A Personal Goal Achieved!!

Cheshire County Show 2011

When I first got Pete on loan, I had secretly hoped to aim him at the Newcomers at this years Cheshire Show. Because we have been jumping 1.10m courses much sooner than I had expected, I decided to enter him this year. I booked the day off work and we headed to Tabley where the show is held, which is luckily only a 20 minute journey for us.

We arrived to find grey skies and drizzle, and with it being the second day of the show, they going was quite muddy in places. I was quite glad about this, as I will not jump Pete on hard ground, his legs are too precious.

I walked the course and as I expected, it was big and bold with a full 12 fences. It was quite a spooky arena, with trade stands on one side and a ferris wheel on the other. I didn't think this would bother Pete too much, as he quite experienced. It was however, fun watching horses scuttling everywhere in the warm up when the ferris wheel was turned on!!

I decided to warm Pete up in a quiet area of the car park rather than in the boggy warm up arena to give him the best of the going. I only went into the warm up at the last minute to jump a couple of fences. I was pleased with how he coped with the ground as I was expecting him to be a wimp having to jump out of mud!!

It was soon our turn to jump, and I got quite nervous as a crowd had started to gather at the ringside. I started off determined and really rode him forward all the way round.

He had a spook and a wobble to fence 4 by the crowd so I gave him a quick reminder with my whip on his shoulder and he picked up and jumped it. Unfortunately he had fence 6, an upright, down for no real reason, and then also hit the last fence, the oxer over the water tray. So we finished on 8 faults, which on paper isn't great but I was really pleased with him, and also with myself for riding positively and really regaining my confidence at this height again.