Our second outing since lock-down; with the same rules as last weekend, I had pre-entered the 85 and 90 again. Adam Botham was on hand again to help working in. He remembered us from last weekend – even remembered Nash’s tendency to creep to the right. He commented how much straighter we were and that I was riding much better – with a better quality canter and much more accurate turns. I did get it very wrong at one of the practice fences and Nash took a stride out! Although I was a bit surprised, Adam said that because I was in balance and the quality of the canter was good Nash managed it easily and was showing a bit more scope!
Into the ring for the 85cm class – Nash felt very confident and was not nearly as spooky as he was in the wind last weekend. It was an odd course, with lots of cantering space between the jumps – there were 14 fences, but 15 jumping efforts with a one stride double at 11. Nash jumped a lovely rhythmical round, with one mistake from me due to the long run between fence 11b and 12 – I let him run on too much and arrived at the fence (upright planks) a bit flat and too close – so 4 faults there, but very pleased with his focus and my riding.
A short break of about 20 minutes before my time for the 90cm class. I walked him around the grass arena and then in for a very quick warm up before the class.
I was much more aware of the long runs between fences and made sure Nash stayed in balance and I didn’t push him on too much this time, resulting in a lovely clear round. I did make a couple of mistakes and got too close a couple of times (look at how hard he’s trying over the green frog fence at number 7) but Nash was very genuine and tried so hard to jump clear – such a good boy and he obviously loves it! Thrilled with him again today – looking forward to our first BS show next weekend!!!