
The weather was awful, in fact it was a good attempt of an apocalypse the clouds were that dark and the rain was falling so hard that you couldn’t see anything in front!
Luckily (or so we thought) the SJ was being held on a surface. But we ended up discovering how a surface can be even worse if not managed correctly. It was possibly the deepest I’ve ever jumped H on, and was not harrowed or rolled between classes depite having a tractor c. I was in half minds to withdraw but knowing it was a team even and the height and length of the course wasn’t big we went ahead. He was unlucky to get 4 faults in the first round (only two jumped clear and most had double figures) so we were very competitive and I was proud with how hard H was trying. For the second round the course was not changed which is certainly less than ideal for a very clever thoroughbred who learns things very quickly and gets excited if he has to repeat things! Unfortunately he got quite strong and due to the poor surface I was hesitant to check him too much as I knew he needed more energy than normal to jump due to it being so deep, so we had three down. However, due to everyone struggling our score was still quite competitive and over all I was happy with how he jumped and certainly felt going off the first round that all our recent lessons are starting to have an affect.
And apologies for the lack of videos or pictures but as stated below due to the weather there was no point trying to get anything unless we wanted a soggy camera!
Sadly though our team was piped to the post by our other clubs team (so we can’t be too annoyed!) but that means that once again just like the at the Horse trials myself and Harley are missing out on going to the champs by one place.
All I’m now hoping is that it’s a sign towards us having dressage success in July as we had the same SJ result last year in the SJ ring and then went on to great things in the dressage arena.
So here’s hoping!