So, the end of the season was a little more relaxed than the beginning and finally we had some good results!!
Burnham Market
Again mixed fortunes at Burnham. It is one of my favourite events, but not this time.
Sonic was well behaved in the dressage, but mentally, it is proving a little more difficult than I first thought to bring him back into work. This was proved yet again in the Show Jumping as he found it all a bit much and was a little over exuberant - which meant we had a couple down and yet another schooling round XC. Which was very good.
Maybe Cavalier did a lovely test and an ok SJ round for him - he just got caught out on the last treble. He put in, yet again, another amazing cross country round. Unfortunately, he finished lame and results have since shown a tiny hair line fracture on his pedal bone, which has meant he is now out for the rest of the season. The prognosis is very good and he will be good for next season. Then in a strange twist of fate, it turned out that he had been balloted out of Weston Park, so for once we got our money back and all was right in the world. And after all that we still finished 8th.
South of England
Yet another long day. Not quite so busy this time as Maybe Cavalier was due to run here, so that only left me with Sonic Boom and Star Quality. Star Quality proved himself to be full of fitness and was what could only be described as "stupid" in the dressage, where we finished last!! (he did deserve it).
Sonic was good, but it was a very hotly contested section, so with the unfortunate rolling of the last pole in the show jumping it left us out of it.
Star Quality, however jumped a lovely double clear as did Sonic cross country. Nearly there!!
Oasby
Yet another mid-week crammed-in rushed event. Thank God it was only just down the road.
Hermes was in the dressage. He was awful and got a 42, followed by a lovely double clear. Star Quality had a great dressage, 3 down SJ (!) clear XC (felt a little tired, but got a great cover shot on Eventing mag from it). Jakata: a 27 dressage, clear SJ and ran off with me XC.. Straight past a fence!
Another day of them all being amazing, but each had an expensive mistake, meaning no more rosettes.
Weston Park
Sonic's 3 day run and a very relaxing week.
A little annoying though.. He did an amazing dressage, which I got a 60 for but I was not happy. Then he was amazing cross country until the last water, where he decided to change his mind half way into it and reverse off the fence, which was such a shame. It was such a good round, marred by a stupid fence. Then Show Jumping, he was just lazy. Had two down and shouldn't have had any. However, it then made me decide to drag the season out for another couple of events as I was feeling completly unsatisfied.
Little Downham (..and a new lorry. Very exciting. But I can't find anything in it though...)
Another busy day. Jakata was having a final slow run before his holiday and Sonic and Star Quality before their trip to Avanche. Jakata had a silly SJ down. So did Star Quality. Sonic finally jumped a clear and then we jumped three lovely cross country rounds.
Both Jakata and Sonic managed to steal a rosette too! They were 7th and 9th.
Avenches
Off to Switzerland!
A very exciting trip. It took two days to get there, with a stop over night at Reims and it was worth the drive.
It is the biggest equestrian centre in Europe and the facilities were amazing. Everything was on sand, including all the warm-up arenas. Sonic performed very well in his dressage, but I made a small mistake so I was quite pleased with our 56. Star Quality did a 63, which I was really pleased with. He could have done better, but he kept his cool, which was the main thing.
Cross country. They were both really superb. The course wasn't as big as some of the two stars over here, but it was certainly as technical. The course suited them both, so both were clear inside the time, bringing Sonic into 10th and Star Quality in to 17th.
