We had our Riding Club area SJ meet on Sunday which was H’s first competition since the Festival of the Horse Championships.
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!

We traveled down to Aston Le Walls the day before as we felt the five hour journey there would be too much  to ask in one day; especially when you consider it would be another five hours home, plus asking H to do a show jump and cross country round in-between.

The weather was fab and we arrived at our accommodation by mid afternoon. The ponies had a nice little barn for the night and we managed a quick little hack around before going to walk the course which was only a few minutes away.

Firstly how amazing is Aston Le Walls! I admit I’m a little late to this party as it does seem to be the Mecca of eventing especially when the weather is so volatile (I think they’ve already had nearly 10 events there this year!). So I’m happy to report that I’ve finally broke my Aston Le Walls virginity and it didn’t go too badly.

When walking the course I felt it was a little disappointing as I’d heard that the course from the year below was really challenging and everyone agreed that it had been softened from the previous year. However, there was still plenty of question including a sunken road, double of corners, a water early on and the SJ was very colourful and busy ! I was also slightly apprehensive about how H would cope with going straight from SJ to XC mode. Previously factors like this have upset him as he normally requires a good warm up before XC and with no XC style jump in the warm up I was interested to see how he would cope.

For those who aren’t familiar with the eventer’s challenge format- you jump a course of show jumps and then after jumping the final SJ head straight out on to the XC (unlike in Eventing where you head back to the box to change stirrup lengths etc). This was something I appeared to forget and didn’t realise until I set off on XC and discovered my stirrups were much longer than usual!

But onto my round….

We had a little misunderstanding at the double in the SJ which upset him but I was really quite thrilled with the round and felt it was the best he’s gone- especially when going part the warm up arena which has in the past caused him to spook. I really feel that since using EquiFeast’s Optimax that his concentration levels have improved and his reaction going towards the XC only supported my feelings.

He also coped really well with the ‘closed’ complex which basically was a circle of jumps which allowed you the option to take different lines so long as you jumped in and out of the complex. I say this as the option I picked was quite a tight line and he picked up those tootsies and left the poles up!

After jumping the Riding Club fence we set off and what a ride my chap gave me! He made it feel very easy. We went rather slowly at I felt it was more important for us to get a good rhythm especially when looking at our long term goals for the season, plus this was our first event after Richmond where I hit the ground!

We went direct everywhere and he made it feel very easy which was so satisfying to know.

The only disappointing thing was discovering that my EquiFeast cloth which I was using tore (you can see my saddle pad flapping about in the video.) I’m not sure how we did it but we managed to rip the Velcro off at the front. Luckily H was enjoying himself too much to notice his repositioned pad, but now I’m going to have to try and work out how to fix it- which is a scary thought as my sowing isn’t the best!

And finally has anyone noticed something new about my attire thanks to How's Racesafe?  Many thanks to Steve and Georgie for the pics.

When we were going round I kept hearing snippets of the commentator who kept referring to us as ‘speedy’ Looking at the videos now I think we look really slow (even my instructor commented that we went steady) So imagine my shock when we recorded one the fasted rounds of the day and got heavily penalised for it!!!!!

Learning about my time penalties put a slight downer to the day but as a team we were all thrilled to learn that we had placed eighth out of  twenty two teams overall and finished sixth in the best of four competition.
Our clubs other team also had success and finished 4th over all and won the best of four, so we all traveled home very happy!

H had a well deserved nap on his Equibright bedding once he got in and a new Little Likit treat. But he was sure to tell everyone in  the field the next day about his exciting experience.

Once again Likit has come up with three new exciting flavours perfect for sunny days at the yard!
This season see’s the introduction of Pineapple, Mango and Strawberry to the Likit range and all are once again available in Standard and Little Likit sizes.

Mango is certainly the flavour for the horse who has the sweet tooth on the yard. This accolade in our yard certainly goes to Mr H, who when testing the Mango flavour, found himself enjoying it so much that his Tongue Twister almost spun off its bracket!

Pineapple proves a popular choice for those who prefer Apple, Mint and Watermelon flavours from the Likit Range. My old girl Shelley, certainly enjoyed hers!

And I think the Strawberry Likit’s are the perfect Likit flavour for the riders! Seriously it smells divine- exactly like strawberry Chewits and certainly made my tummy grumble! Sadly my ponies also agreed that they smelt very yummy and certainly didn’t leave any for me to enjoy!

The new Summer Likit’s are now on sale in your local tack shops or online; so don’t leave it too late as they’re already flying off the shelves and are only available for a limited time!