The plan was: course walk at 11am and class start at 11.30 where I was drawn 12th out of 14 to jump. However there was a fall in the morning which meant it was running 20 mins behind time. We checked with the steward at 10am and planned that we should get down there for 11.15 at the start of the course walk.
We went back to the lorry for breakfast then got tacked up and started the long 10 minute walk down to the arenas (which we had to do many times throughout the 2 days.) We got as far as the stable area (almost to the arena) when I realised I hadn’t put the horses boots on! I would like to apologise now, to my poor grooms who had a long walk back to the lorry to grab them- oops, sorry!
When we finally got down to the arena they were already walking the course and I was now running late which isn’t good for a top score as you have to work out your own course which takes a lot of time & thought to get the highest score possible. So I had to run into the arena and quickly find the highest scoring fences in order to work out my course. The bell rang to tell us to clear the ring and I hadn’t even worked out which fence I was going to jump first! Luckily I was drawn near the end which meant I could watch a few and give me a bit of time to work out a course and see a few tactics from others but I had only 15 minutes before I was in the ring, so while I warmed up Mum and my grooms watched a few then reported the routes they were taking to me. I wasn’t totally clear on where I was going before I went in but as I went round I just headed for the fences I knew were worth the most. Olly was in a fairly good mood for him and seemed quite forwards to me although it must have looked terribly slow to people that didn’t know him! I started off over two flowing fences just to get him forwards, although they weren’t the easiest on the course. Then I turned up really tight to the 3rd fence and went straight onto the joker, from this point on there were no easy or long routes, I turned and kicked as hard as I could. There were a few hair raising moments where I went from one fence to another with only a stride between the two, jumping from a near stand still and still continued to the next fence again from another standstill. Olly just took it in his stride and came out the ring to 3 or 4 strangers that where stood on the gate watching giving him lots of fuss and congratulating me and what a lovely pony I have and an amazing round that was. It was announced over the tannoy that I was in the lead with a score of 1000 600 and something.
Two horses later it when then announced “Jodi Randall did in fact jump the 100 fence three times so we have had to deduct that score which now leaves her on 1000 500 and something and just scraping into 2nd place!”
At this point I said what an idiot, if only I was more organised and walked my course on time I may have worked a course out & known what fences I was going to be jumping, before entering the ring on the horse! But I finished in 2nd place which we were still really pleased with. This then qualified us for the main arena into a scurry round, but sadly they didn’t have enough time and it had to be done in the outside ring which was a shame! & by this time Olly had, had enough and thought he'd done his bit so didn’t really perform but still came 6th.
We went back to the lorry for breakfast then got tacked up and started the long 10 minute walk down to the arenas (which we had to do many times throughout the 2 days.) We got as far as the stable area (almost to the arena) when I realised I hadn’t put the horses boots on! I would like to apologise now, to my poor grooms who had a long walk back to the lorry to grab them- oops, sorry!
When we finally got down to the arena they were already walking the course and I was now running late which isn’t good for a top score as you have to work out your own course which takes a lot of time & thought to get the highest score possible. So I had to run into the arena and quickly find the highest scoring fences in order to work out my course. The bell rang to tell us to clear the ring and I hadn’t even worked out which fence I was going to jump first! Luckily I was drawn near the end which meant I could watch a few and give me a bit of time to work out a course and see a few tactics from others but I had only 15 minutes before I was in the ring, so while I warmed up Mum and my grooms watched a few then reported the routes they were taking to me. I wasn’t totally clear on where I was going before I went in but as I went round I just headed for the fences I knew were worth the most. Olly was in a fairly good mood for him and seemed quite forwards to me although it must have looked terribly slow to people that didn’t know him! I started off over two flowing fences just to get him forwards, although they weren’t the easiest on the course. Then I turned up really tight to the 3rd fence and went straight onto the joker, from this point on there were no easy or long routes, I turned and kicked as hard as I could. There were a few hair raising moments where I went from one fence to another with only a stride between the two, jumping from a near stand still and still continued to the next fence again from another standstill. Olly just took it in his stride and came out the ring to 3 or 4 strangers that where stood on the gate watching giving him lots of fuss and congratulating me and what a lovely pony I have and an amazing round that was. It was announced over the tannoy that I was in the lead with a score of 1000 600 and something.
Two horses later it when then announced “Jodi Randall did in fact jump the 100 fence three times so we have had to deduct that score which now leaves her on 1000 500 and something and just scraping into 2nd place!”
At this point I said what an idiot, if only I was more organised and walked my course on time I may have worked a course out & known what fences I was going to be jumping, before entering the ring on the horse! But I finished in 2nd place which we were still really pleased with. This then qualified us for the main arena into a scurry round, but sadly they didn’t have enough time and it had to be done in the outside ring which was a shame! & by this time Olly had, had enough and thought he'd done his bit so didn’t really perform but still came 6th.
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