Saturday 21st January
Last week I took Pete to the Development Classic Show at South View. Mum was away in London so I got dropped off at the show by our lovely livery, Rebecca. Andy also came along as cheif groom and cameraman!
It was a very busy show and I was jumping the 1.10 warm up followed by the Winter Novice Qualifier, where the first two horses qualify for the final at the Royal International Horse Show. This class was a tall order for Pete and I as we have only been out once in 8 weeks and the fences start at 1.1o and finish up at 1.20, and we have not had lots of experience at this level yet.
We were 36th to go in the 1.10, and Pete jumped a fantastic double clear which I was so happy with as he had his fan club of Rebecca and her daughter and Andy watching him!! I just took an economical route in the jump off as I wanted the double clear. We went into 8th place and that stage but dropped to about 12th by the end of the class, unfortunately just a few places out of the money.
I was drawn 60th to jump in the Winter Novice, so I put Pete away whilst we waited for our turn. I walked the course and I was quite big in the second half and very long, it had 13 fences including a double and treble combination at 1.20m. I had never jumped a treble at that height before so it looked a bit daunting!
I warmed Pete up and soon it was our turn. Unfortunately about 2 people before me my contact lense from my bad eye fell out so I was momentarily blinded, luckily supergroom Andy had a spare so I managed to put it in just in time for our round.
Well Pete jumped super but we made 3 mistakes around the course, I put my leg on too strongly down the related distance at fences 3-4 and he kicked out 4, then I let him run on a little to fence 5 so he had the front bar of that down. He also had the planks down as I struggled to regain control for the turn. But on the whole he jumped great and made it feel fairly easy. In the end there was only 20 clears from 80 starters, which proves the course took some jumping.
We have another Royal International qualifier at Aintree on Andy's birthday which is 5th February.
Posts
