Dressage Test: BE102 (2010) | Judge: Vikki Hayton | Dressage Mark: 36.0 |
SJ Jumping Penalties: 8 | SJ Time Penalties: 0 | |
XC Jumping Penalties: 40 | XC Time Penalties: 15.6 | XC Time: 5min 30secs |
XC Distance: 2300m | XC Optimum Time: 4m 51 secs | Placing: 25th (last) |
Total Penalties: 99.6 |
The very final event of the season – I enjoyed Norton Disney so much last year that I was excited to be back. I chose this, the final event, to upgrade from BE90 to BE100. There was mixed opinion on this – but I was determined to test our mettle!
Dressage was a little bit ‘stressy’ resulting in a 36. the Judge’s comments were: “The marks will be there when your lovely horse is able to work more uphill with pushing confident steps”.
The SJ warm up was not ideal – Finn had a stop at the spread (which was quite big to be fair) but cleared it on second attempt. I was much more committed in the ring and Finn tried really hard. We had the two uprights leaving us with 8 faults.
I really enjoyed the XC, and so did Finn – we had 2 problems on course: fence 5 – the open corner where Finn ducked out to the left; and the B element of fence 8 (log and trunk), Finn launched over the log and I lost my reins – I then didn’t get the knitting back together quickly enough to set up for the trunk 2 strides away down the hill. I circled and jumped it second time.
Fence 13 A & B was a roll top to a ditch – which Finn just flew! Yahoo!! Have we cracked the ditch phobia!?!? I was so happy – and you can see from the photos that Finn was having a ball. It doesn’t even look like she’s stretching!
On paper, the event was a disaster! But I was so thrilled with how we coped with the questions – I now know that we are more than capable of competing at BE100; and able to thoroughly enjoy it! Roll on next season……