Ups & Downs of Eventing

Well I’ve been a bit quite lately but the yard hasn’t been. 
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At the end of June Pimms had her second run at Intermediate level at Farley. It’s the first time we have been to Farley and we were pretty impressed. She did a nice dressage with a silly mistake towards the end of the test scoring 32.1 and jumped a cracking show jumping round on a course that was causing plenty of rails to fly but sadly rubbed out the last part of the treble (as did a lot of combinations). The course didn’t walked the biggest but it got fairly intense from half way round and again seemed to cause enough trouble. She was classy and although occasionally giving a fence a little too much height when a bit green that’s not a bad fault to have! She added a few time faults to finish 15th. 

The beginning of July started well with plenty of show jumping, the ponies all on great form and I do enjoy it even more when all the ponies decide we are coming home in profit. 

We had planned a quiet time eventing with several close runs through the end of July /August and with the ground as it was we were feeling very happy that we were doing plenty of show jumping on a surface, careful schooling, dressage and not rooting too much. 

So off we went to Upton BE with 1 proven Intermediate and 2 first timers & a nice early start. Pimms was first in and honestly we were really disappointed with her dressage mark, it was by far the nicest Intermediate test she’s done so we weren’t really expecting a 34. Cricket was feeling very well and thought moving up a level that freestyle sounded more fun but settled back down to finish his test nicely. Again both show jumped really well and both seemed unlucky to have a rail. The cross-country was always a nice first timers course which is why Cricket had waited till now and Katy was coming for her first intermediate run but I think it’s fair to say they had beefed it up a bit not necessarily in size but plenty of repetitive turning questions.

Pimms was on great form. She’d grown up so much from Farley, focused, up on time and foot perfect through the combinations. Then came the water...can’t really tell you a huge amount about it but I gather she overjumped the log into the water, landed steeply and pecked...for some stupid reason I got pitched forward (something I’m not proud of) and clung on for dear life trying not to fall off. We were only 3 from home, finishing inside the time we would have been 3rd and with 10 time would have still been in the top 10! Anyway gravity got the better of me and I managed to land badly giving myself concussion (& a 21 day ban) and rip a couple of holes in my quad muscle twisting my leg on the way down. Fortunately as she didn’t fall and Pimms was fine it was clear but an unseated rider! Sadly that was the end of Crickets day too. 

Katy and Bruno were following me round so poor Katy had to canter past me on my feet and jump the last 2 fences before finding out what had happened. She had a great cross-country round with a slight loss of steering in one combination but otherwise good solid performance. 

So home we go and my leg is swelling like a good one. Katy and the girls have been fantastic at taking over the reins and keeping all the ponies working and in tip top condition.  

Katy has also taken over the ride on my own lovely 6yo Delilah who was scheduled to have her first run at Lt Downham. This was a good successful first run with a rail show jumping where she saw something in the distance and closed down over a fence but a fantastic clear Xc. Katy will pilot her at Aston for me but we have already moved her up to 100for her next run. 

Sam has taken over the ride on Duffy for me. We dropped her down to the 100 at Lt Downham and again they had a good solid performance with a double clear (both Katy and Sam ended up in open sections and had they been in the straight sections I think both would have come home in the ribbons). 

Sam has also had Duffy out show jumping winning the Newcomers at Aston last week. 

Katy has been busy schooling the youngsters and selling ponies out and about ready for some debuts next month. 

Sadly with me being out of action Crickets owner decided to move him to another yard, he will be much missed. 
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On the positive side the leg is finally starting to heal so I’m hoping that taped up I might be back to light duties mid August and am now planning a very busy September campaign.  

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