| Style | Round 1 | Round 2 |
| Horse’s balance & Rhythm | 6 | 8 |
| Horse’s pace & quality of the jump | 6 | 7.5 |
| Rider’s ability to present the horse correctly to the fence and ride accurate lines | 5 | 7.5 |
| Rider’s position, balance and ability to follow the horse’s movement over the fence | 14 | 15 |
| Jumping Penalties | 4 (fence 5) | 8 (fences 4 and 9) |
| Total style Marks | Style Penalties | Total Jumping Faults | Score |
| 69/100 | 31 | 12 | 43 |
BE Accredited Coach David Sheerin was coaching the working-in phase and International event rider Nick Gauntlett judged the class.
It was not our day today!
The warm up phase went well, David Sheerin said that Finn’s ‘flashy trot’ kept catching his eye as he was working in other horses. David suggested walk to canter transitions to get Finn really moving off the leg. we jumped well and concentrated on balance and rhythm. Finn felt good.
The indoor school made for a tight track, so I concentrated on balance and rhythm, ensuring that I used the arena to best advantage and gave Finn plenty of room. The first round felt good, but we had a silly fence down – an oxer at fence 5. Nick Gauntlett said that the round was accurate and that the floor plan was very good – but we needed to be 30% faster as he believed we would have got time faults with the first round. I was surprised by this. So I went for it in the second round – and it just didn’t work…… We were not as balanced and had 2 fences; I was annoyed with myself as I should have just kept to Nigel Taylor’s advice rather than chasing Finn around the course. At the end of the second round Nick Gauntlett said that he preferred the pace in the second round. We were 10 seconds inside the time on round 2.
Comments were:
1st round – very accurate floor plan – good lines but underpowered. Needs 20% more canter. Aim to get used to travelling at that speed and be able to be as accurate.
2nd round – was probably a touch fast, but for the future it needs to be at a better pace. Remember when going faster you still need to balance the horse.
I don’t understand the comments relative to the scores in round 1- especially the “Horse’s balance & Rhythm” (6) and the “Rider’s ability to present the horse correctly to the fence and ride accurate lines” (5).
Never mind – will put it down to experience and ensure I do what I know is right for us in the future.