Both my green youngsters were doing hopefully their final 80 Training classes at Stafford today prior to doing their first BE90. Rif Raf did a super test although lost marks when I stopped mid canter as I thought judge had blown her horn to tell me I had gone wrong. She hadn't, it was the arena next door, it meant I lost 3 marks. Even so my cob scored an impressive 29, she followed this up with her usual double clear into 3rd place.
Timeforasharpexit had an unfortunate experience in the dressge warm up. He was next in to do his test and a loose horse appeared from the lorry park, it lapped the warm up at gallop 3 times before it was caught. Timeforasharpexit stood like a rock even when the horse came within inches of him, but it still meant he entered his test a little tense and getting deep. But the judge liked his test to score him 31 and he then went double clear to finish 2nd.
The XC in the 80 caused plenty of trouble. When I walked it I felt the first 5 fences in particular looked more like a 90. All these fences were going away from home including a wide imposing painted house at fence 2 and at 5 some white rails before the water. There was also a distant, but huge, wind turbine right on horses eyeline at fence 2. It spooked Rif Raf slightly (and she's not normally a spooky horse) so when I warmed up Timeforasharpexit I made sure he had hacked down past fence 2 for a look at it. His eyes were on stalks, but it meant when he was out on XC he never gave it a second look. Phew! After the water the fences seemed to calm down, although some pearl coloured cushions, that shone in the sunlight, on the penultimate chair caught out a few spooky horses. A pretty good day for the babies, Staffords XC is beautifully built and presented but it's always meaty and I am pleased I made the right decision not to upgrade them to 90 here.
Show Jump videos and XC clips here later today
No comments:
Post a Comment