I took Trigger and pupil Alex on his pony Moose to Denne Hill for the Open day! first time Alex had ever been cross country and trigger too!
Brook & Trigger both qualified for the British Novice regional’s with 4 double clears earlier in the year. It’s quite a step up to the regionals as British Novice first rounds are only 90cm and the regional’s start at 1.05m and go up to 1.20m, so this was ok for Brook but Trigger isn’t very experienced as he only started jumping in November and hasn’t done a lot at these heights. Saying that he did extremely well jumping a lovely clear in the first round were 70 horses took part and only 13 went clear and got through to the second round, Brook was also one of these. The second round went up to about 1.10m and Brook went first with a lovely clear going through to the third and final round. I then only had 4 horses between jumping Trigger so I had a very quick swap and warm up and had 3 down, which were a bit my fault for rushing him but he jumped really well, and gives us great hope for next year when he has more experience. Brook then went onto the third and final jump off which went up to about 1.15/1.20, you had to go clear to qualify, so we didn’t go too tight and take any risks and was the first of 4 in the final to jump a treble clear!! We were beaten by just 1 second but I was over the moon to come 2nd as she hasn’t had much experience jumping that height and if I had pushed her any tighter or faster we could have had a mistake. So she now has 3 qualifications for Scope Festival.
Brook & I took part in the BHS Instructors Challenge @ The Royal Windsor Horse Show. This was our second year at Windsor following a win there last year in a different competition. This year it was a Show Jumping Accumulator which was 1.10m for all Instructors registered with the BHS. I decided not to go too tight or fast and risk having any faults, which payed off and we did a brilliant clear round with a fast enough time for a win by two seconds!! I was so pleased with Brook for making it a win two years running & am now really looking forwards to next year to hopefully make 3 years running!
Trigger got his last British novice double clear and came 2nd! and also went double clear in the amateurs and came 4th which qualified him for the second rounds later in the year!
Brook after a little rest from shows jumped the 1.10 amateurs and just had an unlucky fence in the jump off but still came 3rd. I then jumped the 1.15 on her which is only the 2nd time she's jumped that height at a show and she went clear and won! I also rode Rebecca Clay's Emily again, she was much calmer and better behaved and just had an unlucky fence in the british novice. I rode Rebecca Clays 5YO Emily which was her first ever show, probably a bit mad as she has only ever jumped a few fences at home and not many doubles. She was very excited and I had to get on whilst she was trotting round in circles, then after a few rearing nap's in the warm up managed to jump a couple of practice fences even if they were at a gallop and no control at least she was going forwards! I took her in the clear round and she jumped fence 9 from a walk whilst I was walking round working the course out, which was probably the scariest fence on the course, so that gave me confidence she wasn't scared of anything! There was a treble combination which I thought I would have trouble with as she has never done one before, but she jumped straight round the whole course and just had the last jump down! I did jump most of the course with no reigns or on the buckle as she was jumping sky high at a very high speed which worried me when I lost them over the first part of the treble i thought I was going to die at such a speed form her running past one part but she stayed straight the whole way through and jumped every part clear, think thats what you call looking after the jockey!! Lol she then jumped the british novice clear and just had one down in the jump off, so we were really pleased with her and excited to see how she improves with more shows!
Trigger also jumped the british novice and went double clear and came 3rd. I also did the 1m scope qualifier on him and just had an unlcuky fence in the first round. |
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May 2018
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