After the very frozen ground at Swalcliffe which resulted in so many withdrawals at the weekend I rang the secretary at Somerford to check the conditions before we left.
It very busy, it was like arriving at opening meet just after they had moved off. Over 70 horses were booked to school at Somerford yesterday, good job they have masses of room.
Mark and Tania Kyle, Oliver Townend and I think also Ruth Edge were some of the riders there schooling.
Icon loved it and bounced round excitedly, there is every kind of XC jump imaginable at Somerford, it's an amazing place. Take It 2 The Top agreed with me, he too thought he had arrived at opening meet, except unlike Icon he has not hunted.
He hacked the half mile to the course very chilled, however when his feet hit grass and he spotted the 20 or more other horses flying about XC he lost it..........completely!
He began by throwing some of his larger bucks and they were pretty unseating so I kept him moving forward, by this time Ant had arrived and I shouted "what shall I do?" He replied "keep going, he will be ok in a bit"
It was then he took off out of control, I shouted out to the people riding near by to walk, I kept him in some sort of control by staying on a circle of about 50 metres. Round and round he went, a guy on a grey horse came over to help by standing on my circle, every time I whizzed by I tried to use him as a friend to stop by, after about 5 or 10 minutes (Ant said it seemed like forever) I managed to pull up, I leapt off quick, as he was still very lit up. My arms and legs were like jelly from trying to control him. I then lunged him for a good 20 minutes before getting back on, this time with a stronger bit, he was settled and off we went XC, he was amazing and jumped very boldly over some decent fences.
I was thrilled to bits with his attitude, he jumped his first owl holes and we got very brave jumping doubles and drops into the water.
Next time I lunge him first!
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