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Late August and September 2006
I haven't been to Blenheim for a few years and I had forgotten how beautiful it was.
I had Jakata running along with his stable mate Mitch (11.2hh companion) coming along to help Troy keep his cool. And he did. He was a lot calmer in the dressage, still a bit tense in the trot, but kept his cool and did his changes all roughly in the right place leaving me with 61 dressage, some 5 marks better than Bramham a couple of months ago. Then we just had time for a Chinese in Woodstock, where Julie Tew and myself got talked into doing a pony club course walk, which seemed like a great idea at the time, not so great the next day with fifty kids staring at you! Luckily it all went to plan and I really enjoyed telling them how to ride the fences that they thought were enormous and I thought were let ups!
The cross country all went to plan. Troy behaved amazingly well and did a foot perfect round apart from the second last where we had a small steering issue at the 2nd arrow head and took the flag with us. Fortunately you are allowed to do that! So we finished with just over 10 time penalties.
Trot up went well, then show jumping. A big track, built a little bit like a jump off! We just made one mistake, where he just fell in a little round the corner towards fence 5, so it came down, but otherwise jumped clear with 4 time penalties.
So we finished a very respectable 20th again, which I was more than happy with. Troy will now have a break before he comes in early to get ready for Badminton in the spring!
Henbury Hall (with Sonic)
Just Sonic Boom today, so quite a long drive just for one, but well worth it. We ended up being little short of time due to traffic on the M6, which led to a sprint round the cross country, followed by a 5 minute warm up for the dressage and then by quite a nice test! We were placed 2nd after the dressage!
Unfortunately the show jumping was then our downfall, where we had two down. A lot of people suffered the same fate - the event has quite a small show jumping ring and Sonic had a little trouble sitting up in time for the next fence. The cross country was very bold, also still quite technical, and at maximum distance which actually suited him. But when I came home with 20 time penalties, I thought we had blown it. Luckily not, we managed a fifth place for our efforts.
Had a weekend off relaxing at Burghley and then back to business.
Had three running, so a very early start, and straight into Star Quality's dressage where he performed a reasonable test giving him a 36 which was ok in his section. Then straight in to a foot perfect double clear, which unfortunately left us just out of the prizes, finishing twelfth.
Then to Sonic. He performed yet another good test leaving him on 37, but that was in fourth place after the dressage. He then got on a lot better with the bigger show jumping ring completing a foot perfect round and doing the same cross country to finish 2nd!
Then to Hermes. And he had brought his fan club along! He did a lovely test, giving him a 31.9 and also another double clear, but he is not ready to go super fast so got 10 time penalties, which made him an eventual 7th.
Quite a good day overall!
Just a quick trip down the road with Hermes!
He is obviously a little bored of dressage, so lacked a little bit of sparkle today and came home with a fair, but average mark. However, his jumping was foot perfect for the second weekend in a row and his cross country also, just picking up a few time penalties. Unfortunately, those time penalties dropped me into 9th place, but another point and we were all happy.
South of England (with Sonic)
Yet another one horse outing as Star Quality is a little under the weather at the moment. So, it's all down to Sonic Boom, who fortunately copes with pressure very well!
He put in another polished performance in all three phases. His dressage could have been a little better, but we were a little late, so I was a little short on time. The judge liked it and followed by a perfect double clear meant that we finished 2nd again.
Now Sonic has upgraded in points to Advanced!!!!
Witton Castle (with Sonic)
Advanced in points meant it was about time we did a real one, so we hitched a ride to Witton with Richard Jones and off we went.
Dressage was a little wobbly and had a wrong strike off through a simple change, but the half pass looked like a half pass and we came out with a very respectable 38.
Very big showjumping. That didn't phase him at all. Just tapped one out at the last part of the treble, but otherwise a very good round. Then we finished off with the most copy book clear round you have ever seen across the country. We went quite slowly and amassed 33 time penalties. However, that is still a qualifying result.
So now, Advanced in points and advanced in stature!!
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