Lots of New Experiences with Success!
My youngest Alberta’s Pride has been busy over the last month, participating in a dressage competition which he absolutely nailed with a score of 69.5% to win, earning his very first red rosette, the first of many I hope! He also completed a second one day event, this time at Isleham, Cambridge.
He produced another solid dressage test for a score of 30.3, then went onto complete a lovely clear showjumping round. The cross country course caught us out at a tricky combination, which I consider was quiet tricky for this level. Steering is rather a problem for us at the moment, however, after a quick circle, we represented and cleared it second time round, successfully completing the course.
One thing I was hugely pleased with, during this round, was our approach and undertaking of the two water complexes (which we have previously been cautious of) But not this time though, as he just stormed straight into both; NOW that’s progress!
The following week saw both Alberta’s Pride and Alberta’s Rose tackling a local Riding Club eventer trial. This was Alberta’s Pride’s first 90cm class. He jumped a lovely round of coloured fences, just tipping a couple rails. He stormed the cross-country and gave a super brave round, which set him up very nicely for his first 90cm one day event in a couple of weeks time. Alberta’s Rose had a bit of a fun run round the 90cm too for an easy double clear.
A day out to Chilham Castle for Alberta’s Rose and Crystal Ka was also on the cards, where Alberta’s Rose produced another confident dressage test, then jumped her best showjumping round to date and an educational run cross country followed.
Crystal Ka however, considering it was only supposed to be a fun run round due to the abandonment of his previous event, disgraced himself in both the dressage and the cross-country! The only positive thing to come from the day was the showjumping round, but hey, that’s horses and eventing for you!
“Crystal Ka however disgraced himself in both the dressage and the cross-country”
He did go on to redeem himself a couple of weeks later at Aston le Walls in the Intermediate class where he produced a safe dressage test, a nice showjumping round and a super easy, clear cross country! Very nice it was too, getting the first Intermediate run of the season under our belt!
Crystal Ka and I later went on to compete in our very first Advanced Intermediate at Rockinham Castle. Again he was a bit of a devil in the warm up for his dressage test, resulting in an explosion as I trotted towards the arena. I’m not sure how, but I did manage to contain him for a settled but tense test. On my way out, I was stopped by none other than Lucinda Green telling me how she had just spent the last 6 minutes admiring how well I managed to contain him throughout the test considering what she saw him do on his way in!!!
“On my way out, I was stopped by none other than Lucinda Green telling me how she had just spent the last 6 minutes admiring how well I managed to contain him throughout the test considering what she saw him do on his way in!!!”
A bit of a lengthy wait before my showjumping gave me a chance to walk the cross-country. I absolutely love Rockingham Castle, it gives such a big feel to the event and the course runs over the most beautiful ground, so I was very keen to ride round. Sadly however, I was disappointed with the overall ground condition. I had not realised just how much rain had fallen in the run up to the event.
Apparently, they were about half an hour away from abandoning the entire day on Sunday before the rain finally stopped. This sparked concerns for me because my boy is not good with deep going, as he really does have tiny hooves and little legs which do sink in rather too much. He much prefers running across firmer ground and because of his age and level of experience, I decided not to risk him for fear of injury. After all, it was an Intermediate level cross-country course so my aim for the day was to complete the advanced dressage and show-jumping.
So after deciding not to run cross-country I focused my efforts on my show-jump round instead. Again because of all the rain the showjumping arena was pretty cut up too! Fortunately as ours was a new class, the ground crew moved all the fences a little to the left to give us fresh ground to jump on which, made all the difference. The course was huge and pretty technical with short and long distances including dog leg lines etc, so I was very pleased to actually get an advanced showjumping round under our belt, albeit with a couple of rails down due to me getting a little bit of an adrenaline rush down the treble!
Crystal Ka heads to Little Downham next to undertake a full on Advanced class; that is if I put my brave pants on that morning, so please do send me your positive vibes as I think we are going to need all the help we can get!!
Until next time…
Victoria Bax
Photos by Thoroughbred Sports Photography
Suzanne Ashton, Founder of Everything Horse (Est, 2012), has a BA Hons in Marketing Management and a Diploma in Equine Science. Suzanne has ridden and owned horses all her life and has twelve years of experience in marketing, writing, design, SEO, and website creation.