ring would be quiet and he'd have plenty of space. We luckily ended up being drawn second to go so there was only one other person in while we were warming up and for once, I managed to get through without getting a duff stride into any of the fences.

And then we made it into the ring without Beau trying to nap at the gate.

I made a point of showing him the yellow box fillers at number ten before we came round to the first as it had been a while since we'd jumped them but Beau didn't seem bothered and was off just as soon as I put my leg on to ask for canter. He felt really up for it so I let him set the pace and it seemed to pay off as we hit pretty much every fence where we needed to. There were a few iffy moments - we took a stride out between one and two, the turn from four to five and six b to seven (lost a bit of momentum through the turn when Beau changed lead), overshot the turn to ten - but apart from that I think it was a pretty effective round.

Unfortunately we were just pipped to the post and ended up coming in second by 0.2 seconds. But I can't complain - Beau felt like he could have jumped the moon.

[video=youtube;7lCeh44pEjk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lCeh44pEjk[/video]

Tomorrow it's Blue's turn and to say I'm bricking it would be an understatement. Hopefully I won't mess it up.

 

[Theocat]

Lovely to read If it makes you feel any better, tomorrow I will be in floods of tears with fright when I attempt to ride an Intro test

 

[dixie]

That was a lovely round, well done. Nice forward and flowing.
Good luck tomorrow and hope the nerves improve. Positive thoughts !

 

[Girlracer]

Fantastic, congratulations on your second place. Gorgeous horse, and I know what you mean about nerves - the amount of possibilities for it to go wrong my brain comes up with when we go competing is ridiculous!

 

[PaddyMonty]

The sort of round I bet many wish they could do.

 

[blood_magik]

Lovely to read If it makes you feel any better, tomorrow I will be in floods of tears with fright when I attempt to ride an Intro test

I really don't know what it is about jumping that makes me so nervous - I'd happily go out and do a dressage test or showing show all day every day but sometimes even the thought of leaving the ground makes me feel sick.

Good luck with your test. I hope you'll come back and let us know how you got on?

That was a lovely round, well done. Nice forward and flowing.
Good luck tomorrow and hope the nerves improve. Positive thoughts !

Thank you.
Truth be told, I didn't have much control as I would have liked but it's funny how those sorts of rounds tend to look a lot better than they feel when you watch them back. I do tend to ride backwards when I'm nervous but I could have done with having a bit more of a say in where we took off from at some of the fences. Thank god he's so honest - I'd have gone straight over his head if he'd decided to stop.

I felt better about jumping today. I have a video and some pics to post so will pop them in a new thread in a little bit.

Fantastic, congratulations on your second place. Gorgeous horse, and I know what you mean about nerves - the amount of possibilities for it to go wrong my brain comes up with when we go competing is ridiculous!

Thanks. I was really chuffed with the placing (even if I was a little disappointed that we had been so close to winning only to be beaten by milliseconds).

The sort of round I bet many wish they could do.

I'm probably going to jinx myself for next weekend here but I think that was the best round I've ever ridden. I normally get at least one duff stride .