I was really pleased with Harley's warm up as in the past at this event he's bubbled over in the warm up. We went in to our test and felt he did a good job in a test that doesn't particularly suit him as you have to walk down the center line at the end. If anything we felt he maybe should have been a little more uphill but for a BE90 test we felt he was relaxed and hit all the marks in terms of transitions. We expected a score between 34-37 so I was shocked and rather upset to be given 44 which was 11 marks worse than our Burgham test! However, the online results show we got 42 so not 100% sure what we got but either way it was in our opinion a harsh mark especially when that lest us 5th worse in a 40 horse section and 20 marks off the leaders! We've decided to put it down to the judge just unfortunately not liking him (which sadly seems to happen with a thoroughbred more than I'd like at the lower levels). But I'd be grateful of anyone who'd take the time to view the video and share opinions.
We then had a nice quick change over for the XC and all I can say is that he was a joy to ride and was lovely to steer. We ended up with 6 time faults which I put down to myself as I was babying him in terms of not letting the handbrake off as I wasn't 100% about his fitness. Yet I shouldn't have been worried as he's stopped blowing even before we got back to the lorry.
So over all a frustrating day on the score board but a day where you know yourself that you and your horse performed much better!